Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 8 March 2023

After making tea for one's better half and retiring back under the duvet if you just looked at the Met Office's Yellow snow and ice warning (Ed: Yellow snow? Do behave!) you would firmly stay there and continue reading the latest Tom Clancy thriller (Ed: Isn't he dead? Ahh, that is what ghost writers do!).

But being good pilots we look at other forecasts and they were telling us rain, low cloud, and maybe some sleet on Dartmoor.  So not cold then.  And so it proved to be.  The back roads were filthy and I was glad I hadn't washed my car yesterday (Ed: You do realise that there is still a hosepipe ban extant in Cornwall?).

This is what happens when the air temperature matches that of the dew point

It was obvious that we had to cancel today's visitor flights and ask them to re-book. Cue a disappointed Duty Introductory Flight Pilot, Hugh.  The Duty Instructor, Mike, with nothing to do tried to remember how to light the wood burner.  But with John Allan's arrival we able to revert to gliding talk and ask him how we was getting acquainted with his new Glider, a Mini-Nimbus, which he has temporarily based at North Hill (Ed: A wise decision which allows for a much more expansive airfield to land on when one is converting to a new type).

And 15 minutes later when the two temperatures diverge - Magic happens!

After lots of "hangar flying", and when the heavy rain stopped, we pulled our fingers out and repacked the Motor Transport hangar which wasn't as shipshape and Bristol fashion as it should be from Sunday's use.  When Colin arrived and lunch had been consumed (Ed: Which didn't include you because you left your rucksack at home...which had your lunch in it. Doh!) we proceeded to the hangar.  

John masterfully backs the winch and tractor in to the MT hangar (Ed: Quite a feat as there is no power steering and no mirrors)

And now to add the retrieve vehicle

The final result.  Shipshape and Bristol fashion

The K-8 needed its ARC (the certificate) displayed in the aircraft and the replacement letters (F and X) applied to complete the full G-Reg under the Port wing following some minor repairs.  Its now ready for rigging on Saturday, fingers crossed (Ed: Since the K-8 was built in Germany shouldn't that be "Thumbs pressed"?).

Colin prepares to add the registration letters "F" and "X" to the underside of the port wing

This is where the magic or special effects happen (Ed: Oh yes, "FX" - Special effects! A little bit of Hollywood magic comes to DGS)

Registration complete.  FXB is ready to be rigged on Saturday and fly.

CCY received a bit of fettling. Namely the capacity flask for the mechanical variometer, which was re-secured.

Back in the club house I brought the documentation for K-13, G-CFGR, up to date and procured Colin's signatures in the relevant places (Ed: New pilots think gliders fly due to the relationship between lift, drag, and weight. Old pilots know that a glider flies only with the correct paperwork and relevant signatures in place).

Jobs done we retired to the clubhouse for a final cup of tea before heading home.

It was still raining when we left.

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News-Saturday 4th March 2023

 Another day with 8/8ths cloud cover. The wind is still NE but much lighter than of late, Last Saturday we had wave enhanced, thermals coming of the north ridge, But what will today bring?

K13s waiting under an uninspiring sky

There was thermal activity coming from the North Ridge again and as the winds were much lighter this lead to 9 flights in the 20 to 30 minute range to cloud base of 2100 ft QFE ( above the airfield). Flights could be sustained at this level but, as we were only fielding a couple of K13's today, flights were kept deliberately short to suit the flying programme. It is a pity the the privateers who turn out last week were not here today; I'm sure that flights of several hours would have been available.

K13's sharing a thermal

An interesting selfie Mike

The training flights were operated by Mike Jardine today. He was busy all day including a couple of check flights for David Archer before he added to his solo tally with a couple of short soaring flights.

Mike and Alasdair ....

Minutes later climbing strongly through 1500ft.

Ella and Mike

Visitors today came in the form of Rachael Dewsbury who completed a One Day Course with Scratch, Valerie Kiely a returning temporary member who enjoyed a soaring flight with me and Jozef Szczutkowski (grandfather of junior member Milosz) who also flew with me.

Rachael and family

Valerie and me

And Jozef waiting for me to stop playing with the camera

A surprisingly good day.

Steve

Dartmoor Gliding News - Sunday 5th March 2023

The forecast for light north-westerly wind. overcast sky and a small probability of some rain late afternoon, the only question was would we have enough hands to fly. With some of the sunday soarers away at Denbigh the early arrivals settled down to morning teas and coffees to await for others to arrive. Slowly pilots arrived and with enough to fly we set about setting the field up to fly from the east end. No booked visitors, so only one K13 was required.

