Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 26 April 2023

So as not to jinx it there will be no mention of weather forecasts today as the last five Wednesdays have been wash outs (Ed: Do we need to change Wednesday's Duty Instructor from Mike "Jonah" Jardine?).

I was first at the club today and put he kettle on (Ed: "First things first").  Scratch arrived and continued his work in the AMF trailer. I provided him with another tin of Hammerite paint (Ed: Well, one has to support the workers!).  Peter and helpers empted his trailer of its long wings and arranged them on trestles on the hangar apron. This was in anticipation of visiting BGA inspector, Ian Mitchell, arriving to conduct an annual inspection and Airworthiness Review Check of the mighty Kestrel.

Golly, those wings are long! (Ed: Peter does the BGA Inspector charge more for having to inspect more real estate than us mere mortals with our piddly 15 metre wingspans?)

All the pieces are arranged for inspection (Ed: Is that a shy K-8 hiding at the back embarrassed with this ostentatious display of shapely GRP?)

The trainees today were David Moorley and Valerie Kiely.  Steve Lesson, although post solo, was due some refresher flights.  Nobly, he volunteered to be the first winch driver.

The wind was from the South East and necessitated the winch to set wind vectors of 6, and later, 9 knots (Ed: This is the component of the wind down the runway to allow the computer-controlled Supacat winch to deliver the right speed on the ground run and the start of the launch). Mike Jardine and Hugh Gascoyne took a launch in CCY and found some rotor and climbed to 1,300 ft at the leading edge of a cloud whose cloud base was at 1,150 ft.  The conditions were deemed OK for the K-8 and the trial flight at 1300 to fly.

Privateers started to rig their gliders. Phil and Robin brought their Twin Astir to the launch point.  By then we had two aircraft (CCY and GDK) enjoying the wave for extended flights. Steve Fletcher changed his plans and rigged his Open Cirrus too.

John Allan was the first pilot in the K-8 and flew for 38 minutes achieving a maximum height 4,333 ft above the airfield.

Having returned from their weather check flight Mike and Hugh get John Allan ready to launch in the K-8, FXB.

John's view of Mary Tavy through the direct vision panel of the K-8

If you didn't have a moving map in your glider the broken nature of the wave meant one had to have one's wits about your to ensure your location.  Here is John's, no doubt, reassuring sight of the east end of the airfield.

John climbing at over four knots up the face of the cloud (Ed: The wind is from the left to right in this shot)

John spies trainee David Moorley and Mike Jardine in the K-13 well below him. David enjoyed his longest flight to date (28 minutes) during the early stages of his flight training.

And here is Mike's proof that it was David climbing in the wave  (Ed: Its "Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey" when you are flying in wave).

While David was busy concentrating on climbing Mike contemplated the view of Tavistock and the very non-standard wave picture before him

David's workload was high as he traversed the front of the wave bar, to exploit the rising air, as it included some navigation; "Where am I with relation to the airfield?"  (Ed:  In the bottom left of the picture is the launch bus at the east end of the runway.  Phew!)

John's view was that it wasn't your classical wave also - But wave is wave!

After David Moorley's training flight Valerie flew with Mike for 18 minutes and she experienced the strange sensation of flying in wave and being near large clouds for the first time (Ed: This can be unsettling for some.  But as long as you remember that it is only water vapour (just a damp squib really!) it then seems less intimidating).

 

I'd been feeling a bit "Meh" and didn't think that I would fly today.  However, after a drink of water and an egg mayo roll (Ed: And the prospect of  wave) I felt ready to fly the K-8.  A smooth launch took me just to the start of some rotor cloud. I released the cable and was then in clear air and after turning north I was climbing nicely.  I am not sure if was proper wave or benign rotor (Ed: Perhaps it was the fabled orographic lift interacting with the hydraulic jump caused by the Mavy Tavy valley) but it was definitely working.

Whatever it was, the front of each cloud worked handsomely (Ed: A good naval expression there) and I was able to work the lift between 1,900 ft and 2,300 ft.  Often, I saw Phil and Robin below me.  I topped out at 2,750 ft QFE and I saw in the distance the Twin Astir had finally climbed higher than me (Ed: Well done chaps but where were you with respect to Willswothy range as you were a long way upwind?).  I headed north to the end of the wave clouds and turned west making use of the expected sink to traverse the length of Blackdown before heading home and joining the circuit.  What a great flight of 1 hour 4 minutes.

