Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 30th April 2022

Today's RASP forecast was very upbeat showing good soaring with a 5 "star" rating. Looking at the atmospheric soundings I thought this was unlikely as it was suggesting high cover throughout the day but the solo pilots had already got their gliders out anticipating the good conditions. Apart from the club aircraft there was the Twin Astir, Open Cirrus, 2* Standard Cirrus, DG300 and 2*K6cr. 

An optimistic RASP forecast lead to a lot of rigging activity

We welcomed back David and Lundy Webb who were here to complete their One Day Courses after the wind strength had stopped the flying during their previous visit. Both enjoyed several soaring flights during which they had plenty of time to try out the controls

Lundy waiting to go

And dad David

And what of the 5 star soaring conditions. The high level cloud cover ( in the forecast sounding but not the RASP forecast) made the conditions challenging. What thermals there were needed patience and tight turns to get away. Cloud base was ultimately 3200 feet where soaring conditions were a lot easier.

An interesting view of the busy launchpoint

All of the fiberglass gliders failed to soar except for Rick Wiles in his Standard Cirrus who managed 37 minutes. The 2*K6CR fared a lot better with John Allan in K6FUB soaring for the longest flight of the day at 1 hour 35 minutes and Adam Hoskin in the bright yellow K6BVR ( named "woody") managing a creditable 56 minutes. Both of the K13s managed multiple short soaring flights while conducting their training tasks.

Adam in Woody

John Allan's view of Tavistock from 2200 feet

After 2.30pm the top cover thickened considerably cutting off the already difficult thermals.

The high cover made for an uninspiring sky

It was good to see Colin flying instead of fixing the aircraft.
After a successful test flight he flew the K8

We achieved 40 launches today. which is a good effort from everyone considering that we were launching towards the east which usually gives a lower launch rate as the landing aircraft overfly the launchpoint and need to be recovered before launching can recommence.

A big thankyou to the winch drivers and to Heather who drove the cable retrieve all day.

Steve