Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 31st May 2020

With clear blue skies another warm day loomed. The forecast gave easterlies 10-15knts. RASP gave soaring conditions to start late morning and improve during the afternoon. With only a few members at the airfield to fly, Phil rigged his Astir and Steve rigged his Open Cirrus. With the K8 off-line the K13 was got ready for me to fly.

As duty instructor I was elected as sacrificial lamb to take the first launch. At the top of the launch I pushed into wind but only found reduced sink so decided to fly back towards Brentor where I found some small bubbles of rising air, but were too small to use. I therefore decided to join the circuit and land. As nobody else was prepared to launch I took the second cable to see if things were any better south of the airfield. This resulted in a similar flight and I was soon back on the ground. We decided to wait a while and see if things improved.


Meanwhile Colin had arrived at the airfield to work on the K8. Hopefully this will be back on line for Wednesday. Scratch was also at the airfield to work on the brakes of the green tractor. A small leak was fixed, but it still requires some more work to get it fully back on line.

After nearly an hour, Phil decide to take a launch and see if conditions were any better. A similar flight to mine and he was soon back on the ground. We decided to stop again for a leisurely lunch. An hour later some small cumulus had appeared away from the airfield, so I was again elected to take a launch to test the conditions. This time I found some heavier sink and the approach had become rather turbulent, so I decided to return the K13 to the hangar. After discussions with both Phil and Steve they too decided to put their gliders away for another day.

So although the day promised possible wave or thermal not much happened.

Peter Howarth

No comments: