Dartmoor Gliding News - Thursday 2 November 2022

Today was the new Thursday as Dartmoor Gliding reverts back to Wednesday for its midweek flying with an instructor available all day.  Welcome to retirement Mike!

The select group of "Wednesday Windies" set about doing good stuff today: Peter Howarth; Mike Jardine; Phil Hardwick; Gavin Short; and Colin Boyd (Ed: We haven't decided on the title for the fliers on a Wednesday so initially each Wednesday blog will have a thematic name and today it was windy!). 

Following the departure of the Twin Astir from the site the Red Disco is put back in its normal parking space

Autumn has arrived at Dartmoor Gliding

In the clubhouse Maintenance Work Orders were handed over to Colin and a Certificate of Conformity for glider consumables filed.  On Monday Colin I made a trip to LAS at Okehampton to pick up 75 metres of rudder cable and the associated ferrules and "thimbles". The intention is to replace various swages on the rudder cables in the four club gliders which do not adhere to the latest BGA direction on the crimping of rudder cable ferrules.  (Ed: The existing swaging is satisfactory, but we are determined to ensure that DGS gliders are maintained to and compliant with the highest standards).

Work continued on getting K-13, CCY, back into service.  This including preparation for paint on the elevator and tail plane. The annual inspection in the fuselage was completed. Also Colin is getting ready to paint the wings but he could do with some heat in his workshop (Ed: Do we have a sparky in the house who is able to move the electric heaters from the storage container to the glider workshop?)

CCY's port wing ready for paint

During the first tea break a request to have a winter lecture on the Self-Declared Maintenance Programme was made.  This would help the pilot/owners i.e. privateers, understand what is required and its implications (Ed: I am sure you have worked out who they expect to give this lecture).

Meanwhile, the Assistant Category Instructors were practising their ground-school lessons prior to their five-yearly review.  (Ed: This would have been an ideal opportunity for pre-solo members to progress their "progress cards"). However, there was only one "student" present and that was me.

After lunch we set about de-rigging K-8, GDK, ready for its annual inspection, but we did it inside the hangar with the doors shut because it was that windy outside. This involved opening one hangar door, manoeuvring the glider onto the "dead man" support, by poking a wing out if the door temporarily, and then shutting door again prior to derigging.

The quad bikes were excluded from GDK's de-rigging

Peter and Gavin un-tape the turtledeck prior to its removal

Mike and Colin secure GDK on the "Dead Man" whilst Phil readies himself to remove the main pins

The innards of GDK laid bare

The wings came off!

What have we done?

When the glider was in its component parts the wings were stowed in the hangar. The fuselage, elevator, turtledeck, and canopy were stored in the storage container.  The windage on the fuselage, mainly the fin post and rudder, when we moved it outside, was very strong (Ed: Are you sure it wasn't you being wimpy on the rear fuselage lifting handle!).  It was a relief to get it safely into the storage container.

A few "farmer's knots" will hold the fuselage upright in the storage container

After the derigging the wind continued to increase throughout the afternoon.

One of the sheets of corrugated iron on the hangar wall was banging in the wind

The missing securing bolts were the cause of the banging.  Some maintenance required here methinks

The next step was to remove one of the ailerons from GDK as some play in the aileron hinges had been identified in the recent BGA audit.  Colin (Ed: Baldrick?) had a cunning plan to replace the barrels that the hinges sit in, rather than the hinges themselves.  Unfortunately, this approach proved to be more challenging than anticipated.  The maintenance team retired to the club house to come up with a "Plan B" over yet more tea (or coffee). By now the rain had properly set in.

Two instructors and an inspector discuss how to remove the"flappy thing" from the wing

While the aileron work was under way (Ed: Identified by the sound of much hammering emanating from the hangar) I was in the club house where I sanded the tatty paint on CCY's canopy locking bar, applied Kurust where required, and then grey paint.  On Sunday Ed Borlase had made a good job of restoring the colour coding to the various release handles so I decided to make a "proper job" of the canopy licking bar.  A small amount of further work remains to adhere to the CS-22 glider standards which covers many items including how the canopy release handles should be marked in the cockpit for the pilot: Red for emergency canopy jettison and white with a red band for normal, and emergency, canopy opening (Ed: I learned something new during the recent BGA audit).

Spotted in the club house.  Adam had bought an uprated Flettner wind-powered ventilator for his trailer

Adam's Flettner ventilator spinning merrily whereas the standard model on the trailer two places down is turning at half the rate  (Ed:  "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten" - Benjamin Franklin)

Whilst waiting for the Kurust to dry and as the generator was running I got the Hoover out and cleaned the clubhouse floor (Ed:. Your secret us safe with me, providing Mrs S doesn't read the Blog).

Spotted! (Ed:  You had better stand by for recriminations as Heather does read this blog)

After the teas and coffees were consumed, at 153O, we unanimously agreed that we had done enough.  We drove off into the murk and quite violent wind, as the rain came down harder and harder.

The hangar secured we say goodnight to the fleet

So this was the first outing of the Wednesday Windies.  No flying, but much maintenance work was achieved, due to the continuing poor weather (Ed: The Met Office is hinting that there might be a change in the weather as the jet stream experiences retrogression and the onset of higher pressure following mostly continuing wet weather with mild temperatures).

Gavin Short