Dartmoor Gliding Society Club News: Dartmoor Gliding News

The weather forecast was very variable. Depending on which forecast was used it could have rained all morning clearing in the afternoon; stayed dry until lunchtime after which it would rain. Winds were forecast to be anywhere from south to east at anywhere between 6 and 16 knots gusting. Not very useful today.

The day started ( and stayed ) dry although during the morning low cloud delayed the start of the flying day. Undeterred, the morning was filled with various projects. Scratch spent the early morning rolling the airfield luckily just before it had dried beyond the point when this becomes innefective. After the Scratch and a small crew refitted the pay on gear with new bearings to the auto Supercat winch; a really heavy job. Meanwhile K8 FXB was derigged awaiting the repair of a couple of defects and stored in the K8/K13 trailer. K8 GDK was removed from the trailer an positioned ready for it's annual inspection before it rejoins the fleet. The Zack's Shack bus project continues apace.

A usefully positioned tree helped with the heavy lifting
during the winch repair

The leader of the bus project, John, with some very
technical marking out

K8/13 trailer

Derigging K8 FXB

After an early lunch, the cloudbase had lifted enough to allow flying to start. By now the wind had strengthened somewhat but was mostly easterly, ie. straight down the runway. Conditions aloft and on the approach were lively and by about 2pm it was obvious that a wave system had set up with the K13 soaring. Best flight of the day was a 40 minute effort by John Allan in the Astir who only returned after we radioed him to bring the glider back so it could be put away.