Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 9th March 2025

The weekend forecast from Andy Davey gave a easterly breeze which could give some wave in the area, but would possibly be suppressed by thermal activity. Once the tractor had been sorted out and secured to the winch the Sunday Soarers set about getting the field ready to fly. With the K8 out of action a K13 and the Astir 77 were DI'd and readied to fly.

First to fly was Jamie Young. What started out as a possible check flight resulted in a flight of 34 minutes with a climb to 4500ft in fairly strong wave.

Climbing 4 knots indicated throught 2400ft

A lively approach well handled by Jamie prevented him having a solo flight. Also I cound fly with all the trainees to give them all hopefully a wave flight experience. Next was Freddie Purkiss. A similar flight to Jamie's. 34 minutes to just over 4000ft.

Freddie's view towards Plymouth approaching 4000ft.

The third of our juniors at the club today, Zack Smith was next to fly. A similar climb with some stall exercises on the way down made a very happy Zack.

Zack concentrating during his climb.

Gavin decided to carry on winching and allowed Malcolm W-J to fly the Astir. Malcolm made his way north towards Sourton where he found some better lift climbing to 6000ft near Meldon returning after 1 hour for Gavin to fly. With no one else to fly the Astir, Gavin enjoyed a flight of 1 hour 55 minutes.

Gavin climbing through 4000ft.

The meandering river Tamar.

View across the moors.

Gavin's trace of his flight.

Could this day carry on delivering. Julia Old has been asking for some more stick time. A bit of a struggle to make contact, but with a bit of help from Ed Borlase in his K6 soon had us climbing topping out at 5000ft. A 44 minute flight gave Julia the much needed stick time. Steve Lesson then enjoyed a 26 minute flight in similar conditions.

Julia's view towards the moor.

The last trainee today was Viktor Skochko. Instead of counting 100's feet descending he was getting very excited as he counted the 1000's feet climb. 2000, 3000, 4000,5000 and finally passing 6000ft topping out at 6500ft resulted in a very giggly Viktor enjoying another flight. All trainees coped with the exciting approaches and landings without me having to take control at any stage.

Man of the match, the above mentioned Ed Borlase in his K6 achieved a flight time of 3 hour 10 minutes with a maximum height of 7000ft.

A very happy Ed with his pride and joy.

Classic lenticulars only appeared late in the day.

Oh dear we only achieved 9 flights today, but what flights. Every flight was a wave flight and the average flight time was 1 hour 3 minutes. Everybody managed heights above 4000ft AGL. Some extremely happy pilots packed the aircraft and equipment away and left very happy with the days flying.

But don't tell the Wednesday duty instructor.

Peter Howarth