Dartmoor Gliding News - Bank Holiday Monday 29th May 2023

Bank Holiday Monday (Ed: Another one!). The airfield was open today but it was NRI (No Rated Instructor) so only licensed pilots could fly.  Perhaps due to the recent expeditions, extensive soaring at DGS, and the plethora of Bank Holidays in May almost all DGS pilots stayed away.

Could the Fleet Manager's car be a clue as why DGS pilots were a tad Bank Holiday weary today?

Adam and Andrew, the "Night Owl", were at the club today.  On Sunday afternoon we had removed the fuselage of the SF-27A, FLZ, from its trailer so that Adam could start the annual inspection and the additional work required. This includes changing the rudder cables to ensure that the swages are "BGA correct".  When Colin, our BGA inspector, returns he will check Adam's work before issuing the Airworthiness Renewal Certificate.

So Adam's switching of targets indicates that our second K-8 is finally ready to be rigged and put back into service.  So on a Saturday a small work party will be required to rig it and then Adam and I will conduct the control deflection checks.

Adam starts work on the SF-27A. Note the BGA inspector's trademark head torch
(Ed: I see Colin has taught you well)

Apart from providing moral support for Adam in his work Andrew set about making sure that the club was ready for the forthcoming Expedition to Brentor from the Devon and Somerset Gliding Club.  This has has proved to be very popular and the North Hillites now plan to visit us on three days; Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  DSGC are bringing their own instructors, including Mark Courtney, our old CFI (Ed: Surely he's not that old is he?), who have flown from Brentor before so that they can introduce their colleagues to the site.

So the club house was tidied.  Visiting pilot forms printed and a modified flying list, to include the details of the visiting gliders, prepared.  The "Tea Swindle" has been restocked with supplies including soft drinks and water as it looks as if the weather is set fair for next weekend.  Two strops with black weak links have been built up and spare black links  placed in the weak link box (Ed: North Hill's K-21 uses a black weak link whereas our K-13s use brown links).  Andrew also checked the launch point computer and had a run through of the logging of multiple visiting pilots and handling the associated billing arrangements for our visitors for which we have reciprocal membership arrangements.

Although we have a further chance for preparations on Wednesday we do need to have some more DGS volunteers to help run the field on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday should not be a problem as they are normal DGS flying days.  So even if you are available for just half a day on Friday please step forward and to help DGS give our gliding colleagues from DSGC a warm Dartmoor welcome.  (Ed: And here is the carrot) DGS members will have a chance to fly in a K-21 as DSGC have very kindly offered us the opportunity of some flights in their K-21 that they are bringing (Ed:  Hands up who hasn't got a K-21 flight in their log book.  Here's your chance).  DGS club aircraft, and of course privateers' gliders, will also be available to be flown.

This could be you!

Despite having a long chat about the preparations for the DSGC Expedition there is one item I haven't raised with Andrew yet; that is where is the nearest Costa Coffee outlet, or would it be possible to get a mobile unit on site, to satisfy the caffeine pangs of our former CFI so that the DSGC Expedition goes well?

So no flying today but definite steps towards more more flying in the near future.

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 28th May 2023

Arriving slightly later than normal, I was greeted with two K13's and the K8 already extracted from the hangar. All were being DI'd ready to fly. A forecast of a light north easterly had the field set up to fly from the west end.

A brace of K13's waiting.

A slight delay to the start saw members help to rig privateers K6's.

K6's being readied.

First to fly with me was David Moult. The first flight saw us look at the zig-zag circuit to help David improve his general judgement whilst planning and flying better circuits. This also gave David chance to practice what to do if he should find himself low in the circuit.

Next to fly with me was Sean Westrope. After his concentrated weeks flying at Aston Down last week, it was obvious that this had greatly improved his all round flying skills. During a 29minute soaring flight we were able to demonstrate the spin off a failed winch launch exercise within the current limitations of the K13. This was good preparation for attending North Hill to complete the spin training part of the syllabus when we can organise this.

