Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 26th February 2023

Forecast for today gave moderate ENE veering easterly and chances of soaring early afternoon. In reality  the wind had a greater northerly component and was gusting more than was predicted in the forecasts. With only a small crew assembled at the club we decided to try to fly and set the field ready to fly.

First launch was Matthew Stone and myself. A rather bumpy ride up the launch, some turbulence in the air and another bumpy ride down the approach made the decision to stand down and wait to see if conditions moderated rather an easy one.

K13 returns.

Returning to the clubhouse for teas, coffees and warmth, new member Zen was in the simulator to learn pre-flight checks with Ed Borlase. We also took chance to cancel the two trial flights for today. Richard had brought up some new signs to adorn the new winch and the new ex-navy K13's, so Richard and I set about sticking them on.

New winch waiting for the return of it's gearbox.

K13 FGR with new logo.

K13 FSD with new logo.

Unbeknown, even the club secretary got in on the act:-

Yes somebody did tell him.

Having consumed lunch, conditions not improving and based on the stage of trainees, I took the hard decision to cancel club training for the day. Having earlier rigged his Open Cirrus, Steve Fletcher decided to exercise his licensed self authorising rights to take a launch. This proved a good decision as he managed to stay aloft for just over an hour.

Open Cirrus being rigged.

Off Steve goes.

Steve's view of the Tamar valley.

A view of the airfield from Brentor Church.

So yes I may have been over cautious, but considering what was beneficial for trainees probably acceptable. Thank you to all at the club, particularly those who did not fly and stayed to allow Steve to fly and help him de-rig after.

Peter Howarth.

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 22 February 2023

Yesterday's mild weather in the warm sector gave way to the cold front during the night.  So the temperature was noticeably cooler today in the north westerly wind. The rain showers forecast for the day made their appearance in the form of Granite Snow (hail), to use the Met Office term.

"The Force is strong with those that get DI for glider in rain"

So a chance to continue work on K-8, FXB, and finish off the annual inspection. Last Saturday Sean and I installed the new floorboard that Colin had made after Sean had covered it with the same non-slip material as used on the new floorboard in K-13, FSD (Ed: Aren't we getting posh!). Adam and Colin had been working on both wings. Today we had a chance to admire their work.

So who is Yoda in this picture?

Wings duly admired, Colin and I continued to work on FXB's wings and were assisted later on by late arrival Alasdair Barclay.  Scratch continued welding and grinding on the AMF trailer.  Dave Bourchier serviced and made up spare wheels for the glider tyre cabinet and worked on the winch drogue parachutes.

Mike Jardine and Hugh Gascoyne were the Duty Instructor and the Basic Instructor today, respectively. But Hugh didn't have any visitors booked to fly so he didn't have to cancel anyone due the forecast of on and off rain and low cloud.  But after some ground lectures for today's trainees Guy and Andrew (Ed: Andrew sadly had to depart before getting to fly) we went flying. With low cloud, showers, a damp airfield; we just got K-13, FSD, out.

Daily inspection complete, FSD heads up to the cross track before turning right (Ed: No first class treatment for FSD today then?)

Mike flew three training flights with Guy; straight flying, trimming.  Guy reports that his flying got progressively worse as the wind increased (Ed:  So the first flight was a fluke then?).  Mike then gave Steve Fletcher a flight in the rear seat as preparation for his Introductory Flight Pilot rating.  Steve soared for 12 minutes and then had to leave the airfield to attend to some club paperwork at home having bagged what was thought to be the longest flight of the day (Ed: That jinxed it then).

The predicted showers present DGS members with a rainbow

Guy prepares to "fly straight and in trim"

He starts to rotate

And then enters the full climb

Initially conditions weren't that promising aloft

But that doesn't deter Guy from practising his straight flying

The view to the east

Recency flights were flown with Mike Bennett, John Smith and Hugh Gascoyne (the latter from the rear seat).  Peter  took a pair of solo flights too.

John prepares to aviate

The view to the north dappled in winter sunshine

And then one could see the sea to the south

The distinctive shape and colour of Blackdown

This was a typical sky today as seen from the ground

The sun did breakthrough on occasion (Ed: I see that the Fleet Manager still hasn't received the email about the DGS standard car colour.  To misquote Henry Ford "...any colour as long as it is white").

