Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 16th September 2023

 Depending on the source, today's forecast was mixed and did not really match what was happening on the airfield. RASP was predicting 15 knot winds from the east but the windsock showed the winds to be light and variable with a northerly bias. The atmospheric sounding did not look favourable to the development of lee wave from Dartmoor but the clouds looked like a mixed wave system from several directions. The only thing that the forecasts agreed on was that rain would arrive early to mid afternoon.

Does this show a wave system to the east?

The airfield was quiet with only just enough members to fly. We had 2 Junior One Day Courses to fly with a brace of sisters ( Eden and Alishia ) from Plymouth.  Flying Eden gave me the chance to explore the local area to see what the weather was really doing. From the first launch it was obvious that  the winds at flying heights were indeed from the east. There was signs of smooth reduced sink in the area of Mary Tavy but initially not enough to soar but to merely to delay the inevitable decent to circuit. The approaches showed some signs of rotor activity; not strong but enough to provide some interest.

Eden waiting for me to finish the pre-flight checks.

A little later, another flight with Eden saw us in definite wave in front of the airfield which gave us a gentle climb to 1600 feet and a flight time of 31 minutes until the approaching rain seemed to suppress the wave to drive us back to the runway once more. During this flight we were joined by Scratch and Alisha in the other K13 and Steve Fletcher in the K8 who managed to launch to 1650 feet onto the top on the wave. All 3 of us needed to return to the runway with in a few minutes.

K8 returns from the wave

We waited for the rain to stop and in one lull we managed to launch Scratch with Alisha. They found wave to the south which gave them 4 knots at 2900 feet before they had to return to the field after 28 minutes.. Unfortunately, that was the last launch, the rain just kept increasing so the aircraft and equipment was returned to the hangars.

Waiting for a gap in the rain but to no avail.

Presenting their Certificates. Myself, Eden, Alisha and Scratch

An interesting day 

Steve