Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 1st February 2015

Leaving the airfield not having flown there’s always a feeling of guilt that creeps in (particularly when conditions moderate in the afternoon, as they did today). Although it has to be said that flying today would only have been possible if: the runway was turned through 90 degrees, the wind was not blowing at 30kts - gusting 35, the hardstanding by the hangar was not masquerading as an ice-rink and the field itself was not akin to a quagmire having been drenched by almost continuous rain the day before.

So four good reason not to fly, but still there’s that nagging doubt that, as the Duty Instructor, I should have been able to organise things better. However, determined to hand over two serviceable K-13s to the Wednesday crew (which would almost certainly not have been the case had we taken DMX up to the top of the hill, where the crosswind would easily have got underneath the wing) I was resolute in resisting the corporate curiosity to ‘give it a go’ (aka peer pressure).

So it was ground tasks for us, where a natural division of labour seemed to take place: Adrian Irwin and Richard Roberts getting on with the manly, practical tasks ensuring the diesel was topped up at the winch and cleaning the filth out the Discos, whilst ‘drawing board’ clean finger nailed types such as Pete Howarth and myself busied ourselves with applying the ‘Dartmoor Gliding’ logos to ‘newcomers’ K-8 GDK and K-13 HXP (see photos) - surely a rite of passage demonstrating they have arrived as permanent features of the DGS fleet.

The K-8 and K-13 snuggled up in the hangar with their new nose art.

That took us until lunchtime, following which we democratically elected Richard as our chauffeur to go up and inspect the airfield at the east (launchpoint) end. It was indeed pretty wet and ‘springy’ where the soil is thin over the granite, but in the boggy bits (where of course we never land) the K-13 would have sunk to its axle with ease, another good reason for keeping it in the haven that is the hangar. And so, not dressed for the weather, we beat a hasty retreat to the clubhouse and decided to depart - a little earlier than usual - for the delights of home and domesticity.

Snow on the tors is visible as chauffeur Richard Roberts drives the team to the launchpoint to inspect the terrain.

Thanks go to Adrian Irwin for entertaining us with tall tales of civil aviation - in particular the ergonomics of using the loo in the Boeing 757!

Martin Cropper