Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 9th April 2016

Today we ended up taking the gliders for a walk. I expect a lot of head scratching at this point but let me explain.

During the morning the weather was poor, low clouds, blustery winds and frequent showers some of which were wintery with hail and sleet. This led to the club settling into maintenance with Rick leading more work on the Guslaunch winch.

The K8 waiting for the weather to clear

Around lunchtime the weather suddenly improved, with blue sky, isolated clouds and zephyr like breezes. The K13 and K8 were duly inspected and taken to the launchpoint which was looking very wet it must be said. The Twin Astir syndicate along with Colin Boyd used this break in the weather to replace the damaged airbrake connection found during  their recent C of A.

Wintery showers were commonplace

What we (I?) hadn't fully appreciated was that there were a lot of showers in the area and when the first one hit the idea of flying suddenly did not look so appealing. Apart from the rain, hail, and sleet, the associated winds gusts were severe. As the showers passed the wind was gusting to 25 knot+ and the direction was swinging around through 180 degrees or more.

The launchpoint was wet after the latest shower

The decision was made to abandon the idea of flying and the gliders were walked the kilometer or so back to the hangar. Just in case we walked into another shower on the way the K8 was towed with a pilot in the cockpit to prevent any chance of it trying to fly on it's own.

The K8 "walking" walking back to the hangar with Simon Collier in the cockpit

After putting everything away, we waited for the rest of the club to arrive for the evenings AGM. Gradually, everyone arrived and by 6:30, it was standing room only in the clubhouse. The business of the AGM was enacted without undue delay, the accounts were accepted, the Directors were re-elected where necessary and Martin Cropper and Steve Raine were relected as Chairman and Treasurer for the coming year. After the AGM there was a club meeting where all he membership were encouraged to express the views on the club, it's operation and the future.

A good day for a walk.

Steve