Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 21st August 2021

If you looked at the various weather forecast for today staying in bed would definitely have been a good choice. Low cloud, rain, more low cloud, more rain and a gusty southerly crosswind. But that was the forecast and DGS members know that the only way to be sure is to turn up and have a good look using the Mark 1 Eyeball.

And so it was, that a small ( but well formed ) crew turned up at the airfield to test the forecast. It was raining until 9am followed by low cloud but by 12.30pm it had risen enough for flying to commence.  

Simon waiting to launch

A couple of our Saturday trainees took advantage of Instructor Mike Jardine and the 1000ft+ cloudbase and started flying some circuits in the lively but manageable southerly crosswind.

The cloudbase remained stubbornly low

Dave Archers view

After watching the action for a while the solo pilots could resist no longer. Malcolm took a launch in the K8 to record best flight of the day at 15 minutes. His comments on the flight follows

"I jumped in the Ka-8 and launched to 900' in the 90º crosswind but under a dark cloud which  obliged with about zero sink and a few bits of half up and after a few minutes I got to 1,000' and it started to become 1-2 knots and I soon reached cloudbase at the dizzy height of 1,250' . Headed back into wind under more dark clouds but no more lift was found and I was soon back on the ground for 15 minutes. "

Malcolm

There's no truth in the rumour that
Malcolm took a long time over the pre flight checks
waiting for a certain black cloud to arrive over the winch

Finally ready to launch

As the afternoon continued we could see the next front (trough??) heading our way and we just managed to get the gliders and equipment put safely away before the rain started at 3.30pm.

We made the best of it

Steve