After a quick briefing at the launch point, Sean Westrope was first to fly with me. The benign conditions allowed Sean to gain confidence that he could smoothly control the glider and even start practicing approach control ready to fully take control of the landing.

Sean getting strapped in.

Next to fly with me was Matthew Stone who recently started struggling with approaches and landings, mainly due to the recent more turbulent conditions. Today with calm conditions we took a step back to break down the approaches into individual parts. On the third flight Matthew flew the complete flight with a perfect approach and landing which boosted his confidence no end.

Matthew ready to go.

And off he goes.

Ed Borlase took a couple of solo flights whilst I had a bit of lunch.

Ed on approach.

Ed then swapped positions with Gavin Short on the winch. This enabled Gavin to use his BI skills to fly with new member Roman Walczyk.

Roman and Gavin doing pre-flight checks.

K13 in circuit.

The last trainee to fly with me was Danny Surgeon. Danny is also starting to fly the approaches. First flight a demonstration of undershoot and overshoot to recognise each situation. The second flight was to pick out a good reference point and start controlling the approach towards it. A slight dampness in the air indicated the possible approaching rain in the forecast. At the top of the launch it was obvious the rain was more imminent than we thought. So a quick inflight re-brief to point out a new reference point towards the west end so we could do a hangar landing. Danny coped well with this change of plan and should quickly move on in the coming weeks.

With the K13 and equipment packed away the only thing to do was to erect the hurdle fence. A careful note to those doing this job, make sure you are the right side of the fence when the last panel is put in place.

We will let you out Wednesday if we fly.

All trainees left having each made individual gains today. In the hangar Adam and Colin had been working on the K8 and Ed's K6.

An interloper in the hangar.

Thanks to those at the club and for all sharing the tasks to enable flying to be done.

Peter Howarth

Dartmoor Gliding News - Wednesday 1 March 2023

A call to arms went out on the DGS Soaring WhatsApp group yesterday evening requesting an early start. Richard had disseminated news of Skysight's forecast of wave in the morning.  It sounded very tempting.

I was first on site at 0715 followed hot on my heels by Richard. Between us we got all the gear out and ranged the equipment on the field.  We then got assistance from the other earlier arrivals to take the fence at the west end down.

Looking towards Tavistock, from the entrance of the site, at potential wave clouds

Once that was done we got two K-13s out and helped rig the DG300, the Open Cirrus, and K-6 FUB. Richard rigged his Discus at the other end of the field.  This meant that both Mike Bennett and Hugh could fly in their K-6. As although Hugh was the duty Basic Instructor today there were no visitors scheduled  (Ed: Are our visitors being kept away by the chilly northerly winds?)

The winch driver's view to the west as Richard takes his Discus to the launch point.  Flying is about to start.

First launch was a K-13, nominally for a weather check, with Mike and Steve Fletcher.  Straight into wave off the launch but having to stay clear of the low clouds. Second up was Richard in his Discus who promptly treated himself to a launch failure and a go around before landing safely up the field.

Mike Jardine and Steve Fletcher "Suited and booted" for their weather check flight (Ed: Did I mention that it was perishingly cold in the north easterly wind?)

Looking south from the winch. The edge of the primary wave bar that DGS pilots were trying to connect with (Ed: Throughout the morning it moved progressively east away from the airfield)

As the day went on with the K-13s earning their keep whilst the privateers tried to connect to wave, thermals, indeed anything that might keep them aloft.

Peter returns to the field in his Kestrel

Mike Jardine's training load, as the Duty Instructor, was wide ranging today and included Guy Balmer (pre-solo), Steve Lesson and John Smith (both post-solo), and Steve Fletcher (Introductory Flight Pilot training).

Trainee Guy and Instructor Mike ready themselves for 20 minutes of "straight flying" exercises

Steve Lesson waits for Hugh and Mike Bennett with FSD to clear the launch area after their 24 minute flight

Steve Lesson heads towards Blackdown while hunting for those elusive snippets of lift

Meanwhile Mike in the rear seat  enjoys the view of Tavistock and sunlight glinting on the sea to the south east.

"Man of the match" Phil lands his DG300 after  36 minutes aloft

Having failed to reach launch height in his Kestrel Peter consoled himself by taking two flights with David Bourchier later in the afternoon.

