The day started wet with the recent showery storms going over the airfield thanks to the low pressure fronts coming from the Atlantic. Apart from that, the day started sunny with temperatures ranging from 10 degrees in the morning to a much more comfortable 19 degrees later on in the afternoon.
Our weather man Andy said: “wind westerly 10kts with some lively gusts. There should be some thermal activity with a cloud base of 2500ft, but, it could be hit or miss with over development taking place throughout the day.” This could only be further from the truth as the gliding club had an absolutely stonking day!.
Without further ado, let's get into it…
Today saw 3 gliders taken up to the west end, K13 FSD, K8 GDK and last, but not least, the mighty HCC Puchacz. Three trainees were at the club, both Val, Ian King and our new returning member Rowan.
Rick kicked off the training list with the experienced Val. Who is seeing major improvement and with 3 flights today she is heavily improving her circuits and landings.
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| Val coming in to land, in the ominous K13
(note: it was a superb landing, well done Val!) |
But in Dartmoor fashion, a heavy storm came through for about 20 minutes and saw both Val and Rick stranded in the K13 amongst the rain.
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| Val’s landing on her last flight |
Next on the list of trainees was Rowan, a returning member from the BBQ Saturday, who enjoyed a one day course with Steve Lewis, and, was very much eager to hop in with Rick and fly.
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But, safety first as CFI Rick demonstrates how to put on and take off a parachute. |
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| Rick takes Rowan through pre-flight safety checks (CBSIFTBEC)
note: Either Rick is really concentrating hard or is extremely uncomfortable |
Eventually after going through the safety checks, Rowan got away into the sky, and immediately started soaring right up to cloud base, which was around 3500ft for an impressive 23 minutes (Well done Rowan).
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Rowan thermalling in the K13 with Rick in the back. |
Today saw 3 visitors come up to the club. Scratch took Margaret Barnes up in the Puchauz for an extended flight. Next visitor on the list was, William who was eager to go up and enjoyed 2 short soaring flights.
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| Scratch with William under a thermic sky |
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| William is ready to go! |
Rick then kindly took me up for a flight after a month of being away, and proceeded to tell me in his words, “PUT MORE BANK ON!” after finding a 6 knot thermal off the wire.
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| Rick and myself under a 4knot cloud street |
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Rick’s view of an awesome cloud street parked over Tavistock which eluded us during our flight. |
K8 pilots, Jamie Young and John Allan both saw 30+ minutes in the air, in very challenging conditions which was no easy task due to the varying cloudbase and direction in the wind.
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| The wind sock shows the wind almost aligned with the runway. |
Scratch with trial flight Kaisa had an excellent flight going from the launch to cloudbase in just a couple minutes in a 6knot thermal, Scratch had announced to everyone in the bus.
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| Kaisa happily waits to fly with Scratch. |
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| The Puchacz’s canopy reflects the thermic cumulus clouds |
Anyway, back to the training, Peter Howarth kindly took me up for three flights in the Puchacz to hopefully convert to the sleek fibreglass Astir.
Both the first 2 flights were underwhelming, but, as they say ‘3rd time is the charm’ as both myself and Peter climbed to 4100ft! Sitting under a cloud street.
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| Peter’s view in the Puchacz looking out to Tavistock
with some awesome clouds just behind it. |
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| The Puchacz high east of the airfield,
ready for spinning and stalls to take place. |
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| Multiple streets cramped together. |
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| K13 FSD awaiting it's pilots |
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| Another beautiful photo shows the Puchacz
and the variety of the clouds. |
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| Val then stepped up into the cockpit of the Puchacz with Rick in behind.
Note: (Now is not the time for silly faces Val you're flying!) |
Val enjoyed a 16 minute soaring flight with Rick with Val doing all the flying apart from the launch.
Last but not least, our final visitor of the day, was Caitlin. She enjoyed several flights with Steve Lewis in the K13.
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| Caitlin ready to fly with Steve |
Wow! What a day, some awesome soaring, a new junior member and lots of visitors. A big thank you to Malcolm who operated the winch and gave some amazing launches most being above 1300ft!. Secondly, Allison and my Mum who drove the retrieve throughout the day, and lastly a big thank you to Scratch, Steve Rick and Peter who flew everybody that needed to fly.
Zack Smith
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