Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 18th April 2015

Another blue sky day but with easterly winds forecast there was great excitement among the handful of experienced pilots on the airfield. Would there be wave? Thoughts of Gold Heights and oxygen use were discussed.

The good news was that there was definitely wave in the area with some lenticulars and rotor clouds making brief appearances locally. So we rigged, flew to great heights and had a wonderful day, did we? Well no. In the morning the wind was very strong and gusty. Base wind speeds at  21.2 knots with gusts up to 48 knots.

The windsock had a good workout today

So the gliders were left in their trailers, we changed ends and waited for the forecast, early afternoon, reduction in wind strength. By mid afternoon the wind had indeed reduced to about 15 knots but it was still very gusty as witnessed by the almost constant gust alarms from the weather station and by 3:30pm we abandoned any thoughts of flying today.

The weather station showing the wind at 21.2 knots from the east ( top right quadrant ). 

While we waited expectantly, Rick Wiles and David Bourchier were working away on the various defects afflicting our Land Rover Discoveries. By the end of the day various parts had been added to the wanted list and several faults fully investigated. Well done chaps.

Ever wondered what a broken Discovery CV join looks like?
Neither have I but just in case here's one

A disappointing day. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 15th April 2015

Clear blue skies and a light northerly wind promised a warm day with good soaring.
In the event we got the warm day with tee shirt and shorts being the preferred dress code. The soaring was poor. The pressure was high with a strong inversion and locally the heat was just not high enough to break this up and allow proper thermal activity. Just to tease us, there were obvious thermals all day over the higher parts of Dartmoor to the east marked by a growing line of cumulus clouds.

The cumulus teased us all day

 There were 4 private gliders out today; Colin’s K6, Bob’s K8, Steve’s Astir and Martin’s ASW20 which was sporting a new drag inducing device as he had left the roll of wing tape attached to the wing/fuselage join.

The new drag inducing device (wing tape) left attached on the ASW20

ASW20 owner and inventor of drag inducing devices Martin Broadway

The most notable flight of the day was by Allan Holland in the club K8 who managed to scratch out a 40minute flight by shear hard work in the low level bubbles around the adjacent slopes. Excellent effort.

Heather went flying with Fred Marks

Today’s visitor was Anne Cathercole who enjoyed a couple of short flights in the K13 with me. She did very well in her attempts to control the aircraft and left the site with a big smile and promising to return for some more flying. Also flying in the K13 was Heather who works tirelessly around the site. Heather had been retrieving cables all day. On her last visit she managed to clean the whole clubhouse single handed.

Visitor Anne in K13 G-CHXP

Anne's flight on the launch

2/3 airbrake approach as Anne returns to terra firma.

A enjoyable day with friends.

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 12th April 2015

With the wind attempting to blow the windsock above the horizontal (20 gusting 29 knots) and due south (i.e.. 90º across the runway) it was an unpalatable but not difficult decision not to fly today (see photo). Which - as ever - was a shame, particularly when members travel for hours to get to the airfield, however safety first.

“Hooray, Up She Rises!”  20kt, 90 degree crosswinds attempt to lift the windsock above the horizontal.

So how to divert the interests of 8 highly motivated and skilled would be aviators? Step forward the ‘To Do’ list, from which we managed to remove a significant number of tasks, plus some that didn’t even get on the list, as the photos here describe.

“Hi, Ho!” Rich Roberts sports a pair of ‘knocking sticks’ in order to set about the old caravan.

At the top of the list was ‘Dismantle one caravan’ to which, at the risk of becoming typecast, Richard Roberts and myself were assigned to see if we could break our 3 hour record (we failed – the second caravan was a much better crafted construction than the first). Remaining with the caravan theme, the second task was to pressure wash the club’s caravan, for which Heather Horsewill was a willing volunteer, ably assisted by Barry Green and Adrian Irwin. Two hours later, the removal of mould and mildew complete, it was transformed into an almost desirable looking mobile residence. Next job will be the internals…

Heather Horsewill places the club caravan ‘under pressure'.

Anyone recognise this?  The club caravan post Heather’s attentions.