Sean climbing through 2500ft.

Today's visitor was Chris Holgate. Chris travelled from Paignton to fly with us today for a One Day Course. Chris works in Information Technology supplies and his young family bought him the voucher as a present.  Chris enjoyed his day and readily admitted that it was quite different from what he expected. He marvelled at the power of the sun and the energy in the atmosphere.  He was also interested in the workings of the simulator when returned to the clubhouse.

Chris Holgate with Gavin.

Chris receiving his certificate.

Another belated present was fulfilled today. Richard had promised hie dad (Terry) a soaring flight for a birthday treat (Ed - I think it was for his 40th). During their 1hour 47minutes they visited both Roadford and Princetown/Dartmoor Prison. At least Terry wasn't involved in a retrieve today.

A K13 visiting Roadford.

And Princetown.

Matthew Stone enjoyed a 45minute soaring flight with me. We looked at the stall increasing with bank and also spin off a failed winch launch similar to Sean. After a introduction to driving the winch, Freddie Colton returned to the launch point to fly. A 53 minute soaring flight saw him get his flying skills back to where they were before going to university last September.

A new winch driver in training.

Freddie's view of the K6 below

Val Kiely flew with Richard to improve her general confidence and flying. After a 24 and 46 minute soaring flight she said she was able to relax more and enjoy her flying. Here general flying improved to the same degree. Well done Val.

Plymouth Sound and Tamar estuary.

Blackdown and airfield viewed from near Tavistock

Our privateers all enjoyed soaring flights. Ed Borlase (K6) 1hour 41 minutes, Adam Hoskin (K6) 1hour 50minutes and flight of the day Phil Hardwick (DG300) 2hour 6minutes.

An enjoyable day at the club. Only 19 flights, but an average of 43 minutes per flight. Thank you all.

Peter Howarth

Saturday's Gliding Club News-27/5/2023

High pressure is still very much in charge. Light NE breeze today with little chance of cloud until late afternoon if at all. So today will be a day of "blue thermals" i.e. thermals with no visible clues. These are conditions that I personally enjoy exploiting; once you believe that there really are thermals out there, they will be where you would expect them to be as there are no cloud shadows to break up the party.

The airfield from the north west at 3,000 feet.

It was somewhat buoyant from the off but early on finding a viable thermal low down was problematic. Late morning the inversion seemed to be capping things off at 2,500ft QFE (above the airfield) but it was rising quickly and by1pm it was more like 4,000ft with thermal cores in the 4-6 knot range. There were lots of interesting flights today. We welcome new member Andrew Berry who began his training with Instructor Mike Jardine. After successful check flights, early solo pilot Alasdair Barclay completed 3 more solo flights in the K13, the best of which was a 28 minute soaring flight. Meanwhile David Archer (another of our early solo pilots) made 3 more flights in the K8 a circuit and 2 short soaring flights.

On Wednesday Martin Broadway achieved 2,200 feet wearing his RNLI cap,
with change of hat today to a soaring hat and he soared to 3,900 feet.

Dave Archer continues to gain experience in the K8

Longest flight today was John Allan in this Mini Nimbus who was airborne for 3 hours and 3 minutes only returning to allow Duty Instructor Mike Jardine to leave the airfield (John is not yet a self-authorising pilot). The only other private glider out today was the Twin Astir which completed 2 flights over 1.5 hours with it's various syndicate members.

Dartmoor is already looking quite dry

John's knees at 4,400 feet in the Mini Nimbus

Visitors today were junior Joshua Mariner and not so junior Tim Langley both with 2 flight vouchers and One Day Course Candidate Michael Haynes. They all left with smiles after enjoying soaring flights.

