Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 30th March 2016

Today the aim was twofold: to mark the end of rostered, instructor covered flying on Wednesdays and to welcome new instructor Gordon Dennis to the club.

Our new Instructor, Gordon Dennis.

Since its inception the club has operated with instructor cover at weekends and midweek on Wednesdays. With recent changes in the instructor roster it has been realised that continued cover every Wednesday is no longer viable and hence it has been decided that Friday should become the new Wednesday ie. that the club should operate with instructor cover on Fridays through to Sundays. Of course licenced members can feel free to use the site whenever they wish; the principal change here being that training – operation under the supervision of an Ass  Cat (EASA FI (S)) - will now take place on Fridays through to Sundays.

However, with the ground so soft after yesterday's showers we decided to leave flying operations until the afternoon and instead concentrated upon giving Gordon a tour around the site and several briefings, in particular upon our safety regime. And so, reminiscent of the French tradition (if not their weather) it was after lunch that we took to the airfield. Once Gordon had received his site check flights trainee pilots included Steve Fletcher, Dave Downton and Jorg Beasley, whilst a strong team of solo pilots busied themselves fettling their craft down at the trailer park.

The decision not to fly in the morning was vindicated by the fact that the ground around the launch point had hardened nicely. There are areas, however, that are extremely boggy on the south side at the east end and you need to pick your landing area carefully if you wish to avoid that sinking feeling and causing an obstruction to others as they come into land...

Thanks go to all who assisted with Gordon's induction today; in particular to Chief Caravaneer Dave Downton who has done masses to get the club's caravan back to almost 100% functionality, and to Mike Gadd for his safety briefing. Did you know that every real launch failure/cable break should be reported as an Unplanned Event? Let's make 2016 the year when we actually report every Unplanned Event that takes place rather than just heave a sigh of relief...

Martin Cropper