Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 1st July 2020

The forecast was for low cloud and showers throughout the day. So it was going to be a day working on the projects around the club. John Smith arrived to finish the carpentry work in the bus. Only the electrical work for the radios & netbook along with the gas fittings remained at the end of the day. The bus also requires a coat of green paint before it will be moved to the east end of the field.

I started by mowing the remaining part of the airfield that wasn’t cut last weekend. When I finished mowing, I joined Roger Green and Malcolm Wilton-Jones to help with the electrical installation in the two containers. By the end of the day only an insulation check, fitting of the LED tubes and the final connection in the generator hut remained. In the hangar Colin continued with the ARC work on DMX. Steve Lewis spent time fitting the new weather station to the launch point.

New weather station in position.

At about three o’clock everybody was starting to pack away ready to go home, but a small voice was heard to say, “It’s brightening up, can we fly”. Steve Fletcher was tasked to see which of the remaining members were keen enough to fly. Although only five members wanted to fly, it was decided to get the winch and K8 out of the hangar to fly.

K8 ready to be DI’d.

Winch departing to the west end.

By 15:54 the K8 was heading into the sky with Steve Fletcher aboard. After scratching around under some darker patches, he eventually managed to climb away and return after 21 minutes.

K8 launching into an improving sky.

I the jumped into the K8 for a 20 minute flight. Phil Hardwick managed 11 minutes, Malcolm 19 minutes and Scratch had a hangar flight of 6 minutes.

A better sky looking north-west.

K8 soaring away.

So after only five flights everybody who wanted to had flown, which proves if you hang on long enough and are dedicated enough you can often enjoy some late afternoon flying. Thank you to everybody who came to the club today and helped with the many tasks to be done.

Hopefully some two-seater flying will be returning soon. Watch this space.

Peter Howarth