Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 1st August 2020

Today the weather would be best described as variable. A cold front came through yesterday with an occluded front expected later today. RASP was forecasting a soarable afternoon.

The winch driver's view of the early sky
If you want the definition of an uninspiring sky,  this is it

The day started with low cloud and showers threatening (which never really materialised) but by 11am the pressure to fly could not be resisted any further and the day started with a series of check flights and practice cable breaks for Gavin Short who was pronounced fit to fly solo ( no surprise there given his experience spanning 20 years or so.)

Flights continued with trainees John Allan and David Archer who both seem to be making good progress. Keep going chaps, you'll get there.

A little definition in the cloud inspired the solo pilots ????

Ged and Phil getting ready.

By 3.30pm the Twin Astir syndicate members Phil Hardwick and Ged Nevisky thought they could see some improvement in the sky and launched to achieve a dizzying 14 minutes. This encouraged some more action from Rick (Astir CS) and Steve (Open Cirrus), Steve had this to say after his flights

" Rick and I launched into a more promising sky only to be back on the ground 5 mins later. A more serious review of conditions by Steve Lewis prior to my second launch made me seek out the dangly bits which got me up to 1500 I then found another thermal close to Mary Tavy which took me to 2000 but then it ran out and I only found sink, returning to the airfield after 22 mins. Longest flight of a very disappointing day."

Other notable flights were Gavin Short (K8) 12 minutes and Rick (Astir) 17 minutes. So much for a soarable afternoon - RASP was wrong today.

The afternoon view towards the east

We made the best of a bad day.

Steve