Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 1st July 2015

The news over the last day or two has included references to record temperatures and endless blue skies. Imagine my disappointment ( and annoyance ) to be woken up early by thunder and unbelievably large raindrop hammering against the window. The only bright spot, literally,was the spectacular fork lightning. 

Off to the airfield then under a glowering dark sky with a fresh southerly breeze offering the prospect of crosswind approaches and landing; such is the lot of pilots on a hill top site.
Today was a busy day. Instructor Ged Nevisky manned K13 G-DDMX to fly with our club trainees and visitor Ian Johnson with the rest of our visitors being flown by me in K13 G-CHXP.

Ged and Jorg in DMX ready to launch under a lowering cloudbase

One Day Course candidate Matthew Hubbard was first up and by the end of flight 3 was making good attempts at coordinated turns. Great stuff. We also welcomed visitor Sheila Coates who has a holiday home very close to the airfield and we spend a enjoyable couple of flights photographing her lodge which has spectacular views towards Plymouth. I am sure we will see more of Sheila.

One Day Course Candidate Matthew Hubbard

Sheila wait to go house hunting

And then, for me, a highlight of my flying year. We welcomed 94 year old Margaret Sheffield. I had the privilege of taking Margaret on a couple of flights, perhaps giving her a little insight into why her husband, an ex RN pilot, had loved flying so much.

Margaret ready to go flying

For most of the day we could see rain in the distance but it seemed to pass us by. Around 3:45 things suddenly changed as the wind veered and the cloudbase became 750 feet or so. Initially we thought we could wait for the conditions to improve but a peal of thunder in the distance made up our minds for us. End of flying.

Our thanks everyone who helped to make the day a success from it’s unpromising start. There are a lot of tasks necessary to operate the airfield. We always mention the instructors of course, but in some ways we have it easy; we spend most of our day flying. But today special thanks to all those who helped with the seemingly minor tasks, log keeping, launchpoint control, winch driving, cable towing, glider towing, grass cutting etc. etc. without which we could not fly. Thank you all.

Steve