View from the Duty Instructor
The 1hr trip to the club from South Hams is a good chance to study the sky and today was an example of an interesting sky. First leg dropping my daughter at work in Darlington and I felt the training was paying off when she asked about the “smooth straight cloud over the Moor”. That opened the door to full bull s@@t mode about wave without me really thinking about the why. David Braine on Spotlight the night before made the day sound fairly inert with, I thought, light winds. Coming over Haldon, I was struck by how many lenticular-like clouds dotted the mid-level cloudscape.
Perhaps David Braine scared off people because it was a modest, but keen team that got the field going. Only two on the 2-seater list and yet no real risk of rain and gentle winds so good for training made me think “what a shame”!
Connor Williams and Rob Hender with their one to one tuition kept the K21s busy, while the sky filled and hid from view the early wave clouds.
Eric Alston having helped with early launches and chatting about the sky, slipped the wings on to G29 and disappeared off. I heard the buzz of his engine just about the time the sky to the north started to show crosswind clouds and sunny gaps. The wind was very much NNW and fresher aloft so spying him at 5k’ on Spot The Gliders criss-crossing Culmstock was no surprise! Sadly I had to leave before he was down for a debrief but well done Eric for giving it a go! - John Pursey
Perhaps David Braine scared off people because it was a modest, but keen team that got the field going. Only two on the 2-seater list and yet no real risk of rain and gentle winds so good for training made me think “what a shame”!
Connor Williams and Rob Hender with their one to one tuition kept the K21s busy, while the sky filled and hid from view the early wave clouds.
Eric Alston having helped with early launches and chatting about the sky, slipped the wings on to G29 and disappeared off. I heard the buzz of his engine just about the time the sky to the north started to show crosswind clouds and sunny gaps. The wind was very much NNW and fresher aloft so spying him at 5k’ on Spot The Gliders criss-crossing Culmstock was no surprise! Sadly I had to leave before he was down for a debrief but well done Eric for giving it a go! - John Pursey
View from the Launchpoint
Considering
the weather forecast and conditions, there were very few people in the
clubhouse first thing. Alan Turner had managed to get all the ground
equipment out before the first pilots even arrived! With both K21’s, the
Perkoz and a Junior brought out, flying began at 10.05am just missing
the cheaper rate launches. Duty instructor John Pursey started the
flying list, and Simon Leeson (although on tug duty) took a trainee too,
which meant by 11:30 the two-seat flying list was completed!!! (Only
two pupils today, so for any of those that could have come up, you
missed your opportunity). The single seat list was four times the length
so inroads were made into that throughout the morning. While I
continued to sell raffle tickets between launches, trying to keep
members up to date on the ever growing list of prizes (here is the link
to the current list: https://www.dsgc.co.uk/gallery/367-agm-raffle-2021).
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| The second axle has appeared as if by magic! (John Pursey) |
Between
launches, there was much admiration of the second axle on the
Launchpoint, and I definitely noticed a big difference in the stability,
big thank you to Peter Smith. Flying continued into the afternoon, with
flight times increasing as the day progressed.
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| Andy Batchelor converted to Perkoz (John Pursey) |
Mike
Wilmott came back after his 3000ft aerotow reporting a very notable
flight, found wave, did aerobatics back down through a hole in the cloud
and found more lift on his way back.
View from above the clouds
Eric also got into the wave
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| G29 above the clouds (Eric Alston) |
"I Headed north and found a gap in the clouds, stretching from Tiverton Junction to the Wellington Monument. Reliable lift along the southern side of the gap, at times averaging over 2 knots, climbing to 5000 ft QNH. The gap started to fill in so headed south over the cloud to another gap just west of North Hill. Some lift here, much less than before, then this gap started to fill so air braked down to below the clouds." - Eric Alston
Everyone who wanted to, flew, and
the three Trial Voucher flights went home with smiles on their faces,
two of whom it was third time lucky.
The hangar
was packed away by 4pm, thank you to everyone for their help today, we
were fairly thin on the ground, but everyone worked well together and
efficiently ran the airfield, with no real delays between flights. - Sally Hender