The afternoon presented a curious mixture of low cloud streets and thermic activity

Hugh stands ready to launch FSD again

This cloud street ran all the way to Princetown and was laden with hail showers.

As seen from the winch.  Alastair launches to make use of the enticing cloud street to achieve the "flight of the day"

Elwood (front seat): It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.   Jake (Rear seat):Hit it.

 The soaring pilot's view of the runway (Ed: Are you sure its still February!)

When the work in hangar was nearing completion we sent Alasdair up to the launch point to fly. He had a set of three flights including a soaring flight in the north west- south east street that had set up which ran all the way to Princetown on the moors.  Nineteen minutes of soaring to a height of 2,100 feet AGL allowed him to claim "Man of the match".  It went down hill after that with a short circuit followed by a launch into an approaching hail storm.  The instructor had planned a hangar landing with Alasdair lapping up the details of the need for a different circuit, the need for a different reference point, and the need for a different stopping point by the cross track.  Mike's pep talk must have been convincing as, with the hail starting to bounce off the canopy and a glance to the other instructor on the field (Ed:  Ahh! That was what the gesticulation was all about), he promptly gave Alasdair a practice launch failure and a land ahead (Ed: So it was still a hangar landing then, but I will concede that these instructors can be tricky! But well done Alasdair for flying it and getting it back on the ground in a timely fashion). 

Alasdair maintaining a good lookout as he tops out at 2,100 feet AGL under the cloud street.

Late in the day we welcomed temporary member Valerie Keily, who I flew on 21 January, back to the airfield.  She had come to take some photos (Ed: Valerie, if you had put your name on the flying list you could have flown today...).

Our club diplomat magnanimously offers Valerie a lift back to the clubhouse, after the last launch, in his green machine

And so we packed up which was a quick evolution with only one glider to put away.  I loaded three rubbish bags into my car for disposal at home only to find that the Morrisons "bag for life" contained the remnants of Mike Bennett's lunch.  (Ed: Anyone fancy a very ripe French cheese?).

 

Fifteen flights on a day I had, wrongly, assumed that we wouldn't fly.  The weekend looks promising with high pressure giving clear skies - wrap up warm and don't miss out. 

Why we fly all the year round - for those unexpected days

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 19th February 2023

The continuing moist south-westerly airflow gave the prospect of low cloud early, possibly clearing around lunchtime. So driving to the club today, it was surprising the visibility across the moor was better the forecast. That was until I drove out of Tavistock and climbed up towards the club. The visibility was hazier, but with brightness all around, we were optimistic and set about getting ready to fly. Just after 10 o'clock the sky looked clear enough to take a launch. Sean Westrope and I took off only to find the cloudbase to be about 650ft AGL. So a quick circuit and stand down until the expected clearance arrived.

Sean and I ready to fly.

Two hours ensued where our one day course student, Sue Syson was regailed with stories of gliding and teas and coffees drank, the sky slowly brightened although it was unsure how much the cloudbase had risen. Only one thing for it, Sean and I took another launch. This time 1200ft into clear air. A quick radio call and it was game on for Sue and Richard.

Richard and Sue watching a launch.

And off they go

By the end of the day Sue had thoroughly enjoyed her day which included a 27 minute soaring flight, which was flight of the day.

Sue receiving her certificate.

After Sean's flights, training continued with Matthew Stone. His first approaches and landings at the east end were well handled. With a few more these should be improved on over the coming weeks.

Matthew getting ready.

Next to fly with me was Steve Fletcher. Steve flew from the back seat to continue his IFP training ready for assessment later in the summer. With all the trainees having flown and it being late afternoon, the K13's were given up for the solo pilots to fly. Andy Davey, Ed Borlase, John Smith, Phil Hardwick and myself all enjoyed time in the air to maintain currency.

Ed Borlase ready to fly.

Johns Smith

Phil Hardwick

K13 Returns.

A delayed start, but 23 flights achieved and everybody flew. Thank you to all at the club to enable this to happen.

Peter Howarth

Dartmoor Gliding News- The Blog Comes of Age with a Half a Million Page views

This week the blog reached an all time total of HALF A MILLION page views (500,550 at the time of writing) and I though this would be a good time to thank all of our readers for their support. It is the readers that make the effort worthwhile.

