Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 16th November 2014

“You never get wave with low pressure”. So said Allan Holland recounting the words of meteorologists of yore. Well, today was low pressure, the wind was in the north-east and, judging by the roll cloud lying low over the top of Dartmoor, there was wave. Ready and waiting.

All that was needed was to launch, release over the winch at the eastern end of the airfield (where it was already positioned), then sit and wait for the variometer to respond. Easy.

Roll cloud over the moor behind the winch: a sure sign of wave?

But before going into detail about the day’s wave flying let’s reflect upon some of the dialogue that’s been taking place on the Forum about ‘Early Start’. Now that the clocks have gone back and the evenings are drawing in it’s increasingly important to get an ‘Early Start’. How do you define that? Well, by the time I arrived it was defined as: all of the vehicles out of the hangar, both windsocks up, launchpoint opened up, parachutes in and radios on, cable drogues laid out in front of the winch and winch radio and key ready to go in the retrieve.

All this was achieved by 0845 and it was all courtesy of Sunday Soarer Leith Whittington. Of who more later, since before we could really get under way it was necessary for me to check out Chris Jones as winch driver on the ML at the east end. Which meant giving Leith a couple of launches in his Dart 17R prior to getting the K-13 on line. Leith’s first circuit, to the south, looked pretty uneventful but with his second, to the north, he found the spot. Somewhere between the launchpoint and the church, perhaps over the house with the tennis courts that are never used, he started going up. And up. Until we were grateful for the 17m span of his wings which made him easier to see than a 15m glider such as the K-8.

Adrian Irwin on finals in K-13 DMX.

So I raced to get Kit Smith into the air in the K-13 and join him, now well ensconced to the north of the airfield in the valley of North Brentor village. But it was not to be: Kit found the lift, directly over the church - 4 up - but it extended no further than Brentor itself, outside of which was a larger pool where the vario barely went above zero. Kit tried; I tried; we just couldn’t get higher than 1,000ft. Meanwhile Leith continued serenely above us for a total of 1 hour 27 minutes, reaching a maximum of 2,400ft in conditions which were occasionally slightly less than VMC. It was the flight of the day and definitely a case of the Early Bird who caught the worm
.

Masterclass in the pre-flight checks: could that kneepad have anything to do with it?

As the morning progressed we were treated to some breathtaking skyscapes in the easterly breeze (see photo) but, perhaps significantly, the roll cloud over the moor had dissipated. And so we proceeded, with Kit, Max Smith, Jana Darmovzalova and Adrian Irwin enjoying launches to 1,200ft courtesy of Chris Jones on this winch. Today was Jana’s last day with us (see photo) as she is moving to Cranfield University, and will be gliding at Bicester in future.

Jana Darmovzalova left us today for Cranfield University.

Perhaps inspired by the wind direction we were visited by two members from our sister club at North Hill: father and son team Wynn and Rhodri Davies; however as the afternoon wore on the clouds began to fill in and they were only able to achieve ‘site check’ type flights. Even Allan Holland and Colin Boyd were unable to break the 15 minute barrier in the K-8 and there was a hint of rain in the air.

We were visited today by North Hill members father Wynn Davies…

…and son Rhodri.

So is it possible to get wave in low pressure? Most definitely ‘Yes’; but sometimes you need an ‘Early Start’. A very ‘Early Start’.

Martin Cropper