Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 2nd july 2022

 Rick "Jonah" Wiles jinxed the weather by sending out an email the night before rallying the troops for an earlier start.  Some of us wisely resisted the call by looking out the window on Saturday morning.  It was wet, very wet.  So lots of other jobs were completed and some rainy jobs started. 

Toys out as the rain stopped

The clearance eventually came, much later than forecast and we got the toys out.  Despite hardly any sun and the wet ground there was some thermal activity under the grey sheet of cloud. It was often cold and we spent the day dodging rain showers that seemed to originate from Kit Hill, Nr. Callington.  This is the start of July what is happening?  (Ed: Its Wimbledon fortnight, what did you expect?)

One Day Course Candidate Ella Barlow

Ella ready to fly with BI Steve

We ran a Junior One Day course and Rick brought his son and his fiancée (sorry, very long-term girlfriend) to the site to fly.  Matt had lost little of his previous gliding knowledge.

Matt's girlfriend Jess ready to fly with Rick

All four of our new trainees flew.

Pre-flight visual briefing?

Adam thought he was the "Man of the match" with 16 minutes until he was pipped by Scratch with a heady 18 minutes and a climb to 2,000 feet.  Scratch treated us on the ground to an impromptu aerobatic display which he explained later was him "falling out of a thermal", (Ed: Interesting thermalling technique)"

Adam looking pleased with himself

Scratch about to spoil Adam's day

The weather at the end of the day eventually cleared up.  When we departed at 1930 it was in brilliant sunshine, blue sky at 15C, the warmest it had been all day.

The sky looked like this all day. ( except when raining ) ...

... and when we decided to go home it suddenly looked like this

But what of Colin, our BGA inspector?  Well, he was eventually tracked down playing a band" The Blue Dukes" in Cornwall.

Missing inspector Colin (left) eventually tracked down in Cornwall

Gavin Short