Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 2nd July 2023

A moderate breeze straight down the strip would produce better launches today compared to the recent southerly cross winds we have been experiencing. With the field set up and two private K6's rigged, first flight of the day was K8 GDK for a final test flight after all the recent work carried out as part of it's annual ARC. All OK GDK was cleared and returned to the fleet to work alongside K8 FXB.

One day course student arrived and received the necessary paperwork and briefings by duty BI Gavin Short. Daniel Hughes came to us from Lamerton.  He and his partner June had often watched DGS gliders fly overhead their house. Dan was determined to try gliding and signed up for a One Day Course.  In spite of the occasionally blustery conditions he managed to get to grips with the controls and cover the syllabus. He also arranged for June and his two children to observe some of his flights from their van, parked in the valley between the airfield and Blackdown.

Daniel and Gavin ready to start.

And off they go.

The only trainee at the club today was Sean Westrope. We were able to spend six flights getting rid of a few inconsistencies that seem to have crept into Sean's flying. By the end of the day Sean felt he had regained his mojo and will hopefully be able to move on towards his goal of going solo this season.

Sean and me in the K13 getting ready.

Solo pilots Martin Broadway (K8), Ed Borlase (K6) and Adam Hoskin (K6) all took launches with varying degrees of success. Martin managed a climb to 3000ft but only found a lot of sink during the rest of his 19 minute flight. Ed had a bit of an off day and only managed a couple of circuits. Adam fared a lot better and after his initial climb managed to stay high between 2000ft and 3000ft to claim flight of the day with 2hour 13minute.

Martin with K8 GDK.

With rain approaching it was time to pack the toys away, although the sky did break up as we were finishing. Everybody who wanted to had flown. Special thanks to Phil Hardwick who winched and retrieved for all flights and chose not to fly. Thanks Phil.

Everybody left happy with the days flying.

Peter Howarth