Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 11 December 2024

 "There's gold in them thar hills".   Mark Twain 1892, The American Claimant

The Wednesday Wavers were out of bed early having listened to the forecasts of wave due to the brisk breeze from the north east all week. 

The satellite view on "windy"

Steve Fletcher's view from Grenofen.  "Null points" for photographic composition.

Andy Davey arrived at 0700, with John Allan shortly afterwards, to get the kit out and the rig their gliders.

Wave bars visible at the club but note 8 Octas cloud coverage

Other wavers turned up early, including our visitors, so we had an early weather and field brief.  We welcomed two visitors today; crew members from submarine HMS Audacious after several attempts, they had been previously thwarted by bad weather and short notice duty changes, finally made it to the site. 

Andy took three early launches but failed to connect with the wave which was definitely there.  Mike with trainee Neal Oxley also failed to connect.  There was evidence of rotor and some ridge lift, on the north side of the airfield, but gaps in the cloud coverage remained elusive.  With the stiff wind it was cold (yes, the snowflake symbol had appeared again on my car dashboard).  The humidity was high causing glasses, canopies, and camera lenses to mist.  Later in the afternoon the leading edges of wings and tail planes were noticeably damp with condensation.

Anthony Reeve prepares to go aloft with Gavin

First up of the navy fliers was Anthony Reeve who flew with Gavin.  Hugh was the duty IFP today but he had a head cold and wisely stepped back from flying members of the public.  Anthony and Gavin had a good launch to 1,600 feet AGL but were just under the cloud base and canopy misting was a problem.  They were in wave but had to air brake down twice to prevent them climbing into the cloud.  They couldn't see or reach a suitable gap in the cloud.  It was an enjoyable but frustrating 15 minute flight.

The runway from the east.  There was a workable band of lift from here
south to the Peter Tavy static home park.

Steve Fletcher enjoyed the delights of the Astir CS77 twice and managed 24 minutes on one of his flights.  Peter Howarth and John Smith also tried their hands.

Big Dave helps navy flier Reece Nicholls prepare for his flight

In between their flights with Gavin both Anthony and Reece witnessed the launch of gliders from the winch end.  I should note that Hugh and Peter did sterling work launching us all day in what must have been a cold and drafty winch cab.  Thank you for your efforts.

Reece and Gavin ready to launch,  Yes, all the extra layers were needed in the biting wind.

Phil and Robin enjoyed a couple of flights in the Twin Astir before letting Malcolm have a go.  A good lookout was key in these conditions and FLARM proved its worth helping pilots to maintain their situational awareness.

Blackdown.  There was some lift here but difficult to exploit as you were sucked into the cloud.

Neal had a warm up flight with Scratch before continuing with Mike and enjoying a set of three training flights which provided him with some challenging conditions.

Gavin hands over the certificates and congratulates Reece and Anthony on their flights

At midday we received a delivery from Torbay (shh, wait and see) and Scratch took the driver, Christopher Gray, for a thank you flight before driving him back to Torbay.

Mary Tavy under the full cloud cover

Mike then shifted targets and flew with Alasdair before flying Neal again.  Then Neal was flown by Steve (Neal's log book must be filling up quickly!).

Good news travels fast.  Radio calls announcing that Andy on his fourth launch had connected with the wave and had climbed through a gap in the cloud to the bright sunshine above, joining John Allan who had already been up there for over an hour and a half.

Andy's view in the dazzling sunshine (Yes, he did remember to take his sunglasses)

Andy's view in the wave

Andy encounters John Allan in his Mini-Nimbus, "KP"

 

More views of the Mini Nimbus in the wave

John's view of Andy's Libelle "M"

Andy manged just over an hour in the wave.  Before then John had managed to climb to 13,295 feet AGL (14,129 feet AMSL) and landed after 2 hours 31 minutes.  An initial analysis of his logger trace shows a height gain of 12,241 feet which comfortably achieves the gold height gain of 3,000m (9,843 feet).  His main climb in the wave averaged 1.8 knots which eased to less than 1 knot at the height of his climb.  Congratulations John.

On of the slots in the cloud downwind of John's position, east of Lydford and looking east.
There was another slot in the cloud of similar size directly beneath him

John's view to the south

A glory seen by Andy

As the wind abated in the afternoon the K-8 was brought up to the launch point.  However, after a very turbulent approach in rotor, which had got stronger in the lighter winds, the Duty Instructor didn't allow it to fly.

Duty Instructor Mike flying from the front seat with Hugh Gascoyne,
 or was it Richard Roberts?  The poor visibility didn't allow him to enjoy the view.

Back at the clubhouse the duty instructor is seen continuing crank out the circuits,
oblivious to the achievement in the wave above

Those flights were with Dave and exposed him to the rotor conditions on the approach.

And the K-13 on final approach to the airfield

The wave bars continue behind the Astir CS77 at the end of the day

31 flights on a cold day in mid December for most but a glorious day for some.  Great team work got some of our members into the wave proper despite the almost total overcast and enabled John Allan to achieve his Gold height.  Congratulations.  That is the last piece of his Gold badge.  There is the potential for more gold mining on Dartmoor!

Gavin Short