Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 4th October 2017

The forecast on Monday was for Wednesday to possibly be a good soaring day but as the week progressed so the forecast changed for the worse. Weds morning the wind was more southerly than the predicted westerly but as the day progressed it veered round so we eventually had about 15 knots straight down the runway from the west. As it was a pilots only day there weren't many of us and Colin and the voice of Dartmoor were buried under a mound of paperwork so just 4 of us decided to fly.

A pilot's eye view.

Bob Sansom, Phil Hardwick and Robin Wilson helped me rig my open cirrus and then we got the twin astir out. Allen Holland then arrived and we set about flying. Whilst quite cloudy with very little sun hitting the ground Robin and Phil managed to stay up in the twin astir for 24 mins but as the thermals only seemed to be close to the active ranges it was difficult to ride them for long before being blown close to the boundary and needing to fly back westwards and out of the thermal.

The view from the back seat of the Twin Astir - Robin is in the front seat

Equipped with the knowledge of where to find a thermal from their exploratory flight I managed to ride the thermal in my cirrus for 27 mins before losing it altogether. The thermals then eluded us but we all got a chance to fly as ballast in the back of the Twin Astir from where I took these pictures.

Thanks to everyone who turned up, just enough to get the airfield up and running and some good flying.

Steve Fletcher