Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 29th January 2022

A few day's ago a call went out on the club Forum from Mike Bennett ( Site Manager ) to the effect that as the weather forecast was looking poor for today perhaps we could do some Potholing. Well Mike is an experienced adventure sport instructor, so why not? 

The view to the east should include great views of the higher Tors
but the weather had different ideas 

Arriving at the airfield the forecast was correct, low cloud and drizzle made this definitely not a flying day. With thoughts of caverns and stalactites it was off to find Mike up on the runway. I enquired about the Potholing and required equipment only to have a shovel put into my hands. The penny dropped. Mike had been referring to filling in the potholes on the runway centre track. Oh well it needs to be done.

There followed a long day of shovelling, racking and compacting the aforementioned potholes. The crew were enthusiastic and despite the drizzle the track was more or less complete by then end of the day.

The DGS road gang in action

Refilling the tractor's link box

The tractor driver's view of the weather

In addition to the track work there was plenty of other activity. The red tractor had it's new radiator fitted. The Guslaunch winch had a major cooling leak repaired and a new cooling fan fitted. 

In the hangar, the tyre cabinet has been repositioned and the drogue chute hanging system improved. The fettling of the club fleet continues with K13 FSD nearly ready to join the fleet.

In the club house, research has confirmed the out Mars parachutes are not affected by the recent AD and the IFP's were using the simulator to practice the patter with a view to converting their ratings to BI.

Although this was a non flying day, much work was done and progress made. Many thanks to all who helped.

Steve