Junior visitor Joshua with family (and me)

Tim Langley

Today's one day course Michael Haynes with instructor Scratch

An amazing day. Even though the airfield was unusually quiet we managed 24 flights with an average flight time of 35 minutes (this includes the practice cable breaks not just the soaring flights). Great fun

 Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 24th May 2023

It was a morning of gathering things to take up to the club after the Aston Down Expedition last week.  My air chart needed to go back into my glider after cleaning off the Aston Down tasks and refolding it for the Dartmoor region.  Also, as an Official Observer I had prepared the paperwork for John Allan's claim for his silver/gold 5 hours duration that he achieved at Aston Down on the last day.  In the back of my car I had a broken up wooden pallet for further chopping up and putting in the wood store.

First launch was at 0954 from the east end in a northerly cross wind.  First up was our only pre-solo trainee (Ed: Then more were to turn up), Guy Balmer, with Duty Instructor, Mike Jardine. Then Valerie Kiely arrived with Martin Broadway (Ed: Long time, no see!).

Martin Broadway working to get current again found a thermal to take him to 2,200 feet but it took concentration (Ed: Does the RNLI know that you are wearing one of their hats in such a trendy fashion and at such a jaunty angle?).

Meanwhile at the trailer park privateers, John (Mini Nimbus), Andy (Libelle), Steve Fletcher (Open Cirrus), and Phil (DG300) were rigging. At the East end Richard was rigging his Discus.

The privateers arrive at the launch point

Developing skies perhaps?

I was standing in for Hugh Gascoyne as the Duty Basic Instructor for his 1100 visitor, Mike Barrett. Mike came to DGS to take a glider flight as an 80th Birthday present from his eldest daughter.  Mike and his wife Fran hail from Bathpool, near Launceston. He is a former army helicopter pilot who then enjoyed a career in the commercial sector flying helicopters. He had also flown in gliders for four hours but since that was before I was born I discounted it.  We experienced an enjoyable flight and although the thermals were small and broken we managed to hold our own for 10 minutes.

Former helicopter pilot Mike Barrett is keen to return to the skies with Gavin

Mike receives his certificate (Ed: To add to the very many he has from his former aviation career) from Gavin

Steve Fletcher spent some time with Andrew Berry, who came for a look see and joined as a full member (Ed: Welcome Andrew). He has power and some glider experience but after a 15 year break he has decided to come back to it and start from the beginning.  Sadly he couldn't stay and didn't have a chance to fly with either Mike or I.

The contrast between Blackdown and the lush Devon fields

After the customary practice launch failure Steve Lesson took a solo flight in the K-13 before transferring to the K-8 for his second flight in a single seater.

Steve looks pleased whilst readying himself for his second ever flight in a K-8 (Ed: He achieved 12 minutes but the later flights today would prove to be more testing)

Meanwhile Valerie was flying with Mike while equipped with her customary Go Pro head cam (Ed: I must find her You Tube channel).

Mike and Valerie back from another training sortie (Ed:  Her flight was captured by Go Pro for eternity)

We had walk in from Lydford (Ed: Well he actually came on his motorbike) who observed winch operations before riding the retrieve with Martin to go a watch the flight operations.

Privateers waiting at the launch point (Ed: Come on up its lovely!  Actually it was bumpy, turbulent, bitty, and hard work).

From my viewpoint at the winch it didn't appear that pilots were staying up for long, but I had yet to launch Richard in his Discus.  The forecast north crosswind and sunny skies continued with only the occasional haze cap to mark the thermals.

Later, after 1500 gliders seemed to be staying up as I could see three were sharing the same thermal  (Ed: time to dust off the thermalling protocol chaps). Steve Lesson in the K-8 tried to join the fun but suffered a launch failure (Ed: The weak link broke).  Meanwhile at the launch point Steve Fletcher was explaining what we did to another walk in.  This time a junior.  Unfortunately he wasn't able to take up the offer of a flight today (Ed: Maybe another time?).

Andrew " Night Owl" Downing arrived in the afternoon and had a 27 minute soaring flight with Mike (Ed:  Congratulations Andrew I hope that was you on the stick for the majority of the flight).

