Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 12 March 2025

The forecasts were all over the place; Skysight, RASP, the Met Office YouTube, and even yr.no all differed as to what the day would bring.  What they could agree on was a cold northerly wind and some rain.  The undecided bit was when the rain would arrive.

Andy's more nuanced forecast basically agreed with the Met Office.  So there could be showers throughout the day. 

None of the Wednesday Wavers disputed the wind forecast.  Boy, was it cold!  I even dug out my rarely used gloves.

En route to the club from Cornwall there was clear blue sky with some high cloud.  No indication of the forecast low cloud base.  Over tea there was discussion of the weather in an early morning brief and the decision was made to just go and fly.

Foreboding clouds to the North West, but nothing to deter the Wavers

There was more westerly in the wind than expected so the east end was chosen as the launch point.  The airfield is now pretty firm and would support the Puchacz which was DI'd along with K-13, FGR, and Astir CS-77, DNE.

The Puchacz, ready for action after its annual inspection and improvements

While the gliders were being ranged at the launch point I busied myself with some Fleet Manager tasks;  checking Julia Old's application for her Sailplane Pilot Licence and getting Chairman, Steve Lewis, to certify and sign the various supporting documents.  There was also a discussion on Oudies (flight computers) and their mounting arrangements in the club Astir CS77.  I sorted the defect with my Oudie suction mount that occured on Sunday - I couldn't get to adhere to the inside of the Astir CS77's canopy; basically it needed a good clean with isopropyl alcohol after several years of sculling around in my flight bag.

Squally showers around the airfield. Saunders' scrapyard in the foreground would prove to be a thermal source throughout the day

Andy taking an early launch keeping his hand in the K-13

This sums up the day. Very changeable.

Back at the hangar Colin arrived and made short work of the inspection of K-8, GDK's fuselage as part of its annual.  We hope to have it back on line shortly.

Mike and Neal returning from one of his four training flights of the day

Its looks warm in the sunshine doesn't it?  It wasn't !

Throughout the day John Smith continued with work on Zack's Shack.  He later took delivery of parts for the tower.  Unfortunately not all were ready so the tower installation will have to wait until next week.

The airfield from the South

It looks promising.  There was lift to be found under the dark clouds but you had to work at it.

John Allan managed to make the most of the day with two soaring flights in the Astir CS77 of 20 and 53 minutes respectively.  Bravo!

John ready to go and find those elusive thermals

John reported the phenomena of dark clouds with multiple thermals "towers", up to twenty, emerging from the top of the cloud.  Interesting stuff. Steve Lesson then took a flight with Mike and soared for 18 minutes, so he hasn't forgotten everything by being away for five months!

Rain showers to the south, obscuring the Hamoaze

Mike and Steve Lesson getting ready

And yet more getting ready.  Did I mention it was cold?

We had some walk in visitors who were on holiday in the local area.  One was interested in a local flight and late arrival Ed Borlase and Dave Downton, remotely, booked them in for some flying in the not to distant future.  We were busy with flying operations so the planned fitting of Ed's Flarm to his K-6, EWO would have to wait for another day.

Steve ready for a flight in the Puchacz as a refresher in GRP

Mike and Steve took two flights in the Puchacz; a circuit and then a 36 minute soaring flight.  Steve was very happy!

In the improved conditions there was some good lift caught by the Puchacz as shown on the S3 vario (in the centre of the instrument panel)

The Twin Astir came out to play and Phil flew with Robin for an extended circuit. Dave Archer flew a couple of circuits with Mike in the K-13.

Peter Howarth took the Puchacz for a test flight and identified an instrumentation problem.  With a few tools I was able to rectify the problem at the launch point and Peter could then put it through its paces and on landing, declare it ready for service.

As bonus whilst retrieving the Puchacz back to the launch point Peter found the missing strop and shock cord (rope) that the Wavers lost last Wednesday.  Since then DB has replaced all of our shock cords with new rope and did the same with the recovered one when he was presented with it.

After Robin's flight with Phil, Malcolm took our doctor Robin aloft

During the afternoon a bright yellow helicopter conducted power line surveys all around our vicinity from Mary Tavy to the church and then to the south west.  We were in continuous communications throughout as he scrupulously stayed outside our zone and at very low level.  I provided him with a regular updates on where our gliders were operating.  Interesting stuff except when the hail shower came in when it wasn't so interesting!

Airfield from the West with a yellow survey helicopter two fields NW of the airfield at 50 feet AGL 

We welcomed Richard Roberts back the the airfield.  He now flies at North Hill but continues to instruct with DGS.  However, there were no visitors booked for today so he could join in the fun.

Richard returns

A happy pair of pilots

Happy indeed on the launch and later getting ready for Richard's landing
 on the stub runway after 14 minutes of soaring

After some more flights by the Twin Astir syndicate members the day's flying was drawing to a close.  I took a short flight in the K-13 with Steve Lesson as did Mike with Dave Archer in the Puchacz.

If you ignore Peter's slant on the photo it does give a good summary of the day; dark cloud, light rain showers, burst of sunshine and a promise of some thermal activity.

The end of a long day

So 21 flights and all had their fill on a cold day in March.  The Wednesday Duty Instructor didn't get to play in wave, as have others on recent flying days, but he enjoyed some good flying in amongst the rain and hail showers.

Gavin Short