Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 3rd September 2014

Wind easterly. A line of cumulus developing to the north of us; clear blue overhead, and a mixture of low cumulus and orographic cloud running across the face of the moor just to the east. The question was, were our expectations of wave realistic? Would thermic conditions prevail? Or would the two types of potentially rising air remain in conflict, providing us with yet another day of scratching around trying to stay aloft?

A small but enthusiastic group of members heeded the call for an early (by Wednesday standards!) start and were on the case at 09.00, with others rolling in over the next hour or so. Apart from the inevitable hassle of changing ends (executed by Phil Hardwick and Robin Wilson) and all the preparation of club gliders and rigging of private ones (which involved a good team effort by everyone), K7M 'CLT' was due its monthly maintenance before being released for a full schedule of trial lessons. This task was accomplished efficiently by Fred Marks and Ian Osborne.

Airspace-wise, the Willsworthy Range was active, but one bigger uncertainty remained in the form a huge restriction zone during certain parts of the day for airborne operations associated with the NATO conference in Newport, South Wales. Not wishing any of our cross-country aspirants to come into conflict with the 'hot ships' operated by our allies (up to and including Eurofighters and Mig 27s), I spent a while poring over maps with our safety officer Mike Gadd, and on the phone to a gentleman at the CAA, who clarified the situation. Reassuringly, just as I was embarking on a preamble about the particular requirements of this "l'il ole gliding' club on the edge of Dartmoor", he stopped me and said that because he hailed from Barnstaple he had a reasonable appreciation of our local situation. A pleasant and helpful guy!

K13 G_DDMX on final approach

So gliding got underway, but with all the preliminary issues having had to be addressed, our one hour earlier start resulted in our first launch being just 15 minutes sooner than usual. But no matter. Enthusiasm, teamwork and energy levels were maintained and by the end of a long and rather hot day, 44 launches had been achieved.

Back to the launchpoint for another flight

 Flying-wise, while I had a full programme of  ab inito instruction, Steve Lewis coped with 7 trial lesson visitors for a total of 12 flights (with the workload being lightened later in the day with help from Ged Nevisky). Today’s visitors were Chris Woodford, Roger Lewis, Malcolm and Sue Squire and Peter and Paula Howarth. Paula was returning for some more flying after her first visit a few weeks ago and built on her skills with the controls while flying in the wave to over 3000 feet. Paula’s father Peter, an ex gliding instructor with the Army club at Upavon, flew with Ged. He made two unassisted flights even though he has not actually flown a glider for more than 20 years. Well done.

Ged with Malcolm Squire

Paula Howarth ready to go soaring

Sue Squire flew with Steve

First on today's list was Chris Woodford. 

Roger Lewis complete with his GoPro camera.

Again, there was disappointingly low demand for club's single seaters, but as usual the K8 came into its own as the day progressed and brought a smile to various faces as conditions improved. Privately-owned gliders on line and airborne today were an Astir, a K8, K6CR, Open Cirrus and ASW 20F.

So what about all that soaring potential that inspired our early start and those high expectations? Well, the large number of launches is a good indicator, because for most of the time it was a case of up, round and down, with occasional hints of embryonic wave out towards the moor, followed by a quick dash home. Otherwise, there were short soaring flights as some of the wisps started to develop into more defined cumulus. However, it was not until after 16.00 hours that it all started to happen.

Bob in the ASW20

I 'upgraded' myself from the back seat of the K13 to the ASW20F, in the hope that its 'longer legs' might lead me to wave. However, a launch to just 900 feet gave me little to play with, so I dropped back to join Steve in the K7M under a productive cumulus cloud for a top-up of height before setting out towards the moor. This proved to be worthwhile, because I made contact with steady wave lift and spent a pleasant and peaceful hour and a quarter climbing to 4,200 feet before breaking off and returning to the 'real world'. An enjoyable interlude, with decreasing visibility up-sun being the only drawback. Over the next couple of hours several other gliders joined in the fun with climbs to well over 3,000 feet and durations of around an hour, with Mike Gadd achieving the longest flight of the day of one hour nineteen minutes.

The view of the airfield from 4000 feet shows the generally poor visibility later in the day 

De-rigging and hangar packing were carried out by the relatively few members who saw the day though until evening. Finally, once the toys had been packed away, we returned to the clubhouse to find that Adrian Pike had applied his carpentry skill to making and fitting a smart wooden shelf to support the new lavatory which had been installed last Wednesday.

De-rigging in the evening sun

All in all a  most enjoyable - if tiring - day with a great bunch of friends and enthusiastic visitors.

Bob Pirie