Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 1st June 2019

An expectant launch point

A warm front is on the way but with luck will not spoil the flying today but tomorrow is not looking good. The high pressure may well put a lid on today's soaring. RASP gives a short soaring window in the afternoon. Looking at the atmospheric sounding thing's ate not hopeful. The picture is one of a stable airmass with a very low inversion. The breeze is from the SE.

Steve Fletcher launches the Open Cirrus

So what did we find. Right from the first flight ( at a somewhat tardy 11am ) it was possible to extend circuit times in air that felt frothy but no more. Careful centering did not help much as this was almost certainly the low inversion at about 1100 feet. But it was entertaining. A little later Ged and Phil found a solitary thermal that had punched through the inversion and this wafted them to a dizzying 2700 feet. By mid afternoon there were more thermals to be had giving Malcom Wilton-Jones a flight of just over an hour in the K8 and Steve Fletcher 1 hour and 42 minutes in his Open Cirrus. Towards the end of the afternoon the thermal activity had all but disappeared when Mike Jardine and Karon Matten in the K13 found a patch of wave which gave them a smooth 8 knot climb to a little over 2000ft at which point the wave vanished as suddenly as it had started. Interesting.

Mike Jardine's view of the airfield from the backseat of HXP

And Steve Fletcher's view from the Open Cirrus

Today we had a couple of new faces on the airfield. Paul Hayward was today's One Day Course candidate. He made a good start at learning to operate the glider controls during his flights throughout the day. The other "new face" was ex member Ian Wooley who returned today after an absence of 12 years? to begin the process of restoring his solo status. Welcome back Ian.

Ian sharing a joke with Rick.

Paul Hayward waiting for his first flight with me in HXP

A good club day.

Steve