Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 7th August 2019

Thanks to the Sunday soarers, the field was set up for the forecast southwesterly winds and we set about getting the aircraft ready to fly. Unfortunately with cattle in the top field we were limited to the shorter field.

 Right from the first launch it was obvious that there was a queue of showers approaching from Cornwall. Thankfully all passed to the north or south of the airfield. We only had to stop for short periods after catching the edge of the showers and to also allow the visibility to improve. It was initially decided to limit the trainee flights to two each, so at least everybody would get a chance to fly. Dave Downton was first up and it was only the conditions that prevented him from re-soloing. Next time hopefully Dave.

We welcomed back Paula Howarth who was taking a much needed break from studying. Not lost her touch as she was doing all the flying on the second flight. Later in the day she did a perfect hangar flight with no prompting.

Paula happy to be back for the day.

Jonathan Pullen was our One Day Course After a briefing from BI Richard Roberts they were soon off into the air for the first of six flights. By the end of the day Jonathan was getting to grips with flying and enjoyed his day.

Jonathan ready with Richard.

Richard was also kept busy with two visitors. Christopher Adams and Peter Satterly. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of Peter. Possibly an additional module for the BI course. Basic photography. We are not blessed with a David ‘Borlase’ Bailey on a Wednesday to capture events around the airfield.

Christopher and BI Richard.

Trainees John Smith, David Archer and Angie Liversedge also kept be busy in the back seat of the K13.
The new syndicate of Hugh Gasgoyne and Michael Bennett brought their new purchase to the launch point to get acquainted with flying the K6CR.

Hugh & Mike happy with their new toy.

The K8 was kept busy with Phil Hardwick, Steve Fletcher, Bob Sansom, Barry Green, Alan Holland and Malcolm Wilton-Jones. A respectable time of 22 minutes by Steve Fletcher was only beaten by Malcolm with his usual 1hr 06 minutes. What is his secret?

Thank you to Heather who retrieved all day again and all winch drivers who delivered a good launch rate and the K13 achieving up to 1300ft. Also to all who helped run the airfield smoothly we achieved a respectable 35 flights.

Peter Howarth