Dartmoor Gliding News- ICL 2019 The Park

13th & 14th  July 2019

The weather forecast was showing a mixed bag, but Sunday was always going to be the better day. As DGS pilots are such a hardy bunch we (Roger Appleboom In Club Libelle ,Andy Davey in std Libelle and myself in Discus w ) all arrived before 930am for the Saturday club briefing.

We then proceeded to rig our gliders and generally fiddle with our gliders. (And put up tents/mansions to sleep in )

The task briefing was carried out by local club pundit at the park Phil. The weather was presented and we were given a window of flying opportunity at about 4-5pm. In the end it was a challenge just to stay airborne never mind go on a task. The Day was scrubbed, but not until we exhausted the last opportunity it might be a good Saturday for local flying.

That night the gliders put to bed , some with swanky new covers(Andy) ,some left out rigged to catch a possible shiver from the night air!(me). We all adjourned to the pub in Mere for tea,where we were joined by Henry from Mendip GC. The usual good food , poor banter and small amount of alcohol followed!

Sunday-

All set again , bad news was the forecast gave possible morning showers , good news,they never materialised so the heating process happened quicker than Saturday giving a soaring window between 1pm and about 5pm

Cloud base was still low. 3000ft at best, and making the flying a little defensive was the added issue that DGS members aren’t used to ..... crop fields EVERYWHERE. For some reason not many were cut, good land-out options were limited to small airfields or large runways if air traffic control was feeling welcoming on the radio.

Andy waiting to take to the sky 

In the event Andy was set a 54km triangle on the novice task.The task setting kept them close to the park and Andy did a sterling job of getting around it on his first attempt ,at a very respectable 60min

By the looks of this Andy likes the ICL weekends

The Pundits were set 101km Park-Salisbury south-Blandford-Park

It was interesting flying with cloud bases varying 1000ft. Funny thing , it always seemed to be 2000ft over the task turn points.I completed in 1h20.

But what of the 3rd musketeer I hear you ask, in the intermediate class ?

Roger - cable on - one for all and all for one

Roger took three winch launches and connected on the third. By this time he decided to enjoy the flying in a beautiful part of the country and ‘wandered’ down the first leg towards Sailbury South a little way ,before assessing the chance of a land out was getting high at this time of day. It therefore turned the flight into one of his legendary ‘I went for a wander’ around Wiltshire.

Congratulations go to Andy on his first cross country, and his first inter club league. It’s fair to say his was a little nervous about what he was letting himself in for. By close of play Sunday he was sighed up to enjoy the next ICL in August! If you are in any doubt and want to come along but have any trepidation, just talk to Andy when you see him next.

We all landed within an hour of each other and helped everyone de-rig . We were all on the road home by 5pm.

What is amazing ,is what you can pack into a weekend off. Mixed with time to relax , time to socialise, talk gliding , eat food and drink. Oh and we had a few x countries, and a few local soaring hours. What’s not to like.

How FAR will it be next time ?

And will you be there?


Richard Roberts