Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 1st March 2025

The weather forecast for several days leading up to this Saturday was looking really good, blue skies and gently NE breezes, The soaring forecast was suggesting a good day with thermals in the middle of the day with a cloud base at 4500ft. This created a lot of excitement amongst the club members. Arriving at the airfield the excitement was obvious. There were pilots rigging gliders everywhere. In fact, in their drive to get their steeds ready after the long winter slumber they had forgotten to get the club aircraft out. I quickly sorted this out and we were ready to go with 2 K13's and a K8 from the club an numerous private gliders.

Some of the early rigging

Waiting for the off. The day winning K6 with one of the Libelles

After the morning briefing it was on with the show. Today's instructor Peter Howarth had his first flights with junior member Elliot. Their first flight was an slightly extended circuit followed by a short soaring flight. This was followed by me flying with Anna Johnson who had Join the club today with her father Graham. We found a thermal straight off the wire. I think we had brought it up with us. The core was an astonishingly strong 6 knots which may well have been wave enhanced. We climbed at about 3knots average - yes I know I should have done better but this was my first proper thermal in a K13 this year, arriving at cloud base at 3500 ft above the airfield (QFE). This was followed by Anna's controls lesson after which we airbraked down to complete a very satisfying 28 minute flight. Father Graham followed with a soaring flight of 38minutes with Scratch. Welcome to the sport of gliding both of you.

New members Anna and Graham

Anna enjoying her flight

As might be expected  the K13s starting to soar triggered a rush of privateers all keen to get involved. There were 2 * Libelles, a DG300, an Open Cirrus, A Mini Nimbus, a Standard Cirrus and last but certainly not least the bright yellow K6 pilotted by Adam Hoskin who posted today's longest flight at 4 hours and 14 minutes. Several of the privateers ventured on short Cross Country flights. The highest reported cloud base was 4300 ft QFE with is 5100ft above sea level. A truly remarkable start to the season.

John Allan's track

and Gavin's meanderings

Watching the K6 soaring below from a K13

John's view of Plymouth and the Dockyard from overhead Saltash

Roadford Lake with the A30 in the foreground

We had several visitors today from Culdrose who were flying with us because they cannot access their own aircraft due to faulty hangar doors. You are very welcome. The final visitor today was Dan Hender from North Hill. He arrived in the Junior's K6 after visiting Launceston from North Hill but found making progress back to his home airfield very challenging in the strengthening easterlies. Another welcome guest.

Dan waiting for his retrieve crew

What a day the kick off the new season with 30 flights averaging over 55 minutes per flight.

A nice view south showing the estuaries and the sun shining 
on the west end of Whitsand Bay.

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 2nd March 2025

Spring seems to have broken. 2 days running the club would be flying. A forecast for light easterly breeze, clear blue skies and the only thing missing today was a guarantee of thermals to go soaring. The usual Sunday Soarers were joined today by a couple of the Saturday regulars.

Clear view towards the moors.

Training flights started with David Osment and then Viktor Skochko. Both are progressing well with their general flying and decision making.

David turning down wind into circuit.

Training took a break for our visitor today, Willim Dawe. Two flights with Phil Hardwick saw him leave happy after his experience.

William and Phil all settled ready to go.

After our three visitors yesterday from RNAS Culdrose (Seahawk GC) we were joined by another today. Tony Hogg enjoyed two flights with me getting to grips with the winch launch and the differences from their usual auto-tow launches.

Tony preparing for his winch launch.

Training re-started with Freddie Purkiss and Julia Old. Both experienced excess sink and having to modify the circuit due to being low. A good lesson for both.

After a day at North Hill yesterday, Zack Smith settled ino the front seat telling me he was good at finding lift and would take me soaring like he had been watching Ed Borlase soaring his K6. A quick five minute circuit proved soaring was not guaranteed, even if others were soaring. However on his second flight, we were more successful with a 19 minute flight.

Only contrails seen in the sky today.

The final flight was John Smith. After working on Zack's Shack he had a quick circuit to keep currency.

Thank you to Sean Westrope who winched for a large part of the day having been cleared on the manual winch. Only 16 flights, but Ed claimed flight of the day with 1hour 22minutes in his first flight of the year in his K6.

Peter Howarth

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 5th March 2025

Another a fine day was forecast.  Our weather guru, Andy, stated "Wednesday looks like a lovely day`with light SSE going south as the day progresses.  The high pressure area is suppressing any thermals, so flyable but not soarable".   However, the slightly downbeat forecast didn't deter the Wednesday Wavers.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be a repeat of the glorious day last Saturday (Ooops!  The Duty Instructor had banned any mention of Saturday's exploits as he couldn't make it to the airfield) where many went cross-country and enjoyed long flights.  But, it should be a good day for training and those all important check flights.

