Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 5th March 2023

The forecast for light north-westerly wind. overcast sky and a small probability of some rain late afternoon, the only question was would we have enough hands to fly. With some of the sunday soarers away at Denbigh the early arrivals settled down to morning teas and coffees to await for others to arrive. Slowly pilots arrived and with enough to fly we set about setting the field up to fly from the east end. No booked visitors, so only one K13 was required.

After a quick briefing at the launch point, Sean Westrope was first to fly with me. The benign conditions allowed Sean to gain confidence that he could smoothly control the glider and even start practicing approach control ready to fully take control of the landing.

Sean getting strapped in.

Next to fly with me was Matthew Stone who recently started struggling with approaches and landings, mainly due to the recent more turbulent conditions. Today with calm conditions we took a step back to break down the approaches into individual parts. On the third flight Matthew flew the complete flight with a perfect approach and landing which boosted his confidence no end.

Matthew ready to go.

And off he goes.

Ed Borlase took a couple of solo flights whilst I had a bit of lunch.

Ed on approach.

Ed then swapped positions with Gavin Short on the winch. This enabled Gavin to use his BI skills to fly with new member Roman Walczyk.

Roman and Gavin doing pre-flight checks.

K13 in circuit.

The last trainee to fly with me was Danny Surgeon. Danny is also starting to fly the approaches. First flight a demonstration of undershoot and overshoot to recognise each situation. The second flight was to pick out a good reference point and start controlling the approach towards it. A slight dampness in the air indicated the possible approaching rain in the forecast. At the top of the launch it was obvious the rain was more imminent than we thought. So a quick inflight re-brief to point out a new reference point towards the west end so we could do a hangar landing. Danny coped well with this change of plan and should quickly move on in the coming weeks.

With the K13 and equipment packed away the only thing to do was to erect the hurdle fence. A careful note to those doing this job, make sure you are the right side of the fence when the last panel is put in place.

We will let you out Wednesday if we fly.

All trainees left having each made individual gains today. In the hangar Adam and Colin had been working on the K8 and Ed's K6.

An interloper in the hangar.

Thanks to those at the club and for all sharing the tasks to enable flying to be done.

Peter Howarth