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" (Ed:  I think you are over egging it here!  Anyway some of our members might not get the 53 year-old quote.)

"Happy hands" Bourchier about to aviate with Instructor Peter

Colin, our BGA Inspector, couldn't make it to the club today but gave me the go ahead to continue working on FXB's wing. Out with the iron to tauten the fabric and a paintbrush to add two coats of dope.  The serene calm of the hangar with Classic FM on in the background was shattered by grinding and welding sounds emanating from the AMF trailer. Scratch was cutting out yet more old rusty steel and letting in fresh steel.  He assures me that he will be ready soon for an army of volunteers to descend on the trailer armed with wire brushes, paint brushes and a big pot of Hammerite paint.

The duty Basic Instructor, without any visitors to fly, flew with Mike Bennett, Malcolm and then solo in FUB; six flights in toto (Ed: Not a bad day with no visitors to fly!).

Duty Basic Instructor Hugh flew with other club members, picture here with Malcolm  - "I can't feel my knees"

"Did you know that your glider is on my foot?"

Bandits ten O'clock high!

Hugh demonstrates a "greaser of a landing"

Beautifully held off

Easy Jet eat your heart out!

Despite Skysight's promise most of the privateers all "fell down"

Except the DG300, now standing suitably aloof from the other single-seaters

Due the early start I didn't have a chance to deliver the planned lecture on airbrakes and spoilers to Guy. So we gathered in the clubhouse as the final flights if the day were occurring.  The lecture was timely as during Guy's 20 minute flight up and down an energy line leading towards Gibbet Hill he had to the airbrakes to avoid entering cloud, so it was a great introduction to the subject.

Steve takes Mike on an IFP training flight on the last launch of the day

On a cold grey day we achieved 24 launches, which included a training flight of 20 minutes and Farmer Phil claiming the flight of the day with 36 minutes.  Not bad at the start of March as we are still in winter.

Gavin Short

Dartmoor Gliding News - Saturday 25th February 2023

Today was a day of broken promises. Looking out early this morning at the blue sky and bright sunshine promised a warm, spring day. Wrong, the temperature was about 4C, with the wind chill from the very brisk northerly cross wind made this feel more like -4C. Artic survival gear was the order of the day. Promise 2 came in the form of a forecast NE wind. Surely this would give a well set wave pattern. Wrong, there was some evidence of wave effects, turbulent conditions in the air and on the approach with a few patches of persistent sink. wind on the ground was almost directly accross the runway but showed much more easterly content at flying heights. RASP was promising workable soaring conditions in the middle of the day with a 3 star rating. Hopelessly optimistic. 

Early morning approaching the airfield

So did we just turn around and go home early. Not a bit of it. Conditions such as these provide excellent training opportunities for low hours pilots. Duty Instructor Peter Howarth  was soon in the air with trainees and low hours pilots alike, Well done Peter.

Mackenzie getting ready to fly with Peter

Looking east from the north ridge

K13 overflying on approach

We welcomed Junior One day Course Candidate Joseph Wake from Tavistock. We started today with some time in the Simulator while waiting for the worst of the turbulence to blow through. This turned out to be a good move as on our first flight we found that the wave was enhancing the northly ridge and we could find reduced sink at 1200ft while we waited for a thermal bubble to carry us skyward. The trick was to centre quickly as we drifted to the SW in the strong wind and to head back to the ridge after reaching the 1900ft cloudbase or loosing the bubble. The thermals were only lifting from one spot on the ridge or in an area between the airfield and Brentor church but using this system we managed to stay aloft for a day topping 31 minutes before we elected to airbrake down to the circuit for a well earned rest before flying again.

Joseph waiting for his first flight

CCY launches again

The RASP promise has encouraged some members to rig their single seaters, All managed extended circuits the best of these was Andy in his Libelle with 21 minutes. There was also a 20 minute flight by Malcolm and Scratch in a K13 who only returned to the airfield because Joseph and I were ready for the glider.

Malcolm climbing well

Early afternoon we were also visited by Mike Morrison who enjoyed a couple of flights with Scratch. Mike's son and daughter both completed One Day Courses with us a few weeks ago.

Mike Morrison

After the flying had finished the Committee assembled in the clubhouse for a meeting in front of the log burner (where would we be without that?)

Today ultimately delivered some great flying and training.

Steve