Dartmoor Gliding Society Club News: Dartmoor Gliding News

High Pressure is in charge. Winds very light from the east. The day started with lots of cloud cover but this was forecast to improve during the day. There was even a short soaring window forecast for mid afternoon.

Mid afternoon view of the winch and blue sky.

K13 rising into a clearing sky

The big news of the day was the arrival of a Twin Astir Trainer which is joining the club fleet and is expected to become a club favourite. Today saw us starting the process of preparing the glider to join the fleet. There was lots of cleaning and some detailed inspection. We have produced a plan to refurbish the cockpit area with new upholstery and send the glider off to have a paintwork blemish taken care of and the Gel coat cleaned and polished. Our thanks are due to Gavin Short and Peter Howarth who made the 2 day trip to North Yorkshire to collect our new glider.

The Twin Astir trailer

Starting to inspect the Twin

Colin watching a soaring glider

The day progressed as forecast with the clouds eventually dissipating to leave a mostly blue sky. Just one visitor today Andrew Bates who flew in Puchacz with Scratch. Rick was busy with the training list with a mix of pre and post solo pilots. This included Zack who converted to flying the Astir. After an extended circuit Zack soared in the mid afternoon thermals for 42 minutes being beaten to flight of the day by John Alan who managed 43 minutes.

Zack in the Astir waiting to go

Self Portrait while soaring

Zacks view at the 1400ft cloud base

This afternoon saw a family visit to the airfield so that very young son Ben could take some photographs of the gliders. Here are a few of his photos.