Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 18th June 2016

Saturday held promise in the weather forecast (well compared to Sunday) Extra room this week as we were flying from the east end of the airfield. We had wind of NW with 15knots giving 1300-1400ft launches. Not bad with the winch placed at the hurdle fence!

The mountain to climb today was clear to all , two one day courses
(6 flights each) and club training with a few check flights to get through, oh plus the solo list. All with one club k13 and one k8. The team was full of optimism, the end result was 44 launches and everyone flew.

The one day courses today were Claire Hughes and Neil Heavens, Claire had a few initial reservations about the launch but judging by her smile on landing it wasn't all bad. Rick then continued the training with Neil ,all round good results at a respectable pace. We hope to see Claire and Neil again soon.

One day Course candidate Claire

One Day Course candidate Neil looks to be enjoying himself 

Not only did we have new faces today at the club, but also a new glider was seen flying, Chris Owen and Pete Harvey got the chance (after a long wait) to fly the beautiful 15m Std Cirrus at Dartmoor.

Chris Owen in the Standard Cirrus

A wingtip holders view of the Std Cirrus

Simon collier also continued to get experience in circuit practice in the open cirrus, all valuable stuff.

Most of the day the weather looked better than it was, with broken, narrow lift ,from a few of the local ground sources. The K8 in the hands of Alan Holland was the longest flight of the day, teasing the lift into some sense of order to maintain and even climb for 21min

Thanks to everyone for keeping the launches going with an organised retrieve and good winching / fast "cable clear" instructions we achieved 7-8 launches an hour at times. Everyone did a stint in each roll as asked or required and I think the results say it all.

Richard Roberts