Not content to rest on her pressure washer laurels, Heather then turned her attention to the apron outside the clubhouse, which was treated to a similar facelift by removal of mud and nut cases (not Heather!). Rick Wiles (our Introductory Flight Pilot for the day) was keen to make use of the non-flying opportunity to repair the shock absorbers on the red Discovery following which, assisted by Dave Bourchier, he turned his grinder and welder to the Zetor tractor, where the seat had parted from the chassis, making for an ‘interesting’ ride (now welded back in place), and the metal ‘sunroof’ was leaking (holes now patched over).

“There’s Murder of the Dancefloor!”
The closest Rick Wiles has got to a disco in 15 years – thank goodness…

“The club is well equipped with PSE (PPE?)…” (…it’s just that some choose to leave it on the workbench..!)
Rick grinds away the seat of the Zetor prior to welding it back in place. 

Meanwhile, in expletive deleted corner, Mike Keller and Barry were trying to replace the water pump in the gold Disco. A simple task to describe but, in the ‘tradition’ of British car manufacture from the nineteen eighties, a complete and utter pig to execute. Just gaining access to the pump took 3 hours and which, with an aluminium bolt looking more like a boxer’s ear, will be a job for completion another day.

Mike Keller boxing the Disco's ears.

So six jobs (almost) completed that won’t intrude into a flying day, and it was well worth the chat at elevenses and lunch time. Thanks go to all those named; let’s hope we are rewarded with better weather next Sunday

Martin Cropper

Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 11th April 2015

The weather looked promising. A cold front had swept through yesterday taking the high pressure with it. This left us with an unstable airmass. The only downside of this was the drop in temperature. Thursday was around 20 centigrade; today about 11 but feeling much colder in the brisk westerly airflow.

Due to the somewhat leisurely arrival of members and some urgent maintenance work, the first launch was not until midday when the 13 climbed away from the launch straight to cloudbase some 3800 feet above the runway. So a good day was in prospect.

Looking down at the airfield from 3800 feet

Tony Dean captured this view of Roadford Lake from the Zugvogel

There was a lot of soaring, the best of which was Chris Jones in the K8 who stayed aloft for 1hour 24 minutes missing out on his 2 hour soaring flight. Close on his heels was Adrian Irwin in the Zugvogel  who returned after 1 hour 10 minutes to bag his outstanding soaring flight for his Cross Country Endorsement. Well done Adrian. Tony Dean managed couple of 40+ minute flights in the Zugvogel while trying for his 2 hour flight and Colin Boyd managed a late afternoon 30+ minutes in the K8. Strangely there were no private gliders out today. Syndicate owners should be kicking themselves that they were not here.

The view to Plymouth and the Tamar Estuary

How steep do you turn in thermals?
Chris Jones shows us the way.
Notice the K13 soaring above

We had two Introductory Flight visitors, Myles Simpson and Phyllis Lancaster ( a sprightly 81 years young ) both of whom flew with Rick Wiles.  Also returning today was Air Training Corps Cadet and DGS temporary member Heather Lawrie. She had a couple of flights with me working on her aircraft handling skills and was busy around the launchpoint helping out. Great fun.

Visitor Myles Simpson

Visitor Phyllis looks happy to be flying

Heather returns the K13 to the launchpoint at the end of one of her flights

As the day progressed reports that the Gold Landrover had some mechanical problems began to filter through. The alternator drive belts had come off and couldn’t be refitted due to a wobbly pulley. Time for a new water pump then, although, reports that the power steering pump had also failed proved thankfully to be a red herring ( the power steering pump doesn't work with the drive belt removed!! ). More work to do.

A good day.

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 5th April 2015

“Stop, Stop, Stop!” went the cry. What on earth for now? On the day when, with 4 instructors on site, 3 winch drivers, 5 trial lesson/introductory flights and a One Day Course gave the potential to achieve the first 40+ launch day of the year the last thing we wanted was unnecessary stoppages… A swift glance in the direction of pointing fingers revealed the cause: a deer on the runway! So OK perhaps a valid “Stop” call, then… (see photo captured by Sunday Sharp-Shooter Paula Howarth).

 “Stop, Stop Stop!” A deer crossing the airfield causes the launch to be delayed.