Mike Jardine took the last flight at 1645 with Valerie for a hangar landing.  That didn't stop the privateers.  By this time both Andy and Malcolm had found some northerly wave and were exploiting it. (Ed: Northerly wave is rare at Brentor and is probably formed by the mountains in south Wales.  I had noticed small wave-like clouds to the north throughout the afternoon and wondered about them.  Well done guys!).

What of the privateers achievements today?  Well, John Allan, Steve Fetcher, Phil Hardwick, Malcolm Wilton-Jones, and Richard Roberts all achieved flights of over an hour in the challenging conditions (Ed: Of note Richard achieved his 1 hr 20 mins aloft after a cable break). The "Man of the Match was Andy Davey in his Libelle achieving 2 hours 43 minutes (Ed: What a great effort).  With the club gliders put away there were plenty of hands available to assist the privateers in derigging.

In Summary:  a cloudless blue sky and a brisk northerly crosswind set us up for challenging soaring conditions to which we rose to the challenge admirably.

Gavin Short

Saturday's Gliding Club News - 20th May 2023

The day started with an endless blue sky. The wind was strong and somewhat gusty from slightly east of north which is going to make approaches a bit turbulent. Launching was from the west end but we were unable to remove the fence as there were cattle in the top field. That meant that each landing would be long so the launch rate would not be up to the usual Saturday level.

An endless blue sky

It was a frustrating day for our early solo pilots. It was definitely not a K8 day, so they were confined to the K13 with today's instructor Rick. Not ideal but a least a chance to experience the circuit and approach in these conditions.

Early flights seemed to encounter sink but, initially, careful loitering near the south boundary would  be rewarded with some weak thermals coming off the north ridge. This strengthened as the morning wore on and it was not long before the K13s were managing regular soaring flights. In the middle of the afternoon the airmass changed and the wind veered further to the east making approaches a little easier. This change of air also brought some cloud with it which made finding thermals much easier. Cloud bases steadily rose until it was at 5500ft above the airfield (6300ft above sea level). Amazing for Dartmoor.

The view was a bit hazy today.
Here from 2500ft with Daniel Scholes in the front seat

And even hazier from 4000ft

We had several visitors today. Air Experience flights were had by Michael Gould, Philip Cockran,  Graham Bassett, Evan Train and 35 year lapsed glider pilot Tony Gent. We also flew 2 young naval officers Daniel Scholes and Kaymen Lewis-Johnson as part of the naval flying initiative arranged by Gavin Short. 

Lapsed glider pilot Tony Gent

Phil Cockran with Scratch

Evan Train

Scratch with our Navy visitors Kaymen and Daniel

Michael Gould

The private glider flying efforts today were limited to a couple of soaring flights by Ged and Malcolm in the Twin Astir and a day topping 1hour 45 mins by Adam Hoskin in his bright yellow K6CR who made the best of the much improved late afternoon conditions.

Instructor Rick Wiles needed to leave the airfield early so flying finish early at 5.15 after just 28 launches.

A day that was challenging on several levels but fun for those of us who flew.

Steve

Gliding Club News - Aston Down Expedition Day 6. 21st May 2023

Just when you thought it was all over the tenacious trio were still hanging on and aiming for greatness.  Phil, Andy, and John had stayed for one last day of flying spurred on by favourable soaring forecasts.  Initial reports from Andy were that the conditions were brilliant.

At Aston Down today (Ed: It was a Saturday club flying day) there was a large fleet of nearly 30 gliders. These were launched from 1130 onwards by both winch and aerotow.  All seemed to get away.

A busy day on Runway 03 at Aston Down

Runway 03 as seen from the perimeter track  (Ed: Gosh, it's posh here.  They even leave the alloy wheels in the tyres!)

Gliders stacked in all directions

Phil's and Andy's DG300 and Libelle at the back of the launch queue (Ed: How did that happen?  Were you overwhelmed by the rush?)

Thermals were strong and variable but the 1/8ths cloud and strong wind made progress slow. The wind also made it difficult to keep on course during cross country tasks.

