Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 26th October 2024

Today is the last day of British Summer Time 2024. Time goes quickly when you are having fun.

The weather forecast was suggesting clear skies, a light to moderate breeze initially from the SE veering S then SW. This would lead to a possible change of ends sometime in the afternoon. The wind actually stayed SE throughout the flying day. RASP was forecasting a little soaring in the middle of the day. 

Early on - Blue sky over the launchpoint

Another launchpoint view

2 seaters sharing a thermal - note the wispy cloud above.

With the launch point at the west end flying was soon underway. Approaches were a little bit lively at times which is usual for this wind direction. Early on soaring was challenging. At times the air seemed to be full of extremely small thermal bubbles so that better progress was made flying wings level and pulling into the lift rather than the more traditional circling technique.

K13 off into a nice loking sky

Followed by the Puchacz

K13 on approach

The thermals did eventually improve and there were even some scrappy cumulus clouds the mark their presence. By the middle of the afternoon there was even some streeting to amuse the pilots. Longest flight was Malcolm Wilton-Jones in the K8 at 1hr 5min closely followed by John Allan flying the Astir for exactly 1hr. During his flight John was spotted flying along a street over a rugby pitch in Tavistock. Honourable mentions to both Scratch and Steve who managed half hour flights while delivering their Air Experience and One Day Courses respectively.

Malcolm's view of the airfield from the east end

This photo was sent from a rugby spectator where the Astir was spotted.
I cannot find the glider in this photo though

Visitors today were Mike Peck ( One Day Course ) and Caron George,  Colin Woodgates and Joanne Schofield ( Air experience flights ). All seemed to enjoy themselves and left with smiles on their faces.

Mike Peck

Johanne Schofield

Colin Woodgates

Caron George

Often club blogs concentrate on the flying but that is just the cream on the top of the activities. We could not fly without all the support given by the club members who are not flying. The winch drivers need a special mention today having coped with the crosswind throughout the whole day. The other sincere thankyou must go to Alison and Nicky, the mothers of two of our junior members. They drove the retrieve the whole day between them.

It was dark by the time the hangar was repacked.

Steve