Dartmoor Gliding News-Thursday 19th May 2022

It was my duty IFP day, but in contrast to Scratch’s previous one (comprising over 6 flights) I had only one booking for 4pm. I duly did a stint on the winch to fill some of the time. I gather there had been some work done on the winch to alleviate some over speeding issues, and this was borne out by the absence of weak link breaks or wave-offs. Returning to the launch point around 1pm, I had a five-minute circuit in the K6 to check conditions (tricky) prior to my visitor Stephen Barratt arriving (one hour early) at 3pm for his Trial Flight. It was a 60th birthday present, so I wanted to extend the flight to make it more memorable. However, as with all gliding exploits, the weather intervened. With only 1000ft on the launch and choppy thermals, we were soon back on the ground. Stephen will return another day when hopefully conditions will be more suited to first time flyers.

Stephen Barratt awaits his Trial Flight.
I really must do something about my hat!

With only two short flights to my name thus far, and the prospect of conditions improving, I jumped back into the K13 rear seat, with Richard Roberts (right) in the front seat. I wanted to do a hangar landing exercise but was hopeful of some soaring. My wishes were granted shortly after releasing and pushing into wind towards the south. What ensued was a thoroughly enjoyable half-hour romp around the thermal cores north of Tavistock, topping out around 1800ft for us.

“Straps tight in the front?” “Yessir!”

Conditions were to improve again later, as I found out when taking a flight with Robin Wilson in the K13. Robin ramped up his flying time with a 51-minute soaring flight to 3100ft! Some of the climbs were at +6kts although the cores were still quite narrow. We were photographed (below) by Mike Jardine with whom we shared a thermal up to cloud base.

Robin Wilson and I in the K13 from Mike Jardine’s
vantage point directly above the airfield.

What follows are some submissions by other DGS pilots who flew on the day, taking advantage of an unexpected but very welcome improvement in conditions.

Hugh Gascoyne

I arrived at the club not sure if I would rig my glider. Exiting my car to open the gate I bumped my head and cricked my neck. Then followed a headache that cleared after drinking water. So not in the right state of mind to rig.

Gavin – sans headache, ready to take the north cable.

After several hours running the tower I took a launch in the club K-8. I climbed 150' above launch height but then found sink so I had only 8 minutes in the air. Then I launched into yet more massive sink and realised that I had to modify my circuit and land on the runway from the other end (the wind was directly across the runway). The total flight time was 3 minutes. Things were getting worse not better.

So, I waited until almost 5pm and made a soaring flight in the local area, managing to climb to cloud base at 3,100 ft height above the runway. I shared several thermals with the big wings of Peter's Kestrel and some buzzards. After 1 hour 19 minutes I made a hangar landing and put the glider away.

Despite the inauspicious start, a most welcome soaring flight meant that at the end of the day all was well in the world. Headache and cricked neck forgotten. Gliding does that to you!

Gavin Short

Not much to report, I trimmed the vegetation that was obscuring our glider sign on the A386 north of Tavistock on the way to the club. First launch was to 800 feet so back on the ground in 5 minutes.

Second launch managed 29 minutes but then around 1530 the sky changed, and I watched as everyone launched and got away, so I then went again, managed to get to 3000 feet and came down to Grenofen and over to Lamerton - nice bimble around like everyone else. Nice end to the day.

Pic is me flying over my house.

Steve Fletcher

I had two flights today in Kestrel G-DDBK. A few pilots had been staying airborne, but as I prepared to launch some were returning to the airfield. The sky still looked as if things were working, but with only 1000ft to play with it resulted in only an 11-minute circuit. It wasn’t until late afternoon that things improved, and pilots started staying up again. I took another launch, and this time found some lift quickly and was soon climbing past 2000ft. I pushed into wind and was south of Tavistock towards Grenofen.

View of the Tamar from south of Tavistock

I spent a lot of time in this area with climbs up to 3100ft. As my confidence in the Kestrel is growing, I will be able to go even further as the summer progresses. This second flight was a duration of 1 hour 57 minutes.

Peter Howarth

Scratch approaches for landing in the Cirrus

Phil H in the DG300 tracks along by the side of the convergence
at 65 knots, still climbing!

Mike B surveys the energy line to the north
before his 25-minute soaring flight in the K6

Robin and Mal awaiting a launch in the Twin Astir.

Summarizing the day from an operational perspective it was undeniably a good day for launches and flight durations. Looking at Page 1 of the Log sheets there were 6 flights of over an hour in length. Provisional Flight of the Day goes to John Allen in the K6 with 2 hours 47 minutes - unless Page 2 says otherwise! Perhaps someone can corroborate this? The photo was taken from overhead Tavistock, at around 2600ft.

John Allen's view from his K6

Hugh Gascoyne