Dartmoor Gliding Society Club News: Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 25th August 2018

Yesterday the weather was poor with rain and drizzle. For tomorrow there is the weather forecast from hell, torrential rain and strong winds. But today everything looks well set for a good soaring day. Warm sunshine, breeze from the NW at about 8 to 10 knots. Interestingly the wind strength is forecast to remain constant up 10,000 feet which usually suggests little or no gusting. Great. The RASP soaring forecast looks good with the afternoon rated as excellent.

Early on the club was busy with people rigging their gliders, getting the club aircraft out and the airfield ready. The good forecast added some additional enthusiasm to proceedings and after the morning briefing by Instructor Rick Wiles it was off to the launchpoint to wait for the promised thermal activity to start. The first few flights were training circuits but by midday it was obvious that there were thermals to be had and the private fleet launched.

Ged and Phil were the first to go in the Twin Astir and were not seen again for 2 hours 42 minutes. Roger Green was next in the Zugvogel 3B for a flight 2:43. This aircraft launched again later for a flight of 1:36 by me. Steve Fletcher soared the Open Cirrus for 1:59.

Roger Green's View of the Plym Estuary from 4000ft.

Looking towards Saltash

Third to launch was Richard Roberts in his beautifully presented Discus WL. Richard was going cross country. His task was from Brentor to Salisbury Catahedral and back, a total distance 348km. In the event Richard turned back a little short of Salisbury as the area looked "a little soft". Even so he still acheived a flight of 284km with a total time on task of 4hrs 15mins. Great effort.