Dartmoor Gliding News - Friday 7 April 2023 - Good Friday

It was a crisp morning on the drive to the club and I enjoyed views down to the south of the Hamoaze wreathed in low-lying fog.  The fog was also nestling further up the Tamar valley at the crossing at New Bridge, at Gunnislake (Ed: In this part of Cornwall 1520 AD is still classed as new!)  The club was open on Good Friday.  The first of four days of flying (Ed: Hopefully) over the Easter weekend.  Today was going to be "solo pilots only" which sounds great except when all the solo pilots are flying who can launch us?  With that philosophical question in my head I arrived at the club.

I arrived early but I wasn't the first to arrive.  Equipment was being prepared and although the hangar doors were open the club gliders weren't moving.  The action was in the rigging area in front of the rack (Ed: Do you mean the trailer park?).  Although today would be solo pilots only, Peter Howarth was the Duty Instructor to run the field which was needed for those solo pilots who were not yet self-authorising.  His presence was hardly required as the conditions forecast were benign.

Privateers rigging in the morning dew

A gaggle of single seaters just itching to fly

Phil rigs his DG 300 with his nifty one-man rigging aid (Ed: So why does it take five people to use it?)

The Port wing is offered up (Ed: I get it now.  This is the precision bit so less glider pilots are needed to assist or rather mess it up).

The K-6s start to add some colour to the sea of white

CCY comes out to play too

Although Scratch and Rick's Standard Cirrus was rigged early today their morning was taken up servicing both club vehicles  (Ed: A well-needed job.  Thanks guys). 

The "Terrible Twins" get oily servicing the retrieve vehicle

When the gliders had been moved to the launch point at the west end, the first four gridded, and lunch consumed, did the thoughts turn to flying (Ed: To be fair in the blue there was no evidence of thermal activity or even soaring birds.  Just because the Government had moved the clocks forward it didn't mean that the sun had been warming the ground for that extra hour.  So we had to wait until after midday).

In the meantime there was other activity on the site.

Mid-morning and our BGA Inspector arrives in style in the sunshine (Ed: By the windswept look of his toupee he hasn't been dawdling down the Devon country lanes this morning).

A Triumph TR4a resplendent in the sunshine.  Colin maintains this beauty as well as the club fleet (Ed: So which is older, the TR4a or the DGS gliders?)

How would this milky, high cloud affect the solar heating that we all craved?

"Well, I am ready.  Why are we all hanging about?"

The DGS Maintenance Team had started work, Al Fresco, in the wonderful sunshine

The job for the day was to prepare the recently re-hinged ailerons from GDK to be ready for paint

After that leisurely lunch the privateers got going.  Phil was first up followed by Andy who reported three and a half knots of lift in the blue.  Then Steve Fletcher in the Open Cirrus followed by Malcolm solo in the Twin Astir.  Alas, the latter two "Fell down" as they encountered heavy sink and had to land.

The conditions were all blue despite some early hints of some cumulus developing.  The high level cloud appeared to be degrading some of the thermal activity, or at least making it intermittent at best.

The front of today's grid (Ed: It's a Tupperware party!)

Unfortunately Peter's Kestrel had a small defect with the Flarm (Ed: Anti-collision warning system) so the launch order was shuffled.  When the problem was sorted Peter launched but returned after nine minutes also having failed to find lift (Ed: So the day was proving more tricky than forecast).

We were joined by Andrew Downing, our Treasurer designate, who is a trainee but magnaimously helped out with the launching of the solo pilots which was much appreciated.  After the Twin Astir launched we heard the downwind radio call of the Open Cirrus.  Time was marching on and we were working down the flying list (Ed:  Well working down the launching list would be a better description).

Time for the rainbow boys in their K-6s to show how it's done

In the Launch Point I spied one of the new club parachutes.  Doesn't it look smart? (Ed: This is part of the rolling replacement programme)

Then Adam Hoskin and Ed Borlase had a go in their K6s. Adam "got away" whilst Ed suffered an instrumentation defect and landed to rectify before preparing for a "re-light"  (Ed: It's good to see that the start of season niggles and gremlins are being sorted out).

