Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 29th November 2014

The forecast was for light easterly winds with the possibility of high cloud cover. Easterly? Better check the forecast atmospheric soundings. Too many negatives for wave. Still perhaps the forecast is wrong. Off to the airfield with a lightness of step.

The early morning cloudscape
The club aircraft were out and ready early. Today it was the K13, K8 and Zugvogel 3A. We had to wait until a little after 10:30am until the canopies stopped misting up to get the flying underway. Still the wait was pleasant enough in the warm winter sunshine under the vivid blue sky looking for any signs of wave activity. There was a spectacular looking cloud sheet sitting over on the tors to the east. Cap cloud maybe?

K13 waiting to go. In the distance a cap cloud obscures Dartmoor 
First flight was Olly Mawson, our One Day Course Candidate, with me in the K13. We found some reduced sink and what could only be a little rotor. While we soared for 12 minutes, this was at 700 – 800 feet over Mary Tavy before we returned to the airfield to take another launch and continue with Olly’s training. By the end of the day, Olly was able to fly the aircraft around the circuit in a reasonably accurate manner in the beautifully smooth air. Well done Olly. We look forward to seeing you again soon.


One Day Course Candidate Olly Mawson
We had several other visitors today. Arriving with her Introductory Flight Voucher was Victoria Fletcher who enjoyed a couple of flights with Rick Wiles.  Visiting from North Hill was father and son Wyn and Rhodri Davies, both of whom flew with Ged.

Victoria and Rick share a joke before flying
While we were having lots of fun flying, at the other end of the airfield there was a lot of winch training organised by Rick. Well done everyone.

The day finished relatively early as we were once again plagued by canopy misting.

We had a great day with beautiful weather.

Steve

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