Also, a day for jobs to be completed before the soaring season commences and a chance for John Smith to continue working on Jack's Shack.  But before he started work, he took the opportunity to take a flight with the Duty Instructor.

John Smith works on Zack's Shack

Over the last two day's John had been preparing the base of the tower on the roof of the bus.  Yesterday's work included felting and the copious use of hot bitumen.  The air was heady with white spirit fumes as John cleaned up the excess from the bus windows (Zack needs to be able to look out doesn't he?).

The all important alfresco work bench for John

Today was another Flarm day; loading up the new enduring firmware to two privateer's gliders  This time on Mike Bennet's Club Libelle and Sean's Libelle.  Even though I hadn't worked on a Power core flarm or an LX Mouse+ Flarm before it went very smoothly.  Firmware loaded and working, I realised that Sean's glider needed to be registered with the Open Gliding Network database to display his call sign correctly on Glide and Seek.  I was amazed at how quickly the database was updated, as was a delighted Sean.

Sean and Dave Archer get polishing in the sunlight

The day started with poor visibility to the South with an inversion at 1,000 feet AGL.

After John's flight Viktor continued his training kicking off with a launch failure. 

John Smith taking the opportunity for a flight before continuing work on the bus conversion.

The solo pilots took the K-8 aloft; Mike Bennett and Peter Howarth.   After finishing my Fleet Manager duties, I also took a flight.  A 1,300 foot launch took me above the inversion layer and I found a little indication of wave and then sinking through the inversion layer I found some bubbles of lift near Mary Tavy before skedaddling back to the airfield against the freshening southerly wind.  I passed the tipis on to John Allan who was next up in the K-8.

Ready to go!

Off to find lift both above and below the inversion layer

Views of the airfield from the East

We welcomed back to the airfield Steve Lesson, who has been very busy working away from home and obviously frustrated at reading of the Wavers exploits on a Wednesday, so he joined us.  He admitted to being a little apprehensive but keen to get back in the groove.  And that he did with a set of three flights with Mike.

Steve, it goes "CB SIFT BEC"

Steve Lesson brings Instructor Mike Jardine back to Terra Firma

FXB was put to good use by John Allan and Malcolm, each trying to find the pesky thermals that were capped by the inversion.  Full marks for trying, as they both managed to soar in the murky conditions, as did Mile Bennett in a later flight.

"Brentor base, Foxtrot Golf Romeo, downwind, right hand"

Mid-afternoon, DGS had its very own "An Inspector Calls".  Sadly not an enactment of J B Priestley's famous play but our very own BGA Inspector Colin. He and DB had been working hard installing a new shelf in the rear of CCY to accommodate one of the new 3-D printed battery boxes.  This is part of the maintenance team's project to improve the installation and hence safety of the battery installation in our gliders.  After that, Colin treated himself to a pair of flights with Mike.

"An Inspector calls"

After the day's inspector duties had been carried out, Colin took to the air to keep current.

Neal Oxley took a set of three flights with the Duty Instructor to experience not one, but two real launch failures.  A wire break and very unusually a rope break which saw the drogue and strop go sailing over the north fence due to the southerly cross wind.  A team scrambled to find the drogue and strop, successfully, and repaired the launch cable.

We seem to be ironing out a few mechanical kinks, as well as human kinks as we train up and practice using the manual winch while the auto winch undergoes some maintenance.

A strop hunters view of St Michael du Rupe church at Brentor

Did the strop and drogue float this far north in the crosswind?

The A-Team assemble at the winch to repair the cable and get us launching again

Today, the Wednesday Wavers made the most of the conditions and achieved 21 launches.  Andy should have known, never say never with the Wavers as some early March soaring was to be had in the glorious sunshine with John Allan claiming the crown with a soaring flight of 26 minutes.

As we decided that we had our fill and started packing up I had to leave early to head up to Hampshire.  When I left the site, the "polishing twins" were still hard at it, justifiably proud of their efforts and their resultant shiny steeds.

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 22nd February 2025

The weather gods have timed it right for once. We have a weak ridge of high pressure promising an almost spring like day with a westerly breeze, plenty of sunshine, and even the possibility of a little thermal activity. The flying start was delayed a little as yesterday's front and showers moved away.

Some interesting clouds and the breeze straight down the runway.
What more could we want?

Today's instructor commenced his list with 3 flights with Viktor followed by 2 with Zack the second of which was a 19minute soaring effort. Next came a check flight with Jamie who recorded a day topping 36 minutes before flying solo for another 19mins. Good effort Jamie. The solo pilots made several soaring flights in the K8 after it was released from the hangar by the technical team who spent several hours investigating it's weight and balance and different ballasting options.