In fact, our launch total of 35 was unlikely to have been bettered since today was, once again, a game of two halves (and almost venison in two halves..!) Up until exactly 3pm the light north/north-easterly had been producing prodigious convection, with thermals mixing with wave that had Allan Holland struggling to maintain control over the Zugvögel in rotor during his 2 hours flight to east of site, Roger Appleboom having the brake the K-13 all the way down from Tavistock in order to return to terra firma and Roger Green spending a shade less than 2 hours aloft among smooth thermals to the west in his super sexy ASW-20. At three, the windsock suddenly swung on its pole indicating a southerly, and the day died. Just like that. The fact that this was cold sea air cutting in from the coast was confirmed by clouds which continued to move across the field from the north. So farewell, then, to 40 launches plus, but thankfully we had managed 2 half-hours, 3 one hour plus and one 2 hours plus flight before conditions changed.

Chris Jones returns in the club’s K-8 G-CGDK after an early morning soaring flight.

One Day Course student Margaret Hannah, from Totnes.

And a lot of other business was done (not all, unfortunately, recorded on camera). Our One Day Course candidate was Margaret Hannah. Margaret, a retired psychotherapist from Totnes, has previous powered experience and, like many of her ilk, found the rate of turn and angle of bank used by glider pilots quite difficult to assimilate. However she certainly enjoyed her six flights (and visit to the winch) and will be very welcome when she returns to ‘unlearn’ the ways of the propelled fraternity. Our Introductory Flight visitors were Jason Bastin and Thomas Jennings, who flew with Roger Appleboom, Mark Smith, who flew with Pete Howarth (see photo) and relatives Louis (see photo) and Eric Smith. David Jesty completed the instructing team (following an early morning half-hour limber up in the K-8) providing check flights for Jerry Wellington and Barry Green, whilst Caribbean sojourner Martin Broadway also re-qualified for solo flight (with a 300ft launch failure in which demonstrated that he is by no means averse to using sideslip..!) Chris Jones and Jeff Cragg also maintained the K-8’s utilisation rate, whilst also winching and retrieving respectively, and Pete Harvey was able to make his third and fourth solos in the K-13.

Introductory Flight visitor Mark Smith with Peter Howarth.

Introductory Flight visitor Louis Smith also flew with Peter Howarth.

Before concluding, mention must be made of the weather station that David Bourchier has set up at the launch point (see photos). With a digital/pictorial display of wind speed, direction and temperature, this is a great advance that will assist us in making informed decisions, particularly in relation to the crosswind, in future. The by now traditional Sunday thanks are also necessary to Richard Roberts, who certainly had 40 launches in his sights (until the weather changed). Oh and, if space permits, thanks are also due to Peter Howarth who – like many others – is a Sunday multi-rôler, delivering Introductory Flights from one end of the field and then winching at the other – today adding another string to his bow: that of Rice Krispie chocolate Easter egg cake baker – many thanks, Pete, they were delicious!

The weather station recently installed at the launch point courtesy of Dave Bourchier.

Martin Cropper

Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 4th April 2015

Today was definitely a day of 2 halves. In the morning, 7/8ths cloud with a very low base and a northerly crosswind of 14knots with some wicked gusting kept everything in the hangar.

Fitting new cables to the GusLaunch
(or are we just talking about it)

 As usual the assembled members got on with the jobs that needed attention. The GusLaunch winch had new cables fitted ready to return to service. The K13’s were surveyed for the fitting of GoPro type cameras, a project being pushed forward by Chris Jones and Rick Wiles. We were visited by Mary Browne who had arrived for an Introductory Flight but the weather was still out of limits. Her family looked on as she was given some instruction in the simulator in preparation for her flight which has been rebooked for next Saturday.

Mary Browne concentrating in the simulator

The afternoon sky

By mid afternoon the weather had improved markedly. Cloudbase was now much higher with about 3/8ths cloud cover and the crosswind had reduced to 8 knots with very little gustiness. K13 G-CHXP was taken to the launchpoint and several flights were undertaken by our pilots to keep current. The best flight was Fred Marks flying the K13 from the back seat with 31minutes to 2800 feet. All the flights were launched using the GusLaunch winch which performed flawlessly after it’s extended period of maintenance.

