Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 26th April 2025

Todays weather forecast was absolutely dire. A slow moving occluded front was overhead. It did not help that the various forecasts that we use were giving a different picture. Some were predicting 80% chance of rain all day. RASP was giving 3 stars in the morning with rain from 12pm onwards. Looking out of the clubhouse first thing there was drizzle in the air and the cloudbase was not much above the tree tops. This lead me to the difficult decision to postpone today's "Women Go Gliding" event until tomorrow. Tomorrow's forecast looked good on all providers.

Initially, I got on with work around the hangar expecting that to be my lot for the day. However, the cloudbase started to lift so a couple of gliders were taken to the east end to try the conditions. Initially Zack and Rick used the conditions for launch failure practice, but soon there was enough height for full height launches and even some soaring.

Waiting for the cloudbase to rise

One of the "Women Go Gliding" candidates, Jane Mayers turned up this morning to discuss future gliding opportunities as she could not make it to the back up day tomorrow. After some discussions and seeing that the club had started to fly, we made our way to the launch point, claimed a K13 and managed to fly a couple of extended circuits. Jane left with a smile on her face and a promise to return soon to start her flying training.

Jane in the glider being put at ease by Val.

Jane helping with the pre-flight checks ( airbrakes in this case)

So the day turned out to be nothing like any of the forecasts. There was absolutely no rain beyond the early morning drizzle. Flying conditions were beautifully smooth and gentle; ideal for training. There was even some limited soaring with the longest flight of the day posted as 42 minutes by John Allan in the K8.

Aiden at cloudbase working on coordinated turns with Mike Jardine

I think a piece of seaweed draped out of the clubhouse window would have been more accurate than the multiple forecasts we actually used.

The cloudbase lowered again at the end of the day

Steve