Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 17th April 2019

The day that the forecast didn’t forecast.

The forecast was for light easterly winds that would steadily increase as the day went on. Richard arrived and confidently predicted that RASP and soundings gave little indication of wave today. We got the airfield, K13 and a K8 ready to fly and private owners decided not to rig. First flight was at 09:43 with John Smith and myself in the K13. A short delay was made to fix a noisy wheel on the K13. A missing spacer was the culprit and soon sorted by Colin. The third flight of John’s showed some signs of lift, but not really useable.

At 11:05 Steve Fletcher took off in the K8. He could be seen steadily climbing and finally returned after 1:02. We welcomed Steve’s Friend and Family, Steve Sherbourne. He has some previous gliding experience and also flew with us in April 2018. We had a 19 minute flight in weak wave and climbed to 1700 ft. Activity could be seen on the ground where the second K8 was liberated from the hangar and Richard driving down the airfield to rig.

Steve Sherbourne happy after his wave flight

Richard (Discus) and Malcolm (K8) launched, but conditions had changed and was now more thermic rather than wave. They managed 27 and 24 minutes respectively. Bob Sansom flew with me working towards re-soloing in the near future and had a couple of extended flights.

K8 FXB on the airfield again

Phil Hardwick jumped into the back seat of the K13 to fly me around whilst conditions were not brilliant. I then flew Steve Sherbourne again and we had a 16 minute thermal flight. Again Steve doing most of the upper air flying,

Some more shorter flights ensued Andy Davey (K8), Colin Boyd (K8), Phil Hardwick (K8) and John Smith with me in the K13. Meanwhile Malcolm had taken off in a K8 and managed to use some weak thermals initially before finding some more useable lift to climb to 4000ft. Richard also took off in his Discus.

K8 at 4000ft

Allan Holland then climbed into the K8 and was soon seen climbing with wings level and was obviously in wave. After a short delay due to a cable break Phil Hardwick took off in the second K8 and was soon climbing away. John Smith and I launched in the K13. We had a cable break at 850ft but quickly realised that we were already in wave, so slowed the glider down and climbed to 2700ft. We landed after 22 minutes so that Bob could hopefully have a wave flight. Alan and Phil landed after 1:03 and 40 minutes respectively.

Discus on K13’s wing

K13 seen from the Discus

Bob and I launched and soon contacted the wave for a 45minute flight. Meanwhile Malcolm had launched in the K8 for another 39 minute flight where he again managed to get to 4000ft.

Dartmoor from 4000ft

As for no wave today Richard, he returned to land after 2:24 to claim longest flight of the day.
Thank you to all for a good days flying. 9 hours and 47 minutes in 26 flights. An average of just over 20 minutes a flight. Moral of the day, if there is an easterly wind then DGS is the place to be.

Peter Howarth