Dartmoor Gliding News-Aston Down Expedition 2016

On early Sunday evening three Club members, Adrian Irwin, Chris Owen and myself, Pete Harvey, met at Aston Down. The forecast for the week ahead looked good and once I had overcome the problem of being locked out of my room, it was obviously time to adjourn to the pub for the necessary planning meeting.

On Monday morning we met up with our fourth course member, Colin Stringer, an Aston Down member returning to flying after a few months off, together with our leader Don Puttock and our winch driver for the week, Dave.

In fact the weather on Monday was pretty poor, we all managed two flights in the K21 Don sending Adrian, Colin and myself off solo after a site familiarisation, but no records were going to be broken today.

The meeting of great minds?

Tuesday looked altogether better, we had the club's K21, K23 and Astir CS between the four of us. By the end of the day all of us had soloed in the K23 and three of us in the Astir, with Colin, Chris and Adrian each disappearing for long periods of time. As the day wore on Don decided it was time for me to do my Bronze skills test. On the inevitable cable break I duly followed the ASDA rule drummed into all of us at Brentor. As I actioned my decision to land ahead by deploying full air brake the voice behind me announced that the runway ahead had suddenly been declared unuseable and a modified circuit was now required. It must have gone all right as Don told me I'd passed as we put the gliders away. So I had 9 flights the others somewhat fewer but for all of us time in the air was good.

Wednesday is Club day, it was also the day that Chris and I got our Std Cirrus out of its trailer and rigged it. There is some pretty exotic machinery at Aston Down, most of which the owners seem to be able to assemble in a blink of an eye. We took somewhat longer but with help from the friendly locals GEP duly took its place on the grid, with me in the cockpit. With the local experts disappearing on their planned 300km tasks I duly failed to find much lift but still landed with a huge smile. The main challenge today was avoiding the grass cutting machinery, and the swathes of cut grass which filled the wheel box after every landing.Chris, Adrian and Colin all managed lengthy soaring flights and I finished the day receiving a soaring masterclass from Don as we flew the K21 for nearly 2 hours

Chris Owen and Peter Harvey with their "new" Standard Cirrus

Thursday's excitement was Chris going solo in our Cirrus and Adrian and myself going off in a motor glider to do the navigation, field selection and field landing elements of our cross country endorsement. For those who have yet to do that I highly recommend it. Both of us had a very enjoyable couple of hours and a big thank you to Lee Ingram who also signed us both off. Adrian then topped off his day by achieving his silver height, with his logger switched on! Congratulations.

Another View of the Std Cirrus.

Sadly I had to leave on Friday but Chris and Adrian had another excellent day, with Chris consolidating his Cirrus experience with another four or five flights. The chance was also taken to rig and fly Aston Down's ASW 19, adding another aircraft type for everybody.
So after the week, I've got my Bronze and just need a two hour flight to finish the cross country endorsement, Chris and I are both signed off on our Cirrus, so expect to see it on the grid at Brentor soon, Adrian has finished his Cross Country endorsement and achieved his Silver height. We each flew five different aircraft types. Of course normal "detachment rules" apply so I can only report much non-flying hilarity. All in all a pretty successful week. A big thank you to Don and Dave without whom none of that would have been possible.

The class of 2016

Peter Harvey