Chris Jones trying unsuccessfully to photograph a couple of buzzards while being flow by Fred Marks
Picture taken from the mounted GoPro camera

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 29th March 2015

Whilst most glider pilots have a pretty good idea of how gliders are built and rigged, I suspect that not many of us are as well acquainted with caravans and their construction. Well now all can be revealed – the principal constituent of caravans is - polystyrene foam, plus a few wood stringers, a little aluminium and some hardboard.

The ‘before’ shot of the Abi Supreme 11.s Lightweight caravan
about to be ’intelligently’ dismantled by Richard Roberts.

Tops Gear’s (former) presenter Jeremy Clarkson would have been proud of us since today, whilst the weather was blowing the proverbial ‘hoolie’, Richard Roberts and I set about the Number 1 Task on the ‘To Do’ list, namely ridding the roads of one of the two surplus caravans on site. So farewell, then, Abi Supreme 11.2 2 berth Lightweight caravan – which, in the modern manner, we dismantled ‘intelligently’, preserving windows and seals for resale, metal for the scrapyard and wood for the clubhouse woodburner.

Was this your trailer??
No, not a tale of destruction as a result of the gale force winds at the weekend,
but the outcome of Sunday’s dismantling of one of the surplus caravans.

Just as we were finishing the task (3hrs, in case you were wondering) Richard pondered whether the Abi Supreme Lightweight A11.2 was one of those classics that get taken to Caravan Club rallies to be oo’ed and aah’ed at by devotees of the caravanning fraternity… Perhaps we had just disposed of one of the rarest of the species that could, 3 hrs earlier, have been worth a small fortune..? A panic-stricken trawl through the internet quickly (thank goodness for the strength of signal in the clubhouse) revealed that the Abi Supreme Lightweight 11.2 is, indeed, a rare bird – there was only one left on e-Bay – going for £50 – unsold..!

So the gauntlet has been laid for the scrapheap challenge of the remaining surplus caravan – can you beat a time of 3 hours to ‘intelligently’ prepare it for the scrapyard..?

Martin Cropper

Dartmoor Gliding News-Wednesday 25th March 2015

A sunny day with lightish NW breeze and 3/8th’s cloud cover. Great. This and an enthusiastic RASP (soaring) forecast lead to a rash of private gliders being rigged and ready to do great things. Mumblings about cross country tasks and much programming of flight computers followed.

The Open Cirrus, ASW20 and K8 waiting under an interesting sky.
The 2 Astirs were already lined ready to launch.

The sky looked really good but getting the initial climb to cloudbase proved to be very tricky with very narrow thermal cores. The cloudbase at 2500 –2800 feet discouraged the cross country aspirations of all pilots. There were some good flights however with Mike Gadd top of the tree with a flight of 2 hours 9 minutes in the Open Cirrus. The other notable flight of 1 hour was by Allan Holland in the club K8. Well done chaps.

Today's "Aceof Base" Mike Gadd in the Open Cirrus

Mike took this view of paragliders on Sourton Tor.

We welcomed the return to the airfield today is convalescing Wednesday instructor Bob Pirie who dropped in for a visit. It was nice to hear that he is making progress. Meanwhile, in the hangar the Twin Astir syndicate were involved in getting the C of A and ARC renewal completed which culminated in the glider being reweighed.

David Rippon took this nice view of Brentor from the K8

Thanks to everyone who helped today. Steve Raine, Mike Jardine and Fred Marks for the winch driving and the 2 pre-solo pilots who worked all day without flying.

A winch driver's view of some interesting cloud formations by Mike Jardine

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News-Sunday 22nd March 2015

At most gliding clubs the cocky reply to the casual enquirer is the inevitable “You should have been here yesterday!” Today the answer would have been “You shouldn’t have bothered yesterday - for today’s the day..! But before going into the boring detail of the day’s achievements, we need to pause for a moment and take stock of how we got there.

"All Present, Correct and Ready for Daily Inspection!" – the club fleet was ready to go by 0930.

For when globe trotting, Alpine flying LS-8turbo owning Instructor David Jesty greets you with “Nice to see the hangar’s empty”, causing a nice, warm feeling of smugness, you have to remember that it was largely due to the efforts of Leith ‘Early Start’ Whittington and Chris ‘I’m Right Behind You’ Jones, plus the Howarths and others, that he could have said exactly the same had he arrived at 9 o’clock, or even earlier (see photo). With first launch of the day away by 9:45, and the sky already looking ‘bright’, there was a definite spring in people’s step today and, with the wind in the NE, always the opportunity for wave.

