Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 17th Jult 2019

The weather forecast for today was not inspiring. Light southwesterly winds. Rasp seemed to confirm this with only a slim chance of soaring during the afternoon. I arrived at the airfield to find Phil Hardwick was already changing ends. We thought we might be able to use the top field until cattle were spotted hiding under the trees along the north edge of the field.

As members turned up the aircraft were readied and towed to the east end.

Towing the gliders to the launch point at 9:30

We welcomed our one day course student, Alan Finch today. After a briefing from BI Richard Roberts they were soon off into their first flight. By the end of the day Alan was using all three controls and performing coordinated turns. Hopefully we may see him back for some more flying.

Alan and Richard ready to fly.

We also had a visitor from Mendip GC, Peter Turner. Peter has recently bought a holiday property down here and is hoping to be able to visit us regularly when he is down this way. Having flown with us before, I gave him a refamiliarisation flight, before he flew the K8.

Peter with the K8

Richard also flew with trial flight visitor, James Cargin. You can read his thoughts here .

James Cargin with Richard

James Cargin with Richard was kept busy flying with Barry Green, John O’Connell and Dave Downton. After a simulated power failure on the first flight of the day and a subsequent practice break, Barry was cleared to fly the K8. Good to see you back solo Barry. John had a couple of flights with the ASI covered to try and get over his reliance on the instrument. His upper air flying is improving and approaches and landings are also improving. Keep up the good work John. Dave had a couple of good circuits and a cable break practice. He will also be re-soloing shortly.

Returning member Angie Liversedge had three flights with Martin. Her skills are returning and is now doing all the flying

Angie happy to be back in the front seat.

The K8 was flown by Barry, Malcolm, Bob, Allan and Martin. Bob and Martin had extended circuits of 14 and 17 minutes. Malcolm failed on his usual hour after returning having been airborne for 58 minutes to claim flight of the day.

The twin astir made a brief appearance and was flown by Phil Hardwick and Martin Broadway.
We managed a surprising 35 flights. Thanks must go to Heather for retrieving all day again and the various winch drivers who kept things moving. After all was packed away we celebrated the belated birthday of Barry last week and his re-solo with a quick beer before heading home.

Peter Howarth