Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 2nd September 2023

Change of month and a change of fortunes. The forecast looked good. RASP was being very optimistic; 4 Stars and 4,500ft cloud bases. Skysight also looked good with potential wave and convergences making a flight down through Cornwall a possibility. There was certainly some excitement as the private fleet rigged.

Some of the rigging activity

A brace of K13s waiting in the early morning sun

As it turned out the conditions were not as good as the forecast. At 10.30am the cloudbase was only 1400ft QFE ( above the airfield ) although this did rise eventually topping out at 3000ft QFE. 

There was definitely signs of wave in the area. My first Air experience flight took me onto Blackdown where there was a large area of smooth zero sink. Heading into the light northerly breeze I delivered the controls lesson which ended with us being at 1950ft overhead Lydford Gorge having climbed steadily in really smooth lift ( apart from the beeping of the Vario this could easily have gone unnoticed ). All the subsequent Air expereince flights were made in a mix of smooth zeros and 2 knot thermals. Chris Weight, Clare and Geoff Mann, Elias Marton-Browne and Adam Lewis all left with smiles on their faces.

Chris Weight and family

Clare and Geoff Mann

Adam Lewis

Richard Roberts abandoned his initial Cornwall bound task - low cloubases and small Cornish fields are not attractive even to a Discus pilot. He went wave hunting instead and searched all of the local area eventually finding a small line of clouds that were out of place and gave him a smooth wave climb to 3000ft QFE. This flight was the longest of the day at 3 hours.

Wave cloud???

The airfield hiding in the cloud shadows

Good looking sky late afternoon

The solo pilots made good use of the conditions with plenty of flights over an hour. With both K8s in use today this allowed plenty of availability for the members. Particularly notable was Alasdair Barclay who converted to the K8 as his first single seater and then celebrated with a short soaring flight. Excellent work Alasdair.

Alasdair already looks at home in the K8....

....and off he goes

Although the forecasts over promised it was still a great day. 

Steve