Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 30th August 2023

Today the weather delivered a sucker punch.  RASP looked reasonable.  Skysight looked quite good.  I arrived early and opened up my trailer and got the fuselage out.  Richard then arrived and we adhered scrupulously to the the Secretary's edict on airfield parking and priorities by getting the hangar doors open, getting the gear out including the winch, before doing anything more on the private gliders.  Steve Fletcher turned up and was then followed by the Duty Basic Instructor, Phil Hardwick, who laid out the winch cables.  Meanwhile, Mike Bennett and I refuelled the vehicles that needed it.  By then there were enough bodies to get the gliders out of the hangar.  Then, and only then, was the tea made (Ed: This is a shocking development at Dartmoor International - Is the change something to do with recent NATS failures?) and our attention could move to rigging the private gliders.

When the Duty Instructor, Mike Jardine, arrived there were only the Daily Inspections left to be conducted.  Everything was set up for an early start.  But the privateers once rigged (Standard Cirrus, Open Cirrus, Club Libelle, Discus, and Kestrel 19) wanted to wait for the weather to improve.  Phil had to wait for the two One Day Course candidates to arrive and then brief them.  So the first launch was at a leisurely 1056.  The Duty Instructor was less optimistic about the cloud base and thermal activity due to the top cover cloud (Ed: And boy was the wily old fox right!!)

Lots of gliders being rigged for the day

First up with Phil for her One Day Course was Jess Tooze who had arrived from "deep down in Cornwall!"

One Day Course candidate Jess Tooze ready for her first flight with Phil

And they are ready for the off. "All out. All out"

Phil allows CCY to smoothly rotate into the full climb

Our second visitor today was David May who was accompanied by his wife, Paula who had given him a voucher for his One Day Course as a birthday present.  David is an IT teacher (Ed:  What is it about DGS and IT gurus?  What is the attraction?  Do we all need to be dragged kicking and screaming in to the 21st century? Andrew you can remain quiet!).

Visitor David May and Phil prepare themselves for their first flight together

Meanwhile on the apron hangar the Twin Astir was arranged as it needed to be derigged as part of a technical inspection.  However, the syndicate couldn't manage to get the wings off (Ed: Surely that's reassuring?) and so Phil, another syndicate member, was called away from his instructing duties to lead the syndicate in the derigging.  The inspection could then take place and the component parts of the Twin Astir loaded on to its open trailer.

Back at the launch point Gavin stepped up to cover for Phil and flew David for his second and third flights .  Despite being early in the day they managed to find some "zero sink" and gentle lift to clock up two soaring flights of 9 and 12 minutes a piece. In amongst all the green fields the recently-cropped tiny wheat field in the Blackdown valley, to the north-east of the airfield, proved to be a reliable but weak thermal generator (Ed: Which was remarkable as there was total cloud cover and the field is on the shadow side of the airfield.  But often it is a discontinuity in the vegetation on the ground that can spark thermal activity).

One Day Course candidate David May takes his second flight with Gavin, standing in for Phil, in CCY. Behind them in FGR David Archer helps Jess Tooze strap in in the front seat

Phil returned to the launch point and prepared to take Jess aloft for her next set of flights, this time in FGR (Ed: We almost had both One Day candidates in the air at the same time). 

Phil back from "de-arming" the Twin Astir, as the Germans say, gets back into the groove to take Jess aloft for her second flight, this time in FGR (Ed; Let it not be said that we don't give value for money with two gliders for a One Day Course!)

The two members of the latest syndicate at Brentor, the Club Libelle, had set themselves a mission today.  Rig the glider efficiently using the new wooden trestles that Hugh had made, and adjusted for length, and then each fly a set of three "circuits and bumps" to get themselves acquainted with their new toy.  And that they did very successfully.  As ever with a new glider and trailer there are niggles to be ironed out; such as the height of Mike Bennett's tow ball on his van (Ed:  Keep working at it and it will became a breeze and those niggles will be long forgotten).

