With the successful purchase of the two K13’s at a knockdown price from Eden Soaring all that remained was to collect them from Denbigh in North Wales. The gliders were both in covered trailers waiting for collection but both trailers were heavy and therefore required substantial cars to tow them. Richard Roberts and I both volunteered our services for the 6 hour drive to go to Denbigh with Gavin Short and Terry Roberts volunteering to share the driving. The plan was to drive up on Saturday the 11th December stay overnight in one of the on site pods and return the next day. Richard, ever the optimist said if there was a chance of a flight it would be good to get one in. It was never supposed to be a gliding expedition but glider pilots take any opportunity when it presents itself! I honestly didn’t think we would be flying though. The journey up was ok, lots of traffic and 60mph restrictions in place on the motorway but we arrived mid afternoon to a very wet airfield, light rain and low cloud. Terry and Richard arrived first and had checked the trailers before we arrived making sure the gliders were stowed securely, tyres ok and lights working. After a fish and chip take away in the club house and putting the world to rights we retired early to bed.
At 8.30am we were ready to help the club get the gliders out. I was still extremely doubtful that we were going to fly, 100% cloud cover at about 1100 feet above the airfield very gloomy with little clear horizon and rain in the distance. The sort of day at Dartmoor we wouldn’t even have bothered getting the gliders out.
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| Gloomy low cloud |
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| ….flying? really? |
Chris Gill the CFI arrived and confirmed we would be flying, he pointed to a very small hole of blue and said that proves there is wave. Well he knows the local conditions so we duly got the Arcus M and Duo Discus out to the end of the runway and Chris fetched the Eurofox tug.
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| Getting the Arcus M out |
By now a few other club members arrived and the launch point now had a K21, LS4 and ASW20 ready to go in addition to the Arcus M and Duo Discus. After helping to launch them and watch them disappear into the blue hole we were expecting them to be back down on the ground after a few minutes when Richard tracking them on Glidernet smiled and said they were all in wave and already at 5000’ and climbing.
Gavin was first of the Dartmoor soarers to fly and took off in the Duo Discus flying the aero tow up through the blue hole and into the wave at about 2500’.
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| Gavin taking off |
Next up was me in the Arcus M with Chris Gill the CFI in the back. As he climbed in he said to one of the other members that we would be at least a couple of hours. I then reminded him we had a long drive home so I really needed to limit it to about an hour and also I didn't have my plumbing! The Arcus M had water ballast put into the tail to get the weight balanced perfectly right.
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| Preparing to launch the Arcus M |
We took off under our own power and at 2500’ turned off and put the engine away as we flew into the wave. Weak at first it strengthened but the bars were short. Climbing to a maximum of around 8400 feet, we could see Gavin in the duo and we then formated on a club K21 and took some photos. Chris gave me some great tips on wave flying and helped me hone my skills, I felt very privileged to be flying the Arcus M and enjoying the views.
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| Formating on the K21 |
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| Doesn’t get much better than this |
John Ferrington in the K21 took a picture of us in the ARCUS M.
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| Me in the Arcus M |
After about an hour it was time to return to the airfield so I air braked down from 8000 feet on our way back. An awesome flight and a great privilege to have flown it. We landed shortly after Gavin who had also had a great flight.
Richard jumped into the Duo Discus and had an aero tow to 3000 feet and then caught the wave to 8300 feet returning after 46 mins in order to start his drive home.
All take off an landings are done from the narrow tarmac runway. On landing you run to the end of the runway to keep it clear. This requires you to put your reference point about 2/3rds along the runway.
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| Denbigh from the air. The landing reference is 2/3 way along the runway |
Clambering into our vehicles with large smiles all round we set off back to Devon. Gavin and I were first to leave the airfield at 1310. With Richard following a few minutes later. The trailer we were towing started to oscillate badly from side to side at 57 mph, so Gavin and I were limited to just 55mph max. 317 miles home but the traffic was ok. When I tow my glider trailer I normally get 38 mpg at 60 mph. Towing this K13 trailer we were getting just 31mpg on the motorway and 10mph climbing the A30 hill near Okehampton! We arrived at Brentor at 2015, dropped off the trailer and eventually got home at 2045. Richard and Terry were about an hour behind us having got caught in one of the M6 traffic jams.
Denbigh specialises in cross country and wave flying. It's a great place to hone those skills. You need to be Silver C or above but they do sometimes do training flights for non qualified pilots.
I cant say I enjoyed the journey but having two drivers and someone to talk to helps pass the hours away. The great news is the club now has 2 more K13s so definitely worth the trip.
Steve Fletcher
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