Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 19th October 2024

Today was literally the calm before the storm. The first named storm of the season ( Storm Adrian ) is due to arrive overnight tonight into Sunday morning. The winds were light westerly. Initially there was low orographic cloud everywhere and the atmosphere was very moist so early on canopy misting might well be a problem. RASP was giving a little hint of possible thermal activity later in the day.

A shower cloud in the distance early on.

Waiting for the orographic cloud to clear

Still waiting

The clubhouse was being used for Bronze "C" exams so the briefings were completed outside the clubhouse on the patio area. Some kind person had even provided a laptop outside to drive the briefings graphics.

Initially we fielded the Puchacz, K13 FSD, a K8 and the Astir. K13 FGR joined us a little later after Adam had installed it's new brake linings.

Once the cloudbase had risen to a sensible height it was on with the day's flying list. Early training flights were supervised by Mike Jardine while CFI Rick adjudicated the exams. I am pleased to say that the 4 Bronze candidates all passed with flying colours ( pun intended ). See our seperate blog here

We welcomed 2 One Day Course Candidates, Rob Butler and Michael Hallahan. Both enjoyed a little soaring and the chance to try out our sport.

Michael receiving his certificate

Rob getting ready to fly

The cloud cover came and went throughout the day. Several showers passed by but the airfield remained dry. From time to time a passing cloud would offer a little thermal action up to the dizzying 2000ft cloudbase. Because the thermals tended to be solitary things with the next one out of gliding range the flights tended to be similar in times. Andy Davey ( Astir ) was the longest at 37 mins closely followed by flights of 34 mins ( K13 ) and 32 (K8). There was also a further handful of flights in the 20 to 30 min range.

4knots up at 1100 ft just off the wire

There was lots of training going on with the 2 seaters kept busy. It is interesting to see the progress that everyone is making. The last flight landed at 6pm after we had completed a total of 50 flights.

Elliot getting ready to aviate

Trainee pilot, Valerie, ready to launch and...

.... off she goes

Not all the training was going in the air, The winch was also a training ground today. I was particularly interested to see Elliot's dad doing winch training. Well done and thankyou.

Informal training as John explains flight planning software to Zack 

At 6pm the committee commenced their routine meeting discussing all the new potential projects.

A great club day

Steve