One Day Course visitor Mark Samuel with Mike Jardine.

Our One Day Course student was PPL holder from Callington Mark Samuel (see photo), who was flown by Introductory Flight Pilot Mike Jardine for his first ‘flings’ into the firmament before moving onto David for instructional flying. Mark’s place in the front seat was subsequently taken by local resident Michael Hosking (see photo), who arrived for an Introductory Flight accompanied by a considerable following of family members. So two-seater DMX went from Mike’n’Mark to Mike’n’Mike..! Both enjoyed their flights and Mark will return to complete the launches he wasn’t able to fit in today.

Introductory Flight visitor Mike Hosking with Mike Jardine.

But it was in the single-seat market that the greatest gains were made… With a gentle north easterly wind and few clouds forming the sun did its job a treat - thermals began at around 11 and grew in strength throughout, as did the confidence of our early season pilots to find and exploit them. For example it took newly qualified Introductory Flight Pilot Pete Howarth 10 long minutes to get from 600 to 650 ft agl in the K-13 at 1030 in the morning, whereas it took ASW20 owner Roger Green exactly the same amount of time to get to 3,600ft by 2:30 in the afternoon! (- see Roger’s photos). And whilst those two flights probably bracket the greatest/least height gain for greatest/least effort spectrum, the intervening colours were populated by a Cross Country Endorsement qualifying 2 hours plus for Adrian Irwin in the Zugvögel, 1½ hours by Roger Appleboom in his K-6CR, an hour plus by Chris Jones in the club K-8, which Jeff Cragg and Karl Andrews also flew.

The ASW20 over the Tamar Valley

Approaching Roadford Lake

However Accolade of the Day has to be reserved for Pete Harvey who, having endured endless spins, spiral dives and cable breaks, finally went solo today (see photo). Pete, who has powered experience (but is none the worse for that), started flying with us in July and, travelling from Falmouth on a fortnightly basis, has been a regular feature on Sundays, taking a keen interest in Don’s lectures on ground school days and tenacious pursuit of his Progress Card on flying days. Well Done Pete! And watch out, you K-8 jocks, he’s coming through…

Peter Harvey being congratulated by Martin Cropper after going solo today.

Thanks go to Chris Jones for winching (again), to David Jesty for making a most welcome appearance, to Mike Jardine for his ‘bedside manner’, to Leith and the team for getting the kit out whilst dawn was still causing a blush in the sky and not least to Richard Roberts who, apparently at both ends of the airfield simultaneously, drove the launch rate up to 12 launches per hour at one point, thus enabling us to achieve 32 launches before an unexpected sea-breeze crept in from the south-west to put and end to flying for the day.

Martin Cropper

Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 21st March 2015

The weather forecast for today looked reasonably favourable; lightish northerly wind mostly blue skies and definitely no rain; spring is here at last. The soaring forecast was not as positive but that would not be allowed to get in the way of some gliding action.

Chris Jones shared his view of the runway while driving the tractor and roller

Before flying activities could start though there were several housekeeping tasks to do. The monthly maintenance ( cleaning, vacuuming, canopy cleaning, lubricating ) on the aircraft was brought up to date. While this was being done the tractor and roller were put to good use.

Old Friends - Left to right
Steve Clark. Allan Holland, John Bolt, Trevor Taylor and Ged Nevisky with his back to us

Today saw the return of several old friends. Steve Clark dropped in and spent the afternoon with us. Trevor Taylor made his first visit to the airfield after his period of illness. Today also saw the return to the club of the Green Party i.e.. Roger and Barry Green. Roger is planning to base himself and his ASW20 at DGS for the coming year. Welcome home Roger.

Roger with his ASW20

The flying saw some soaring the best flight of which was junior club member Elliot Acton with Rick Wiles in K13 G-DDMX who remained airborne for 28 minutes. The best of the rest was Roger Green in the ASW20 at 20 minutes.

Trevor had a short flight with me in the K13

A day for old friends and junior pilots.

Steve