Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 14th August 2016

After yesterday's humid conditions it was great to see the dawn break clear and bright. The question was: which way was the wind going to blow – ie. which side of north? Having towed the K-13 and K-8 to the east end of the airfield, it was obvious we had taken them to the wrong end – the airflow (and cloudscape above) was clearly NE-SW, and so we launched them to land at the 'other' end - but only after both had soaring flights, (18 (Phil Selwood) and 37 mins (Peter Howarth) respectively) such were the buoyant conditions of the day...

Avid readers of this blog will remember that last Sunday we had to take our borrowed K-8 off-line due to separation detected between skin covering and rib on one of the wings. Investigation by club Inspector Colin Boyd revealed that both wings were affected, however with an intensive campaign of rectification, with the assistance of 'new boy' Dave Downton, by Friday he had the K-8 back on line, for which we all owe Colin a huge debt of thanks.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we will shortly be arriving at...”

“...Brentor International Airport...!”

Solo pilots and 'privateers' such as Martin Broadway, Adrian Irwin and Josef Nobbs explored conditions that supported extended, if not sustained, soaring flight and, as the afternoon progressed, the wind, which had always been been tantalisingly somewhere around north, veered to the south, however if a sea breeze convergence formed it was not evident (indeed towards the end of the day conditions were delightfully smooth and predictable).

With many bookings and only one K-13 available it was almost a mini-Open Day, with IFP Peter (“Speedy Gonzales”) Howarth flying seven visitors (average flight time 18 mins which means that five out of six visitors were treated to soaring flights on their visit to Brentor today ) before we were even able to contemplate the Club Trainee list – hence some trainees lost out on numbers of launches, but all flew.

Freya Hartley had dreamed of flying since she was 19: today her dream came true...

Ben Popavach, Freya’s son, also flew with Peter Howarth.

 David and Adam Flook were our first two visitors today.

 Richard Horton with Peter Howarth.

Sally Denner flew with IFP Peter Howarth.

So from late start, to derigging the K-8 at the end of the day, and with only one K-13 to support all two-seat flying, we managed 34 launches. Not bad.

Thanks go to all who patiently participated in, and adapted to, the needs of an enjoyable day's flying – in particular club trainees Phil Selwood, Mike Bennett, Callum Doyle, Dave Downton and Ed Borlase who welcomed others, whilst waiting for, their own flying. That's what we do.

Martin Cropper