Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 14th November

Abigail, the first named storm of the season, has passed with no damage on the airfield if you ignore the wet ground. In Plymouth the strongest gust was measured at 64 MPH; this would have been much more on the airfield with it’s additional altitude and open aspect.

In her wake Abigail has swept up the remnants of Hurricane Kate creating an incredibly moist airflow with warnings for flooding.  Ho hum another maintenance day.

In the clubhouse, CFI, Don, was in full flow with lectures to suit the varying needs of the attendees. For the afternoon lecture everyone was rounded up to share a briefing on Field landings.

Simon looks very pleased with his exam pass.

Simon Collier, who took his first solo flights a little earlier in the autumn, was locked away in the office for an hour or so while he sat the Bronze “C” exam. I am pleased to announce that he passed well and so has taken another important step on his way to his licence. Well Done Simon.

The heroes of the day were the track repair team. Despite some appalling weather with constant rain and wind they spent most of the day doing repairs with the centre track with nothing more than a few shovels and a plate compactor. On their return to the clubhouse for lunch they were already soaked right through their waterproofs, but happily put their wet gear on again for an afternoon session of track mending in the rain.

We had to set limits to the track team.
If they had removed all of their wet clothes, this picture of their organiser
Mike would have needed to be censored 

The next winter storm is called Barney. He is due on Tuesday.

Steve