Dartmoor Gliding Society Club News: Dartmoor Gliding News

Well, February was about to go out with a bang. There was a lot of work to do and the airfield was packed with club members attracted by the surprisingly hopeful weather forecast. RASP was forecasting a few hours of gentle soaring in the light winds. The clubhouse was standing room only for the morning briefing.

A nice sky

K13 on the wire

Right from the start circuits were extending a little in the buoyant conditions. By 11.30 the thermals were lurking under most passing clouds and the gliders were soaring well. It was nice to see that the solo pilots were all sticking to the "15 minute rule" so that they would all get a chance to try a little thermal soaring to blow away some of the winter cobwebs. Longest flights of the day were recorded by the K13s but even then these were deliberately curtailed.

Looking back at the runway

Steve Flying with Michael as balast

Two of our solo pilots

We had 2 visitors today who attended for Air Experience Flights. Sarah Ramdatt and James Nind both enjoyed soaring up to the 2200ft cloudbase and left with big smiles.

Sarah

James

In the hangar it was busy. A small team reweighed a privately owned Standard Cirrus. If you don't know, every 10 years ( or after major repairs or additions ) gliders have to be weighed and measured to establish the Centre of Gravity and calculate the minimum and maximum loading limits. After this K13-GCFGR was reassembled after it's recent ARC / C of A inspection ( similar to the MOT on your car ) and returned to the fleet. In fact it was taken to the launch point, test flown and put straight to work.