Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 17th December 2022

Murphy's Law states that if something can go wrong. it will go wrong. Step up eternal optimist Mr Finagle who added that if something can go wrong it will and at the worst possible time. Today felt like that.

Overnight rain fell onto the sub zero ground and created a lot of ice. The hangar apron was more suitable for dancing the "Bolero" rather than handling aircraft and as the cloudbase was low it was decided that the first glider in the hangar, K13 G-CFSD, would be derigged ready for it's annual inspection before attempting to remove the rest of the gliders. Normally derigging a K13 takes maybe 15 to 20 minutes. 

All proceeded normally until our friend Finagle made an appearance; the main pins were jammed in the wings and no amount of persuasion was going to shift them. I confidently stated that all we needed was the purpose made extractor and all would be well. After finding said extractor it turns out that the K13 main pins are not threaded to accept the extractor bolt and neither a suitable tap to thread the hole nor a bolt to match was available. Our saviour today was member John Allan who managed to fashion a suitable extractor using 2 fitting plates from an old trailer, a couple of lengths of threaded bar and part of the existing extractor. 

Working on the main pins

Perhaps waggling the wings will help?

John's extractor with the trailer tow hitch it cam from

By now a couple of hours had passed. The advantage of this was that the hangar apron had defrosted and handling aircraft was once more a safe option and the hangar could be unpacked. While all the fun was happening in the hangar, today's Instructor Mike Jardine had used the time to further the ground training for a couple of our pre-solo pilots. After a quick cut of tea it was off to the west end launchpoint for some aviation.

The briefing in the clubhouse

The overcast had evaporated and the SE breeze seemed to be setting up an east west wave system the main bar or which was tantilizingly out of reach, downwind to the north. I contemplated a downwind dash to this wave bar but the landout options are not good to the north until you get to the A30 some 5-6 miles distant and common sense ruled out that option.

The wave bar to the north

The K13 lifts off into a tempting sky

Coming off the launch most pilots found a very narrow wave bar immediately to the south which permitted the flights to be extended somewhat. Best flight today was by John Smith who managed 15 minutes in the K8. Mike put  K13 G-CFGR to good use fitting in as many training flights as possible until the bad light stopped play - it is only 4 days to the Winter Solstice so the days are about as short as they get.

Bad light stopped play

At the end of the afternoon the Twin Astir syndicate arrived complete with their newly refinished aircraft and there was a rush to get it rigged and installed in it's T hangar.  

The Twin Astir being rigged from it's open trailer

We made the best of the day despite the visit from Finagle.

Steve