Mike readies himself in the cockpit while Hugh continues the cleaning and polishing right up until "Take up slack" (Ed: And to think that I got a hard time from them for having a clean and shiny glider and trailer)

Mike Bennett launches in his Club Libelle

The Standard Cirrus waits for the club gliders to "show it the way"

The Cirrii (Open and Standard) observe the K-13 with Phil and Jess returning from their second flight

Mike Jardine then took CCY for a solo flight before Ella arrived for a set of three instructional flights with him.  Ella is now consistently flying the whole flight; launch, circuit, and landing so Mike is reduced to being the photographer in the back seat (Ed: That is obviously an uninformed layman's observation of the instructor's role).

The Duty Instructor's view.  100% cloud cover in all directions.

The club K-8, GDK was in action with Martin Broadway, John Smith, and David Archer throughout the afternoon amid the training flights.

After a good launch Ella slows CCY down and starts searching for lift

Views looking North over Blackdown

The airfield from the north clearly showing the recently-cropped wheat field that was generating thermals. (Ed: There is an Open Cirrus landing there - can you see him?)

Later in the afternoon Mike Jardine had another trainee, the Night Owl, to fly.  Andrew Downing had a set of four flights with Mike including a hangar landing.  Sadly, the day had not developed as promised and none of them were soaring flights.

After the One Day Courses were completed David May's wife, Paula, was so impressed by the day's experiences that she had to have a a go.  So Phil obliged her with a single trial flight which ended in a hangar landing for FGR.  I took David back to the clubhouse in the Jeep so that they could be reunited.  Alas the well-oiled (Ed: As in slick not alcohol!) tower and launch team omitted to dispatch me with David's Certificate and his temporary membership card hence there are no customary photos of the handover at this point in the blog.  Our Treasurer nobly offered to send them on (Ed: Thanks Andrew).

Back at the launch point a notable event was about to occur.

A momentous occasion. Peter about to make his 4,000th launch.

A high-quality launch marshal team comprising Mike Jardine and Richard orchestrate this special launch

And up he goes (Ed: Is that the 4,000th time you have used that caption too?)

And with that the flying was drawn to a close and the gliders were returned to the hangar end of the airfield.

Dave Archer hangar lands GDK at the end of the day

Today the "Man of Match" was held early on by Gavin and David May in CCY with 12 minutes.  Phil and David later pipped that and achieved 13 minutes.  Hugh's third "Circuit and Bump" in the Club Libelle was much more than that with a 15 minute flight (Ed: Hugh, I know you are trained as an Introductory Flight Pilot but for your solo flights you are allowed to stay up for longer than 15 minutes!).  But Martin Broadway, wafting around in the K-8 and Richard concentrating hard on flying his Discus very gently in zero sink both achieved 20 minutes and achieved joint "Man of the the Match" (Ed: Well done.  Shouldn't that be "Men of the Match"?).

There were no launch failures, practice or real, today so the shortest flight of the day "wooden spoon" award goes to Steve Fletcher in his Open Cirrus with 3 minutes.  (Ed: Apparently the "sink" was severe, so he said. Steve later redeemed his honour with a second flight of seven minutes.

At the club house Jamie Steel came to say hello and now that he is back from sea to say that he should be able to assist with instructing on Wednesdays again.  Gavin and Jamie discussed potential future cooperation with Royal Navy personnel based in the dockyard and the details of an exciting new development that is currently under negotiation (Ed: So I as I suspected you are going to be a tease and not reveal what that development is yet then!).

The Twin Astir leaves the site on its open trailer for a further technical inspection

There is a special thank you due to Colin from the Twin Astir team for providing technical guidance and support throughout the day on the derigging and initial inspection of their glider (Ed: We will get you back in the air soon.  The weather forecast for Saturday looks promising).

Following a hangar landing after his 4,000th flight Peter was very content to put the mighty Kestrel with its 19 metre wings to bed

In summary, a reasonable amount of flying with 38 launches.  And yes the privateers did indeed get sucker punched by the weather forecast but at least we flew.

After the hangar doors were shut Peter celebrated his achievement by getting the beers in.  His daughter, Paula, joined us in the clubhouse to celebrate his achievement (Ed: She then offered to take him out for a curry.  What a great end to the day for Peter!)

Gavin Short