This would also be a good time to thank all the contributors for their efforts. These include regular writers Don Puttock, Bob Pirie, Martin Cropper, Peter Howarth, Gavin Short and myself Steve Lewis (as writer, editor and sometime referee).

These are just the headliners. Many club members supply their stories of their own flights or have written the occasional day report. Many more supply the photos that have become such an important part of our story. My sincere thanks to you all. Please keep up the good work.

Steve Lewis

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 15 February 2023

This morning, from the warmth of my duvet and a mug of tea on the bedside table, I perused the weather forecasts for the day.  RASP, Skysight, yr.no, and even the Met Office were in agreement: Low cloudbase, warm moist air giving poor visibility, rain starting late morning and intensifying, and then by late afternoon a clearance.

When I arrived at the clubhouse the Duty Instructor, Peter Howarth, and the Duty Basic Instructor, Phil Hardwick, were deep in conversation concerning the plans for the day.  Sensibly, I put the tea on! The result of the conversation was that when the first One Day Course phoned in Phil had to gently let them down and tell then that we weren't flying.  The second One Day Course was presumed missing in action as nothing was heard... Hopefully they will rebook and we will see them soon (Ed: You are upbeat today. You do realise that its mid February and still winter?)

This was the view at 1530.  It didn't look that good at 1000 hence no photo!

So that means that the good news for those glider pilots who are unable to digest news that is longer than 280 characters (Ed: Do catch up at the back it increased from 140 characters in 2017) is that today's blog will be shorter than normal.

After Andy briefed the privateers on the status of their parachute packing, and that there was only one trainee, Matthew Stone, a practical demonstration, rather than a classroom lecture was devised (Ed: Otherwise known as we need to change the cables on the winch and everyone is to help).  

The pick up was manoeuvred on to the apron where a roll of winch cable was manhandled out of the hangar and loaded on to the custom made reel holder in the back of the pick up.  Meanwhile, the winch was taken up the field ready to dispense and receive cables.

The nifty cable reel mount that we inherited from Predannack ATC (Ed: What a great bit of kit)

To be brief, as those particular readers must be flagging by now as I have exceeded their 280 character limit: One cable off, one cable on, second cable off, second cable on.  Old cable chopped up and placed in blue barrel. Job done.

An unidentified flying object is spotted over the hangar later in the afternoon (Ed: Have the Pentagon commented yet?)

Scratch had been busy earlier rebuilding the brake master cylinder for the cable drums on the winch.  Apparently the master cylinder is from a 1932 Morris 10 (Ed: A likely tale! Statistically its most likely to be from a Mini, the original and not the ersatz German one.)

With almost no trainees today Scratch explains the workings of a 1932 Morris 10 brake master cylinder (Ed:  No one can complain that the lectures at DGS are not diverse)

In the hangar Colin and I continued working on the annual inspection of K-8, FXB. Before that I busied myself with some small but important jobs on the K-13 fleet.

After lunch Colin completed his inspection of FXB's fuselage and then roped Richard into touching up the fuselage tubing (Ed: What are you thinking?  Clearly living in a world described in 280 characters has clearly rotted your brain!) with ubiquitous grey paint. 

I rebuilt FXB's tailplane and elevators whilst giving the paint a tidy up. Reapplication of the mylar strips and fitting the split pins will have to wait until Saturday by when the touch up paint will be dry.  Richard was inspired by his painting and our Strategic Planning discussion held across the hangar by setting to and painting the cockpit edges of CCY and FGR (Ed: In grey obvs!).

Open canopy!  The scene in the hangar after Richard's painting frenzy

By now members were starting to slip away followed closely by Richard.  Colin and I tidied up, packed up, and locked up, by about 1530.  Of course the sky was starting to brighten and the cloudbase lifted as we started the drive home.

Andy, in a magnanimous mood, leaves his second sandwich and a banana for the Saturday crew when they arrive (Ed: I am sure that they will be nicely ripe by then!)

No flying today but good preparatory work on the winch and glider maintenance progressed for when we can soar again  FXB's annual inspection will continue on Saturday with a focus on the second wing.

Gavin Short