Dartmoor Gliding News–Wednesday 27th August 2014

At Brentor today we were faced with just too many things starting with the letter 'W'.  Outdoors the WEATHER was pretty awful; WET(ISH) and increasingly WINDY - but at least WARM. Meanwhile inside the clubhouse our biggest challenge starting with a letter 'W' was the W.C. in the men's toilet which remained unserviceable, as it has been for several weeks now. (I'll explain why the latter deserves a special mention a little later in this report.)

In spite of the near certainty that it would be a non-flying day, nine members made their way to the club good and early, including three instructors and four enthusiastic ab intio trainees. All trial lessons were cancelled, but that did not mean an end to training activity.

I started the day by delivering a lecture on Lookout, the Scan Cycle and Collision Avoidance and as a result was able to sign off the appropriate empty boxes on several members' training cards. Then it was time to fire up the simulator, with trial lesson instructor Steve Lewis introducing Chris Jones's teenage son Max to the 'basics' of our sport.

Despite the weather, three generations of Mr Sagar's family enjoyed their 'boys' day out' at Brentor.

Soon afterwards, we received a visit from Mr Sagar N.S. (originally from India) and three generations of his family, who live in Croydon and Orpington and are currently on holiday in the southwest. Seeing how disappointed the three youngest members of the group were at having their trial lessons cancelled, we gave each of them a briefing, followed by a training 'flight' in the simulator, which brought a smile to their faces. Their visit had a happy ending for Dartmoor Gliding Society, too, because the family insisted on handing over a substantial donation to the club to our Hon. Treasurer, Steve Raine. It was pleasure having them with us, and we thank them for their generosity.

Instructor Bob Pirie gives Shreyas (aged 11) a lesson on the simulator,
while Arjun in grey hoodie and Shravan in striped top (both aged 9)
provide advice based on their own attempts.

 As ever, while training was taking place, there was a lot of good work being performed 'behind the scenes' by dedicated club members. For example, John Rogers assisted by Adrian Pike, set about tackling the 'BIG W' challenge, namely installing a new W.C. and in the process providing comfort and relief to their colleagues.

How many members does it take to tame a toilet?
Here (left to right) John Rogers, Adrian Pike and Jorg Beasley
grapple with the set of fitting instructions.

Phil Hardwick mowed the airfield; Steve Lewis, Steve Raine, John Bolt, Jorg Beasley, and Chris and Max Jones and I ventured onto the airfield and 'cut and coiled' what seemed like several miles of redundant launching cable ready for the metal recyclers. And finally, Ged Nevisky and Steve Lewis set about re-fitting 'Launchmaster' launch speed monitoring systems (including the one kindly donated by John Howe) to both club 2 seat gliders and prepared for the fitting of the third unit to the K8.

Out on the airfield removing old winch cables.

And now the news we've club members been waiting for. Further to the impassioned plea from our Winchmaster, Rick Wiles, regarding the recent loss of our entire stock of blue-coloured launching strops, Steve ('Sherlock') Raine applied himself to the case and found all three in areas of gorse and scrub around the airfield.

Bob Pirie