Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 29th November 2015

Today, whilst most sites across the UK were firmly

at Dartmoor it was most definitely a case of 

 - the question was – what for? Well, unsurprisingly quite a lot, actually, since whilst on a Flying Day everyone is focused on the main aim, on a non-Flying Day each member has their own, disparate objectives to be met. For example, for Paula Howarth the clubhouse provided the perfect environment for studying for her Masters in HR, for Richard Roberts the ‘To Do’ list fed his appetite for work (finishing the ‘spring clean’ of the caravan, followed by stapling the barbed wire to the new fence posts around the perimeter), for Dave Downton it was lectures from CFI Don Puttock on altimetry and airspace whilst for Roger Appleboom it was practising the patter whilst ‘flying’ the simulator (not an easy task with a 4 ring binder across you legs – see photo).

“So that’s what I’ve been missing…!”
P1 Roger Appleboom ‘flies’ the simulator
whilst reading the patter page on ‘lookout’ to P2 Dave Downton.

We also hosted some visitors: BGA Regional Technical Officer John Halford, who arrived to cast an eye over Colin Boyd’s work on the K-8 – and found some more for him to do…) and Gordon Dennis, who instructs at Halesland and Talgarth, whose interest in the field gave us the perfect excuse to try out the club’s new Suzuki Vitara: which is less totally eighties than the club’s old Discos, much more comfy than them , but not as high up from the ground… I

t’s on occasions like this when you fully appreciate the value of the clubhouse, woodburner and tea and coffee on tap when people arrive from afar... As the wind howled around the hangar and the occasional shower blew through, we all took advantage of the simulator, with its new, separate, easy to read instrument panel, to stay ‘current’, before deciding to leave whilst there were still a few logs left on the pallet for the Wednesday crew.

Martin Cropper