Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 21st September 2024

As always the weather would be key to today. There were dire warnings of potential thunderstorms and torrential rain. Initially there was a lot of low cloud. In fact for the first couple of hours Brentor Church was not visible from the West end launchpoint. The wind was easterly as forecast; forecast to be anywhere between 6 and 15 knots, The soundings did not look great for wave. The wind strength was not really increasing with height and the inversion was weak. However, at DGS we have learned that if the wind has some east in it then there is always a possibility of wave. Today was no exception

Looking towards the east. Wave cloud at the top of the photo.
Cap cloud sitting on the Tors

As the cloudbase started to rise. Rick and I took the opportunity for a couple of practice cable breaks for my BI revalidation while there was not enough height for a full launch. Shortly after this, it was apparent that there was a wave slot out over the valley and it was game on. Andy Dave and Sean Westrope launched in a brace of Libelles and promptly disappeared. 

Andy ready to go in his Libelle ( the nose of Sean's glider behind)

Lift off

Heading into a classic wave sky

Will he reach the wave (Edge of the Dark cloud)?

My first flight with One Day Course candidate Lucas Pitcher followed shortly after and shows the early conditions

Lucas looks relaxed

"We launched K13 G-CFSD through very mild turbulence ( probably rotor ). Releasing at 1350 ft we pushed forward to the east in lively rotor. Just before the edge of the cloud, the lift smoothed out as we entered the wave. Once in front of the cloud the lift increased to a smooth 4 to 6 knots knots which we used to surf north and south up through a long(ish) gap in the cloud eventually popping out over the top at 4600 ft, where we were treated to a fabulous vista with a bright blue sky above with a shining white cloudscape. From this vantage point it was obvious that we had climbed up using a secondary wave bar; the primary was still well to the east of us. but it's cloud top seemed to be about the same height. Had I been flying solo I would have pushed forward to the primary but as this was a lesson, the gap we were in provided a great chance to delivery the controls lesson. After half and hour or so the gap started closing, initially with bridges forming between the upwind  and downwind cloud banks. Time to go. A high speed, full airbrake decent brought us down into the dark grey gloomy world below the cloudbase for an uneventful circuit and landing.".

Heading south along the secondary wave bar with...

The back edge of the primary to the left

Gavin Short also got to the wave in his Standard Cirrus. Here are some of his photos.

Spectacular view of a wave bar ahead heading south

The clouds above seem to be wave clouds too

Gavin looking pleased with himself

As the day warmed up the wave system broke down with most flights scratching around for little bits of thermals. However, when the afternoon cooled the wave reset and after 5pm there were several more extended wave flights.

The wave reformed in the early evening

We had a couple of visiting pilots today. Michelle Strickland and James Fowkes where in the area from their homebase at Rattlesden Gliding Club, an ex bomber command airfield near Bury St Edmonds to explore what flying in hilly terrain would be like. Their home site is surrounded by absolutely flat countyside. They had a couple of check flights each before flying the Astir on and off throughout the day.

As always, club training continued at pace. Highlight of the day for me was the Zack Smith's first flight controlling all of the launch and landing. Well done.

Zack looking laid back after his sucess.

A busy day with some great wave. And the dire warnings for torrential rain and thunderstorms - we didn't see any of that at all.

Steve