Waiting for the magic to happen

Ignoring the initial feedback on conditions Phil and Andy attempted a cross country.  Andy made it to his first turn point of Enstone but abandoned the task and returned to Aston Down.  He did so because the time taken to make progress on task was excessive in the windy conditions.

Later Andy recounted "I had set a task of Aston-Enstone-Edgehill-Aston. All went reasonably well till about 15km short of Enstone when the sky ahead was just blue, I was about to turn for home when I got a good clime to cloud base so putting caution to the wind I pushed into the blue. Just prior to Enstone found a blue thermal which allowed me to easily turn Enstone. To the north it was still completely blue so I abandoned the task and set off home."

The highlight of the day was John Allan's flight.  He achieved his Silver and Gold duration flight of five hours (Ed: Well done John, a fantastic achievement.  Being restricted to the local area does have its benefits!).

John, at the head of the winch queue, watches a promising sky while waiting for the aerotow to depart

John at his highest point at 5,100 feet QFE (Ed: Aston Down airfield is at 600 feet above sea level)

5 Hours and 4,500 feet to spare :-)

On completion of their flying Phil and Andy waited by the trailer park to assist John in derigging when he came down to earth after his five hour flight.  When all were packed up the trio departed for home (Ed:  Or did they? I haven't heard from our very own gliding nomad Andy).

John arrives back at Dartmoor Gliding Society

Gavin Short (with additional reporting by Phil Hardwick and John Allan)

Wednesday's Gliding Club News - 17th May 2023

 With a large number of Wednesday flyers away on the Club’s expedition to Aston Down and ‘No Resident Instructor’ it was always going to be a quiet day. Eight of us turned up. Originally Peter Howarth was planning to come to the field which would have allowed Solo pilots to fly whilst he was on the ground but unfortunately Peter woke up with a sore throat and feeling awful so was unable to attend. Unfortunately neither John Smith or Steve Lesson got the message before setting out for the club. Step forward the hero of the day Malcom Wilton-Jones who offered to give them both a passenger flight in the Twin Astir. 

Lined up ready to go

The Rasp forecast was promising but Notams showed that both Wilsworthy and Merrivale ranges were active. Watching the sky showed the best looking clouds were over the ranges! Eventually a small cloud to the south east of the airfield appeared and we launched Malcolm and Robin in the twin Astir.  Reaching the cloud it was clear that they were gaining height and so I, followed by Richard, took a launch. Conditions low down were quite hard work but once over 1500 things picked up. Malcolm returned to the airfield after an hour to fly first Steve Lesson for an hour and 17 mins and then John Smith for an hour and 7 mins. During both flights Malcolm pointed out the best clouds for thermals and the ones to avoid so that both John and Steve L got some very valuable soaring advice whilst able to sit back and take in the scenery.

Approaching Plymouth

Meanwhile I set out for Roadford. But found the clouds were getting a bit ‘ragged’ the further north I went, as the day went on the cloud base rose from around 3000ft QFE to 4600ft QFE and the thermals strengthened enabling me to reach road ford and then track over to Meldon reservoir before turning south to Plymouth. It got a bit troublesome coming back from Plymouth towards the airfield with large areas of 6 down sink and no thermals until I reached Tavistock again with some relief I pick up a weak thermal enough to get back to the airfield where I picked up a strong 8 up thermal all the way to 4600ft. This enabled me to fly over the Milton Abbot to take a picture of the village for a friend before retiring to the airfield after 3hrs and 9 mins. In the picture of Milton Abbot you can clearly see the old airfield used by the Flying Duchess of Bedford in the 1920’s and 30’s who also had Endsliegh house built. A remarkable lady who flew to India and South Africa in biplanes of the time.

Milton Abbot and the old airstrip

A big thank you to Steve Lewis and Andrew for helping to launch us but didn’t fly.

We had just 6 flights in all totalling 6hrs and 50 minutes but all went home happy.

Steve Fletcher