Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 28th February 2015

For me, today started in a rush, with a couple of hours of work in Plymouth prior to dashing up to the airfield in time to meet our visitors who were due at 11am.

The weather in Plymouth did not look too hopeful with a very low cloudbase but arriving at the airfield things looked a little better and it was clear that at least we would manage full height launches before needing cloud flying skills. The wind was just west of south, i.e. straight across the runway.

There was just enough of us to operate the airfield with Instructor Ged authorising the airfield and driving the winch with me flying the K13 and Adrian Irwin facilitating the launching the aircraft. David Bourchier was driving cable retrieve.

Ali in K13 G-CHXP with Claire in attendance.
We welcomed visitors Ali White and Claire Oziem, who were both to have their first experiences in a glider. Claire went first and I was amazed to find that it was gently soarable under the overcast but there were signs of the cloudbase lowering. Ali was next. After we launched we were forced to airbrake down under the lowering cloudbase only to find that it was still nicely soarable. After a few minutes of exploring the area immediately south of the airfield it was back to circuit for an uneventful landing in the strengthening crosswind. We hope Ali and Claire return for some more flying soon.

The lowering cloudbase obscuring Dartmoor
And that was it. Within the next half an hour the cloudbase lowered even further and it was threatening to rain. The glider was washed and put back into the hangar just in time to miss the
heavy rain which followed.

Steve

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