Dartmoor Gliding Club News-Saturday 13th August 2022

The high pressure heat wave continues. Temperatures in the mid thirties and an easterly breeze are going to be the order of today. Sun protection in the form of sunscreens, hats and plenty of water has become the norm.

Early Morning rigging

With the wind from the east there is always the possibility of wave. The vertical temperature profile ( as found on the tephigram ) does not show the classic wave profile. In this case there is little sign of an inversion or windspeeds increasing with height. In fact the forecast winds at height seemed to be westerly? As always the only way to find out for sure is to fly.

The hot dry view to the east

The launches from the west end launch point were respectably high, assisted by the easterly breeze; the K13's were seeing 1350 - 1400 feet. Just to the east of the launch was a very narrow bar of weak wave giving about zero lift given the sink rate of a K13. Occasionally this would improve as a wave enhanced thermal punched through and would sustain a few turns with a little bit of height gain soon lost going back to the wave bar.

Taking advantage of any available shade.
It would work better with the tallest on the right

Dartmoor pilots are always game for this kind of challenge and try they did. Best flight of the day was Rick flying his Std Cirrus with a flight of 31 minutes. Several flights were in the 20 - 30 minute range which included Hugh in his K6 recording and identical flight time of 23 minutes as Richard in the Discus. What was probably needed was a big wing glider with a lower minimum sink rate. Sometimes I do miss the Jantar1 which used to  absolutely awesome in these conditions.

A busy launch queue

Andy in the Libelle

Hugh hoping for K6 greatness and ...

...and off he goes

Are you sitting comfortably? Phil in the DG303

Today we hosted 2 One Day Courses. Scratch and I shared the flying delivering flying one course candidate each which made coping with the temperatures in the cockpit easier. Neil Randoll flew with Scratch and Andrew Salmon  flew with me. Both left at the end of the days with smiles on their faces.

Andrew Salmon and me

Neil and Scratch on approach and....

Later with certificate in hand

Club training was  sensibly divided between Rick Wiles and Mike Jardine. Everyone seems to be making progress 

This appeared in the clubhouse.
A location for found items seems like a good idea but
how do lost items get in there without becoming found first?

By the end of the day ( last flight at 18.47 ) we had achieved 44 launches, delivered lots of training and 2 One Day Courses and no doubt added to everyone's suntan.

Steve