Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 6th March 2022

The forecast was for a  northeasterly 15knts and skysight was predicting the possibility of wave until about 11 O'clock. So the early arrivals set the field up. Initially the wind had a greater northerly component, but optimistically it was decided that Andy Davey would rig his Lebelle ready for a possible exploratory launch to see if he could contact wave.

Andy Davey ready to launch

Andy returned after only 10 minutes unable to contact any wave. As the approach was quite turbulent we decided to stand down and see how things developed. Wave bars could be seen in the area, but always seemed to be too far away to make use of.

Elusive wave

Just before lunch it could be seen that the sky was changing to a more thermic looking sky. Andy took another launch and soon reported that he was climbing well past 2000ft. We brought the K13 back to the launch point to start club flying. First to fly with me was Ed Borlase for a confidence boosting flight due to the conditions. It was decided to limit flights due to the time and conditions.

Ed getting ready.

Richard Roberts had brought his sleek Discus to the launch point and took off for a 46 minute flight. Paddy Cosgrave was next in the K13. A couple of flights saw Paddy starting to plan circuits, although conditions proved difficult to judge the later stages. Next in the front seat was Ray Boundy who managed to stretch the flight to 9 minutes.

Rays view of the airfield.

After Ray it was Freddie Colton's turn who with a little direction from me extended a flight to 11 minutes.

Freddie strapping in.

After a sterling effort on the winch  Mike Bennett arrived to try his hand, but only managed a flight of 5 minutes.

Mike Bennett ready to go.

Mo Khouribich moved into the front seat for a quick flight.

Mo doing ABCD checks.

Finally after retrieving for all flights, John Smith for his flight in the K13. Off the top of the launch we soon contacted some lift. A 28 minute flight to 3100ft finished the day off.

John Smith getting ready.

As for Andy who took off to see what the conditions were like returned after 2 hours 31 minutes to claim an excellent flight of the day.

Thank you to all at the club today who helped achieve what we did on a difficult day.