If Star Trek: Voyager can have a character “Seven of Nine”* then I see no reason why the DGS Blog can’t have a “Day of Twos”, which was an apt description.
The Met Office forecast had discussed the movement of the jet stream over the North Atlantic, and its propensity for eddies and upper troughs, for most of this week. The TWO major metrological models; the Met Office model and the European model were presenting TWO very different forecasts for Saturday. One dry and fine the other wet and changeable. The latter model, due to a stalled front over Cornwall and Devon, turned out to be the most accurate.
Getting my annual flu jab on a flying day would normally result in frustration at being late to the gliding club. Not so today with rain and low cloud in the Tamar Valley when setting off from home.
When I eventually got to the club the hangar doors were firmly shut. However, the TWO One Day Course participants (Stephen Avent, from Plymouth and Ryan Baker, from Lifton) had already arrived. Mike, the Duty Instructor, had briefed them on the day’s activities and the airfield at Brentor. The simulator was running and they were taking turns practicing in the dry while the rain continued outside.
Colin turned up and carried out some planned work on TWO of our K-13s; finishing the replacement of the cable release in HXP and attending to a poorly canopy in DMX.
Whilst this was going on in the clubhouse and the hangar we endured TWO bands of rain until finally a clearance starting coming through and the sky started to brighten.
Daily inspections were completed on TWO K-13s and they were taken to the launch point at the west end of the airfield. The cloud base was low. Probably too low to start our TWO One Day Courses safety.
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| Looking west: Estimates of the height of the cloud base on a post card please. |
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| It didn’t look much better to the east – where have the Tors gone? |
At 1 p.m. Mike and Scratch took a weather and winch test flight (a new diesel lift pump had been fitted to the Supacat winch)
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| Not a good look for flying guests |
Things weren’t absolutely perfect so Rick, the other instructor, took TWO winch check flights, and then Mike took another which made TWO test flights for him. By now the wind was directly cross the runway from the south and it was decided that the “Guslaunch” winch would give a better launch for our One Day Course participants. So today we used TWO winches.
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| And looking even worse on the other side of the check flight. |
By 3 p.m. (Ed: Time is getting on!) it was judged that the cloud base had risen sufficiently to start flying our TWO One Day Course participants.
Now it was the turn of the TWO Introductory Flight Pilots (IFP) to give Stephen and Ryan their first flight. Scratch, one of our recently qualified IFPs, gave Stephen his first launch of his course.
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| Stephen ready to be flown by Scratch. |
As they brought CCY back to the launch point it was obvious that Stephen had enjoyed himself. Astute observers will have noticed a suppressed smile and a sense of elation in Scratch. This is his back story:
“For many years I have had the ambition and desire to be a Basic Instructor (Ed: this qualification has been replaced by the IFP), this of course was curtailed by military service due to being away for so many months of the year on active service, today one of my dreams / goals in life came to fruition, I held it in but on the inside I was on a high walking back to the launch point after landing”.
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| Scratch brings Stephen safely home. |
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| Scratch presents Stephen with his certificate. |
Very many congratulations Scratch. I had a similar feeling of achievement when I flew my first IFP flights last Saturday.
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| Ryan and Gavin prepare to aviate whilst carefully watched by Mike Bennett. |
Then I, took Ryan for a very satisfactory first flight and allowed him views of the fields, Tavistock, Plymouth Sound, the Hamoze that he had never experienced in his job working on a farm (Ed: you forgot to mention that you couldn’t see Kit Hill due to the low cloud in the west).
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| Ryan’s launch sequence. |
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| Ryan’s view whilst walking HXP back to the launch point. |
Once our visitors had been orientated with a flight, and a local area acquaint, the TWO instructors (Mike and Rick) took over to start their instruction for the remainder of their One Day Courses. After a first instructional flight a piece our visitors had amassed TWO flights (Ed: The time was really ticking as it was after 4 pm). On Stephen’s next flight he experienced a real cable break and landed safely ahead.
By now the southerly wind had veered further and was now providing a tail wind at the west end. So we changed ends; moved the launch point to the east end of the airfield. So now the day had become one of TWO ends. As we set up the launch bus we witnessed a novel approach to towing out the winch cables. The retrieve vehicle (the Nissan pickup) remained stationary with the cables hooked up to the tow out bar and the tractor towed the winch to the other end whilst paying out the cables.
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| “Weather, Whether, and Wether”– the contemplations of a Duty Instructor. |
The rain was approaching again and frustratingly the conditions were no longer suitable for the One Day Course participants. So Mike took the other Mike (Bennett) for a flight to practice his launch failures. The maxim on launch failures is “always land ahead if you can”. The decision is based on numerous factors e.g. height, position, head wind etc. But there are other factors such as wet grass. A 4x4 driver will tell you that wet grass is the slipperiest surface known to man. And so it proved, the long landing run after touch down, even when the glider was running on its skid, caused the
TWO pilots, and the winch driver, to have elevated heart rates. After a deft manoeuvre CCY eventually came to a stop at a safe distance from both the boundary fence and the winch. The Duty Instructor, with the rain starting again, decided to call it a day. HXP was walked back from the east end and our TWO trusty steeds were wiped down to dry them and packed away in the hangar.
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| Ryan receives his certificate from Instructor Rick |
So “the Day of Twos” had shown our One Day Course participants almost every condition that can slow and hinder the rate of flying. Despite all the obstacles to overcome we did achieve ten flights in total. The honours for the TWO longest flights, a stunning five minutes (Ed: Sarcasm and flippancy has no place in this blog), were shared by Stephen and Ryan.
We hope to see you soon to finish part TWO of your One Day Courses.
Gavin Short
Footnote: Seven of Nine’s full Borg designation was Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One. But of course you knew that didn’t you?
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