Edward Borlase pre-flights his K-6, EWO.  (Ed: Edward so where is your own parachute or did you want to be very patriotic today with a Red, White and Blue combo?)

Having observed Adam's canny timing I took a launch in CNN, my Standard Cirrus.  After a launch to 1,200 ft I found some lift and then headed off downwind to Meldon Reservoir which is near Okehampton Army camp.

Roadford lake and the north coast viewed from the north of Dartmoor

There were some cumulus clouds over the moor so I headed for them.  When I got there they were working but surprisingly turbulent.  Not a pleasant place to be.  When I had climbed enough I turned back and headed for Brentor.

CNN heads home back into 10 knots of headwind and exploits the lines of energy while flying in a straight line

My highest climb was to 4,500ft AGL.  At that altitude, which is 5,300ft QNH (above sea-level), the VHF radio conditions were very good.  The airwaves were busy and I could hear cross-country pilots at turnpoints near Oxford.  Our very own Richard Roberts was also audible on the airwaves undertaking a modest cross-country task from North Hill to South Molton and back.  He later reported that he flew for 2 hours 20 minutes.  The task was 93 km but the weather was not as advertised and he also experienced that the thermals were late to get going also (Ed: I told you it's all due to this BST malarkey).

Tavistock is expanding.  Look at the size of new estate emerging to the south (i.e. in the direction of the Hamoaze) of the town.

As a thank you Scratch took Dave Bourchier up in K-13, CCY following his hard work in the hangar and they soared for just over an hour.

Peter took a relaunch, broke a weak link and the stop landed in the south field, but he managed to get away (Ed:  If you "got away" I think your launch doesn't get discounted for the weak link failure!).  After two hours of soaring he returned to base.

A Kestrel's eye view to the south of the tidal sections of the Lynher and Tamar rivers feeding the Hamoaze estuary

Peter, Mike Jardine, and Alasdair Barclay has been to North Hill yesterday (Thursday) to undergo spin training.  Peter and Mike as a part of their five-yearly Flight Instructor check and Alasdair for his initial spin training.  (Ed: Alasdair reports that when the Perkoz goes, boy does it go!)

What a difference a day makes.  This was Peter's view of Devon and Somerset Gliding Club's tug on Thursday.  Photo credit to DSGC's Instructor Chris Wooly who was obviously relaxed with Peter's aerotow skills (Ed:  Those cloud streets look lovely).

Our "home grown" CFI, just loves instructing.  Although we weren't meant to be making training flights today he took Andrew up and consolidated Andrew's coordinated turns (Ed: And knocked off some of his winter rustiness I hear) for Andrew's longest flight to date (30 minutes).

In summary:  Today we made just 15 flights but clocked up a total of 20 hours 24 minutes of flight time.  The average flight time was 1 hour 22 minutes.  Of those flights 11 were soaring flights for a total of 20 Hours 1 minute which gives the average soaring flight an impressive, considering the milky top cover throughout most of the day, 1 hour 49 minutes (Ed: So you let the side down by only soaring for 1 hour 42 minutes in CNN!).

On the field and in the air today we had eight single-seater privateers, one double-seater privateer being flown solo, and CCY, one of the club's K-13s.

But behind the facts and figures we all had a wonderfully relaxed day of soaring.  Special thanks should go to Mike Bennett who decided not to fly as he was suffering from a chest cold (Ed:  The "IM SAFE" mnemonic is a useful check that one is OK to fly, or not in Mike's case) but nobly winched for most of the day.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Who was the "Man of the match"?  Andy with 3 hours 2 minutes followed closely by Malcolm (2 hours 45 minutes), and then Phil (2 hours 42 minutes).  Rick had just over two hours (Ed: Despite claiming to be unable to thermal to the left satisfactorily in his Standard Cirrus) just pipping Peter's 2 hours.  Great stuff.  Roll on the Easter long weekend.

Gavin Short