A day of triumph over almost unremitting adversity. Hopefully Millennials,
and Generation Zs, for whom reality is virtual, will never have to experience
'real life' as we did today: those born into a more manual age, however, will
recognise the sort of thing: tractors that won't start, trailers that don't
disengage, winches with no batteries, brakes or radios and crosswinds that
consistently fail to follow the forecast – in short, today everything we touched
seemed to turn to custard...
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| One Day Course student Alan Mills being briefed by Instructor Peter Howarth. |
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| One Day Course student Tom Mills ready to fly with Instructor Martin Cropper. |
Not that our One Day Course students, father and son team Alan and Tom Mills,
seemed at all perturbed, and we did at least manage to give them 5 of their 6
launches each, Dad Alan being treated to a 16 minute soaring flight with Peter
Howarth before lunch.
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| Amber Poulostides ready for a soaring flight with Instructor Peter Howarth. |
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| Martin Cropper closes the canopy on visitor Andy Poulostides. |
Our other visitors were, courtesy of Ed Borlase,
photographer Andy Poulostides and his wife Amber, who had travelled from London
to experience the beauty of flight over Dartmoor. And, thanks once again to
Peter Howarth's nose for a thermal, it was Amber who was delighted to soar over
the moor for 24 minutes.
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| Visiting photographer Andy Poulostides’s enchanting view of beech trees over the road near the club. |
Keen to ensure that our solo stratosphere seekers were given an opportunity
to exploit the best of the day (RASP giving a prediction of 5.5 by 1430) we
stood down the two-seaters to launch Roger Green (FRW), Richard Roberts (V5),
Roger Appleboom (CBY) and Leith Whittington (RRT) into a largely blue sky. At
which juncture they promptly fell out of it! It has to be said, however, that
with relights most improved their scores: Roger to 10 minutes, Leith to 16 and
Richard completing a 2½ hour O/R to North Hill (see GPS download), about which
he said, “Hard to get away, then directly over Dartmoor was booming to 6,400ft,
straight glide to NHL...Made my way back west in the blue, occasional cu until
back to Dartmoor, then booming back up to 5,500ft. Good to hear the SW
cross-country crew out and about in the area.”
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| “Missed it..!” Instructor Martin Cropper watches K-13 HXP launch. |
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| GPS trace of Rich Roberts’s 145km flight to North Hill and return. |
Despite all this excitement, however, event of the day had to be Dave
Westcott and Ed Borlase's first flights of the season in their cherry red
cherub, K-6CR G-CEWO. This beautiful bird, once resident at North Hill, looked
absolutely stunning on the ground, and is even more so in her element, as our
library photo shows. We wish Dave and Ed many, many hours of enjoyable flying as
they extend their boundaries to Bronze and beyond.
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| Cherry red cherub K-6 G-CEWO awaits her first flight of the season as one of the K-13s launches. |
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| Delightful view of G-CEWO in flight over Devon before her arrival at Brent Tor. |
At the end of the day (which had been quite testing for some, given the
abundance of heavy sink) it has to be said that we achieved quite a lot in our
26 launches and that our Member of the Day Award should most definitely go to
Roger Appleboom who, from early light, imperturbably tackled each problem as a
challenge, then drove the winch (when the first 'up-slack' must have tripled his
hearth rate..!) and finally managed to pilot his glider for a couple of soaring
flights. And thanks go to everyone who also contributed today (including late
arrival Jo Nobbs who, deciding not to fly, had only a speaking part...)
Martin Cropper
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