Steve Fletcher's view of the Twin Astir in the wave. "I did wave to you chaps, but I didn’t see you wave back!" (Ed: Groan)

Steve Fletcher proved to be "Man of the Match" today.  I'll let him describe his adventure:

"Having decided I was going to do some back seat flying in preparation for IFP training my plans changed when both the K-13 and K-8 took off straight into wave. I then managed to persuade Hugh to help me rig my glider but it wasn’t until 1200 that I managed to get airborne by which time the wave had changed. Thanks to my new TOST hook I got a great launch to 1,350 feet. I then struggled in 1/2 a knot up but after 15 minutes I managed to scrabble up to 1, 500 feet but things improved and once past 2,000 feet it was so much easier. For most of the flight the wave topped out at around 3,200 feet QFE but later I did manage 3,450 feet. The wave continued throughout the flight but towards the end it was breaking up with thermals here and there. A great flight in the sun frequently watching Phil and Robin in the Twin Astir and from time to time seeing Gavin in the K-8. Unfortunately some of the best wave was towards the North and over Willsworthy range, which was active, so I couldn’t go there. A nice flight of 2 hrs 36 mins according to my logger."

And then the lift stopped! Steve Fletcher tops out at 3,200 ft QFE  (Ed: Note the vario is reading zero - so the glider is still in rising air but its not strong enough to lift the Open Cirrus any higher). 

Steve  returns to the airfield in his Open Cirrus

Back at the clubhouse the team inspecting Peter's Kestrel broke for lunch.  Richard turned up having been to Dunkerswell to collect a trailer full of spares for our Supacat winches (Ed; So your SUV earned it keep then?  Thanks for the trip).  I offered him a flight in the K-8 as a reward but sadly he declined. 

I then drove the winch and observed the K-13 thermalling conventionally where the lift was expected.  The conditions had changed. There was a steady cloud base with sunlight coming through the gaps in the clouds in the east.  The cap clouds over the moors were still present but had risen since the morning. However, (Ed: You were going to start the sentence with "But" weren't you? Your English teacher would have been ashamed of you!) the accompanying blue hole in the cloud cover stayed resolutely in position tempting the pilots yet to fly to give it a go and try and connect with the wave. 

The blue hole marking "down wave" before the "up wave" cloud at the top of the picture occurring over the site

This is the view looking up the field moments later. The uniform grey sheet of cloud seems to promise very little

Today's visitor was Kate Gasior, who few with Hugh, the Duty Introductory Flight pilot.  Kate is from Poland and is a fitness instructor based in Plymouth for the summer.  Kate had a circuit, a cable break, and then a second flight with Hugh.  She told us that she enjoyed both flights - especially the launch failure! Although they didn't connect with the wave, judging by the beaming smile it looks like she took it all in her stride.  Following her experience she hopes to bring her dad to the club at a later date (Ed:Witaj, ojcze).

Hats and Shades.  Visitor Kate Gasior and IFP Hugh Gascoyne ready for their first flight together#

Kate is certified, after two flights and a cable break!

Steve Lesson, flying the K-13 solo, on approach

After a prolonged delay, due to sorting cables on the south drum of the winch, we resumed flying with John Allan taking a few short flights in the K-8 and Mike putting Steve Lesson through some re-familarisation flights concluding (Ed: Of course) with a practice launch failure at 500 feet causing Steve to go around and make a modified circuit (Ed: I thought that the winch driver judged that perfectly).  Then Mike sent Steve solo for two flights.  In one Steve managed to soar for ten minutes (Ed:  So you haven't forgotten everything over the winter then!)

Mike took a solo flight in CCY at the end of the day (Ed:  Instructors have to maintain their solo hours) and showed Steve how its done with a 12 minute flight at 1630.

So a great day's flying and unexpected conditions (Mrs Ed:  "So do you really need to pay those subscriptions to those gliding weather sites then?")  Eighteen flights and 8 hours 23 minutes of flying.   Currency restored for some including Robin who flew for 2 hours 10 minutes with Phil, but Robin did most of the flying.  Not bad for a grey overcast day when people expected the day to be "Meh"  (Ed:  Well done. You didn't mention the weather forecast once and so the conditions turned out alright).

Gavin Short