Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 29th July 2017

Sometimes gliding can be a test of your patience. The current run of poor weather on Saturday's has been testing indeed. Today, the cloudbase was low ( 600 feet or so) with a front to come through later with associated torrential rain. And unfortunately the forecast was exactly right; when the rain arrived, it was indeed torrential. So another non flying day.

The cloud scudding over Brentor Church

As always the attending members just got on with the the next jobs on the list. Rick, Fred, Scratch were working on the GusLaunch winch engine which has been suffering with low compression in one cylinder. During the stripping down of the affected cylinder head it was discovered that a plug of rags had been pulled into to air intake and this was the cause of the low compression. The cylinder head was quickly reassembled after the offending rags were removed. There still remains an issue of some coolant finding it's way into the engine oil which will be the next fault to be worked on.

Barry and Fred with the GusLaunch winch.

Meanwhile, David and Barry completed a brake system service on the ML2 winch, Mike spent his day in the tractor cutting the grass. Heather was working quietly in the clubhouse tidying the rear lobby after which she proceeded to give it a fresh coat of paint. Amazing.

Heather trying to avoid having her picture taken again.
Note the fetching paint motif on her jeans!!

The big surprise of the day was a visit from John Bolt who was in the area catching up with old friends. John was one of the club's original members who has been an Instructor, Chairman, Inspector and a general stalwart member over many years. John now lives in Winchester. It brightened up our day to see John looking so well.

Hopefully we will fly soon.

Steve