Dartmoor Gliding News-Turquoise Delight

While we are  grounded imposed by Covid-19, we thought that some stories of flights that were memorable to their pilots would be appreciated. This is a flight by Richard Roberts in his Discus flying from Brentor last May.

So just to share a flight I had in May, it was a brisk northwesterly wind and not as good as the forecast suggested it was going to be, so a bimble around Devon was the order of the day.

Launceston taken from the north west side looking south east,
Tesco’s showing white by the A30

As I got more confident and gradually pushed further away from the club, only to comeback as I got lower.
After a while I was happy local soaring ....But I decided it was looking better to the north so pushed out to around Halwell junction.

I should have known it would get sticky ...as I have previously landed out in that area a while ago when Adrian Irwin kindly collected me from a grass field you could describe as ‘Lush’

On this occasion in May I got down to about 2000ft above the ground ( ground in that area is 200ft QNH ) looking back toward the club (750QNH) was a very flat glide that I wasn’t going to even try and attempt. So I changed into survival mode ,and I actually picked a cloud that was the best of a bad bunch. This was however further to the north, and further away from the airfield, but needs must. Surprisingly I was still a fair way out from the edge of the cloud and my wing tip gave a very clear sign of lift to the right , so I pulled some speed off ,and rolled in tight. It only needed a small adjustment and I was centred!!

This is the first part of the reason I am telling this particular story as most pilots will know rolling into the centre of a thermal off one turn hardly ever happens. Added to the fact it was a cloud that didn’t even look that good,I knew I had used up my quota of luck for the day.

With the extra height Safely in the bag I caught a glimpse of a lake shining bright turquoise, basking in the sunlight that was now breaking through the cloud.

My Turquoise Oasis

It is actually an old China clay quarry but the sunlight made it a man made oasis on that particular day to me

I will be honest it looked like the colour of some out of place Caribbean  ocean in the middle of Devon. Then when the sun had disappeared behind the cloud I understood why I had never seen it before.  It just melted into a grey/blue/green colour that was absorbed into the colours around it.
The rest of the flight was uneventful and just a good day out gliding .

Landing back at DGS

It’s moments like this that you can reflect on ,and in the winter months-or times of a pandemic !! -remember why all the effort we all put into the club, and our flying is still worth doing.

A magical moment of a hidden gem I wanted to share at this difficult time.

All stay safe and happy landings.

Richard Roberts