Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 6th July 2024

Today turned out to be a challenge due to the weather. Early on there was 15kn of wind from a little north of west with 25+kn at flying heights. The forecast was for this to reduce during the day but this did not really happen until very late in the afternoon. The forecast showers did not materialise on the airfield but several showers passed by.

Showers on the way to the airfield

Looks interesting - Cloudbase appears low though

Only the 2 seaters were out today

After an initial weather check flight flown by me with Scratch in the front seat we decided to delay the visitor flying until the promised improvement happened. Unfortunately, this did not happen and at 1.30pm we cancelled visitor flying for the day. Our apologies to the visitors who attended and thankyou for your patience. The decision was not made lightly. Better luck next time.

Launching for the weather check. What am I concentrating on?

Approaches were definitely "interesting"

So what of the flying today. Well certainly the highlight of the day was the first complete flight by Jamie Young with Rick. Jamie handled the complete flight from start to finish, no mean feat given the turbulent conditions. 

The hero of the hour-Jamie after his flight

There was some soaring flights, The trick today was to find a climb strong enough to reach the 2400ft QFE cloudbase before getting blown too far down wind. There were cloud streets to be used which seemed to be better than turning with 8knot cores to fly through wings level. The was close competition for longest flight of the day with myself and new member  Elliot Flannery in FSD sharing top spot with Rick and Malcolm Wilton- Jones in FGR at 21 minutes. Close behind were Rick and Alisdair Barclay in FGR sharing  honours with Scratch and Gavin in the Puchacz at 20 minutes.

Elliot and me following a cloud street and ...

...our view south

Malcolm with Rick in the back seat starting to climb

Gavin and Scratch ready to fly the Puchacz

Airfield on the right, cloud street leading to a shower. Rain on the canopy

There was no solo flying today except for Rick at the end of the day when he was persuaded to hangar fly the Puchacz while we cleared the rest of the equipment.

An interesting day allowing our pilots to extend their skills.

Steve