Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 7Th February 2016

Those of you who remember Dennis the Menace, in either the Beano comic, or later TV animated version, will doubtless recall that one of his rivals was Walter 'the Softie'. Well today our airfield was having its own 'Walter' moment, as our Survey said, that ground was far too soft for anything more than a feather to land on it, let alone our equivalent of Dennis's soapcart, 900lbs of fully crewed two-seat glider..! Add the factor of further rain forecast to arrive at any time after 1200 and it was clear that to risk a few launches in the morning could easily have resulted in an embarrassingly stuck glider trumping a couple of lines in a log book.

Sunday Soarers’ Selfie: Ed Borlase, Paula Howarth, Martin Cropper
and Pete Howarth enjoy Sunday morning sunshine out on the airfield
- it didn’t last for long (the sun, not the enjoyment..!)

And so we retired to the clubhouse, for more hot drinks and doughnuts (thanks to Paula Howarth) and a couple of teach-ins on airbrakes, approaches and spins to consolidate on last week's stalling masterclass from Don.

Sunday’s hot drinks and doughnuts, supplied by Paula Howarth.

At little later we were greeted by the arrival of silver van man, aka Chris Matten, who was able to brief us on progress with his K-10 following its glue survey at Dunkeswell. Here's hoping that the run of depressions will give way to some high pressure next weekend...

The fencing contractor’s swing shovel frames the church at Brentor.

NB. Readers will no doubt be pleased to hear that, after more than a year of painstaking negotiation we now have a new, 25 year, lease in place. This represents far greater security of tenure than we have had of late, and I'm sure everyone will want to thank lead negotiator, Colin Boyd, for patiently but determinedly steering this vital legal document to its successful conclusion. Thanks, Colin, you can now have part of your life back..! You may also be interested to know that we will be claiming reimbursement of the legal fees from a grant courtesy of the BGA.

Martin Cropper