Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 9th April 2022

There was an exciting sounding forecast for today. RASP was predicting some good soaring. Skysight was showing lots and lots of convergence lift along the south coast. Wind strength should be fairly light. 

The first flight at 10.40 was  K13-DCCY training flight which delivered a circuit. 10 minutes later it was my turn in K13-CFSD with our One day Course candidate Brian Northmoore. From about half way up the wire it was apparent that we were launching through a thermal and a quick left turn after release saw us climbing. After a little fiddling around soon established us in a solid thermal which whisked us up to the 3000ft cloud base. We returned for lunch after an hour.

Brian and family
( camera shy teenagers must be a rarity)

Our early view of the Tamar and Tavy Estuaries 

I have set up my phone to take photos when I say smile
so that I can have one hand free for the aircraft. 
This is sometimes confusing for the front seater.

Our initial climb gave us time to watch the other gliders launching. Of particular interest was Richard Roberts in the Discus. Based on the forecasts he had set himself a target of 500km. After a couple of restarts he disappeared for just over 5 hours. After his return we learned that conditions were not as good as the forecasts and the wind at flying heights increased to 14 knots but did not produce any streeting ( lines of cloud aligning with the wind which allows gliders to cover may miles in more or less continuous lift). Eventually has abandoned his original task but still completed over 307km. turning at Dorchester out tom Southhampton and back Although he was disappointed this is still a good flight.

Photo from Richard's flight

Photo from Richard's flight

Photo from Richard's flight

Photo from Richard's flight

Richard later tweeted 

"Another great day tasking from @DartmoorGliding 307km in a glider up to #Dorchester then  #southmolton and back, a great way to beat the cost of fuel this summer ! Oh and it’s a great way to fly^

The other solo pilots flying today were Phil Harwick who managed a flight of 1 hr 53min in his recently acquired DG300 and Gavin Short 1 hr 44 mins in his Std Cirrus.

The DG300 flanked by the Std Cirrus

We also welcomed a couple of Air Experience visitors, Darren Builey and Shanie Lang both of whom enjoyed short soaring flights with Scratch. 

Darren and wife.

Shanie and Scratch share a joke before flying

Rick Wiles had a friends and family visitor Mark who he flew in CCY

Mark and Rick

Rick in CCY on approach

Although the forecast proved to be over optimistic, it was still a good day which yielded a total of 36 launches

Steve