The weather gods were teasing us after two flying days by presenting us with a grey and damp Wednesday.
To be fair, Skysight had been forecasting today's weather consistently for a while; the dew point temperature and the air temperature would be over overlapping
each other for most of the day. And so it was; misty and foggy driving in from Cornwall with the River Tamar obscured by fog looking across from St. Anns Chapel and when descending in to Gunnislake to cross the New Bridge (Ed: That's a bit of a misnomer as the bridge was built in AD 1520) I was greeted by a wall of fog.
But as I approached the gliding club Brentor church became visible above the fog. The runway was clear for about an hour until the Duty Instructor, Mike "Jonah" Jardine, arrived and conducted his pitch inspection. Then the mist and then fog rolled in and stayed there the rest of the day.
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| This is the tantalising sight that encouraged Mike to go and inspect the airfield (Ed: In the end it was just a piece of "Fool's Gold"). |
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When the dew point altitude is less that the altitude of the airfield you get this throughout the day
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Lots of jobs were soon under way after members had been suitably fuelled with tea and doughnuts. Trailers were moved into position, or repositioned to the east end, to improve access and make ready for a new glider that is expected on site in February. All I can say now is that it is glass, it is very shiny, and it has flaps (Ed: Oh, you tease). After these trailer movements the DGS trailer map was updated to allow our treasurers to collect the correct amount of trailer rent.
Our new (Ed: To us) winch was also repositioned in anticipation of fitting the repaired gearbox when it arrives in February.
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A optimistic privateer airs his trailer
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The main job today was filling a large skip with all the accumulated scrap and to get it taken to Sanders and son, our local scrapyard (Ed: As well as paying us for our scrap metal the scrap yard is a known thermal source not far from the end of the runway). This work was directed by Mike Bennett, our site manager, who separately took a load of aluminium to the scrap yard in his van. There was a sweep stake on how much weight in ferrous metal we had actually collected. (Ed: Hopefully we can publish the results next week).
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| After a lot of work we filled the skip. So how much in kilograms (Ed: Kgs, because we are all thoroughly modern at DGS) of ferrous metal did we collect? |
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The debris by the skip was not broken glass but inch-thick ice.
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Meanwhile some of our trainees enjoyed another cup of tea and a ground school lecture in the club house (Ed: I note that conveniently the wood burner was chucking out plenty of heat by then!). It was good to see logs being moved to the ready use locker outside the clubhouse from the log store (Ed: I have seen the forecast cold snap in February so we will be ready).
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The hookloader drags the skip on to the the rear of the lorry.
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In the hangar Colin was directing work on K-13 FSD, which is nearing the end of its annual inspection and Airworthiness Review Check. There was other work taking place in the glider workshop too.
In the clubhouse Guy Balmer was getting to grips with the simulator. It was clear that his real life training has not yet progressed to landing (Ed: Condor 2 has some impressive and realistic "terminal" sound effects).
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Mike chats with the driver of the 12 tonne Hookloader "Phoebe Margaret" before he departs the site.
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On the hangar apron the yellow cable trailer was washed down and one of the safety wire stays was replaced.
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| DGS dressmakers in action. Colin, Hugh, and Phil (obscured) work on the fitting of K-13, FSD's new skirt |
Later in the afternoon after finishing the new harness installation in K-8 GHK, and some ironing (Ed: I promise I won't tell your wife) of ceconite fabric and dope application on a repaired elevator, I ventured into the hangar to be greeting by a strange sight. I just had to ask the question...
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| Q: Why is there a shoe on the tailplane of FXB? A: Because its on a trainer flight (Ed: Groan!) |
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| The site cleared of scrap. (Ed: Its looking good). Just some ice remains. |
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| The winter storms have taken their toll on our ATOM antennas (Ed: The ATOM receives electronic conspicuity signals, such as FLARM, and retransmits them and also put the data on the internet for aviation applications e.g. Glide and Seek, Flight Radar 24) |
The final Wednesday Workers packed up and left at 1500. Leaving plenty of time for those who wished to partake of the wee timorous beastie this evening: There may have been some of them scuttling about in the fog today but we didn't see them (Ed: Have you been at the whisky already? You are mixing up your Scottish animals!).
To get those who do partake into the mood here is the first verse of the traditional address:
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang ‘s my arm.
Fingers crossed for a weather window on Saturday to fly. (Ed: While we are in a wishing mode, and we fly German gliders, we will add the German equivalent expression "Thumbs pressed" for good luck).
Gavin Short
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