Viktor and Mike getting ready

The view to the south with the Tamar estuary shine in the sunlight

K13 FGR ready to launch and ....

...off they go

Zack following a cloud street

By 4pm the thermals had evaporated and last flight was landed at 5pm leaving enough time for the gliders to be washed before returning to the hangar.

K8 ready for it's hangar flight

A nice almost spring like day

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 26 February 2025

I couldn't get to the club today.  I had to wait for a technician to call to look at my upright freezer.  The freezer was out of warranty, of course, but fortunately insured.  I think it must be a sentient being and it obviously missed me when I was flying on Saturday.  How did I know this?  Well, when I returned home on Saturday afternoon there was water all over the utility room floor, a fan was squealing like a stuck pig, and the contents were defrosting rapidly.  I experienced a certain sense of Deja Vu as my last freezer failure was in a nuclear-powered submarine which is a major event dealing with five tonnes of defrosting food.  Fortunately this wasn't as bad and by working like Billy-O we managed to salvage most of the thawing contents.

So from regularly looking at the weather forecasts, weather, and Glide and Seek during the day I could see that there was no flying at Brentor.  But the Duty Instructor kindly sent me a report of the day's activities.  So here it is.

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Hi Gavin,

No flying today.

Plenty of tasks on the ground.

Work continued on the bus conversion to a launch point by John Smith.

David was replacing wheels on the base of the hangar doors.

Colin and Peter were working in the workshop on various tasks.

East end fencing repairs were tackled by Mike B, Steve F and Phil.

The new defibrillator was presented to the club by Robin. He was able to obtain a generous donation from the Tavistock Rotary Club and Robin's family members donated funds to this as an alternative to birthday presents for Robin.

"Our Doc", Robin presents the club with a defibrillator

The new instrument panel in the simulator was put to the test by Neal and was working well.

Note the instruments in the panel.  They are not actual aviation instruments. They are 3-D printed replicas driven by stepper motors from the outputs from the simulator's Condor II software, all created by Viktor.

Дякую, Вікторе (Thank you, Viktor)

A productive non flying day.

Mike

 

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A good effort by the DGS team even if they didn't get in the air.  What did the technician find today?  He found no faults (Ahhh!).  All diagnostic checks were OK.  He could see the last 120 hours of history and the sudden massive rise in temperature from -21C to ambient temperature on Saturday.  The Freezer is now running and its back down to -20C.  We have three bowls of water placed in it for test and we are monitoring progress.  Managing the club fleet is so much easier.

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 19 February 2025

Today's RASP indicated low cloud in the morning, rising around midday, and returning mid-afternoon and that’s exactly what it did.

The opportunity was taken to review the SPL (Sailplane Pilots Licence) implications that are coming in to force this September.  Then the manoeuvring envelope was introduced to our trainees Jamie and Zack to further understand the information presented on the glider placards.

We had two trial flights booked today with BI Richard Roberts however, one decided to re-book and look forward to better flying days.

The west end launch point

Overcast views to the South

The airfield from the south east

Our second trial flight visitor Dominic Washington decided to come to the airfield and was successful in getting into the air.

Trial flight visitor Dominic Washington about to fly with Richard

Neal Oxley prepares to aviate

A further visitor was Upavon GC member Peter Hale who was introduced to a K13 for the first time and managed the last flight of the afternoon before conditions closed in. 

 

Upavon GC visitor Peter Hale.

In the three hours we had available from 12pm until 3pm 14 launches were achieved before the gliders were cleaned and put away in the hangar.

Thanks to all who made it a flying day.

Mike

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 12th February 2025

The days briefing started with a review of the RASP which indicated easterly winds but with no sign of any wave developing, 80% surface sun though through the day. However not to be deterred three privateers rigged those being Andy with his Libelle, Phil with his  DG300 and Scratch with his standard Cirrus .

Initial flights were extended circuits and training flights including a simulated launch failure for Neal Oxley which was dealt with very well. An indication of good progress in Neal’s training.

No sign of any wave but with light Easterly winds and good sunshine the thermals started to develop. 

K8 and K13 share a thermal

Returning Nymsfield member Nigel Braytook the opportunity for a
check flight with me before taking a soaring flight in the K8

Nice views across the moors with plenty of blue sky

The grass on the runway doesn't look very green from here

Nigel keeping a good lookout and staying aloft for half an hour.

K8 can be seen beyond the port wing of the K13

What better way to spend your 19th birthday for our days trial flight Samuel Rice
than to take a soaring flight with our IFP Steve Fletcher

Phil heading off for a 40 minute soaring flight in his DG300.

So the day culminated with 31 launches , some good soaring flights for all gliders with the longest at one hour 51 minutes by Andy in his libelle.

Thanks to all for making it a very good days flying.

Mike