Thurs 29th December

 With little chance of flying today after yet more deluges of rain (126mm so far this month at North Hill), Pete Harmer used the Club Simulator for some very useful 1:1 training with Rob Hender, completing multiple aerotow training  sorties with the randomiser  rope breaks and on- and off-field landings.

 

Rob practising aerotows in the simulator (Jill Harmer)

This was followed after lunch by spin and spiral dive differences. So just the flying consolidation in the air now......hopefully in the New Year. -  Happy New Year and good soaring for 2023 to all our readers. - J&P

Wed 21st December

 After an optimistic weather forecast from Glenn Turpin last night, people arrived in Clubhouse from around 08:30. Weather looked good and after a pitch inspection by Glenn and Chris, it was determined as flyable by aerotow only. There was only one problem… we had no tug pilot!! After some phone calls, Simon Jordy came to our rescue. Huge thanks to him for stepping in. 

Newly retired midweek tug pilot - ready! (Stuart Thomson)

 The launch point was setup just in front of the hangar, gliders lined up and ready to go by 10:30.

North Hill airfield is all green again (Stuart Thomson)

Reduced price Aerotows were limited to 1500ft and flights were short. So by midday everyone on the list had flown so a quick lunch and back to the top of the list again. Everyone that wanted to fly twice did so. Winter Solstice today so the field was being packed up by 15:30 and gliders washed after some muddy landings. 

Cleaning the mud (Stuart Thomson)

 A total of 24 launches today but a great day was had by everyone.  - Stuart Thomson 

Season's Greetings to all our Members and Readers - DSGC

Sat 17th December

There was still a lovely covering of snow on the airfield this morning, .......

Still snow on North Hill (Mike Wilmott)

.......and with the Duty Instructor finally arriving at 10:00am (Mark Courtney, caught in traffic and two empty Costa cups later!) there was a short list of seven on the two-seater list and seven on the solo list. 

Reduced price aerotow day (Sally Hender)

 The decision was made to set up the airfield for aerotow only just by the clubhouse. Flying commenced at 11:30am, with four instructors (Mark Courtney, James Flory, Stuart Procter and Steve Westlake) taking their turns with the pupils, and three of them sharing the tug! 

Rob Hender with Mark Courtney (Mark Courtney)

 

We had one interesting landing over the fence, and the snowman was nearly finished off by VG, so an eventful day in all, thank you to everyone who mucked in and helped on the chilly airfield. 

Sun setting on a short day (Mike Wilmott)

 Eighteen launches in total, with Lisa Humphries and Stuart Procter having the longest flight of the day with 20 mins. Everything was packed away by 3:30pm as the sun started setting. - Sally Hender

Thur 8th December

 A cold but calm and bright day called a fair size crowd of about twenty souls to North Hill.  Early low cloud dissipated to reveal a beautiful, slightly wintry scene in the valley below, as the frost hung around before being banished by the sun.  Winds were light but with enough east in them to require setting up at the far end and we headed skywards shortly before 11:00. 

Nice in the sun (Mike Rigby)

 Both K21s were in action, along with the Perkoz and a Junior.  Training took place for the likes of Brentor’s Steve Lesson (who is not Simon Leeson!) and also for John Davis, Nicholas Johnson and I taking place under the tutelage of CFI Mark Courtney and Chris Wool.  Other Thursday stalwarts including Andy Davey, Rob Rand, John Borland, Ashley Thomas and George Sanderson, variously took the two-seaters or the Junior for a spin, while Aston and Mike Horwood put in long stints on the winch and cable retrieve respectively.  Less than two weeks out from the winter solstice, we were keen to maximise the available light and staggered lunch to avoid having to break.  Flights were unsurprisingly short but a brief period of an hour or so in the earlier afternoon as some convective cloud came through did offer some lift with flights of 10-20 minutes.

Watching Andy doing aerobatics (Mark Courtney)

Andy Davey, in HCX, had Robert Lee take him to 5,000ft for the Pawnee’s only outing, whereafter we watched Mr Davey engage in some aerobatic amusement.  Longest flight of the day was 50 minutes in the Perkoz under the control of Pete Startup.  After so much unusable weather, it was a very pleasant and productive day, with some weak winter sun and the lack of wind keeping the frostbite at bay. - Mike Rigby

Wed 7th December

 Cold was the prediction, no great foresight or wisdom there, and thus it proved to be.

A reduced contingent of hardy Wednesday regulars made the trek to the west end with the K21s. The early launches were troubled with low clouds but simulated launch failures reduced the impact on activity. The sky cleared during the middle of the day but with limited numbers we had to break for lunch.

A lonely K21 (Peter Smith)

 Eric was cleared to fly solo after determined persistence and attendance, which he duly did, Barbie enjoyed a flight with lovely sunlit views over a cold landscape with lengthening shadows and it was good to see JB again on the field, he had a hangar landing flight.

Everyone on the list flew. - Peter Smith

Sat 3rd December

 James Flory had suggested that  the forecasts said it would be flyable albeit cold, so the hopefuls got the kit up to the west end for the Northeasterly wind. It was quite a strong wind as well as being very cold, and a blue flag limit.

After just seven  two-seater flights, the cloudbase came down and all the gliders were hopped to the hangar, and everything cleaned and put away. 

Stewart Henshall awarded the Presidents Trophy for best progress (Sally Hender)

In the afternoon, with Stewart Henshall back from Reading and Thailand, Pete Harmer did the honours with presenting Stewart with the 3 Trophies and the Albatross badge that had been awarded after the AGM. - J&P

Thur 1st December

 North Hill was treated to beautiful December sunshine with fantastic views over the Exe valley which was filled with the fog all day. Jill and Pete were away today so instructing was shared between Mark Courtney, Mike Sloggett and Chris Wool. Mark was also on tug duty and was rewarded with a 4000 ft tow to allow visitor Simon from Dartmoor GS to practice spinning. 

Fog in the Exe Valley (Mike Horwood)

 There was a light easterly wind running straight along the field. It was decided that we should launch from the south side and land on the north, avoiding the newly sown grass. Most of us understood the instructions! The Launch Control was parked in the middle of the western side of the field aimed east so that the logger could watch launches to the right and landings to the left; it worked very well. 

Sunset (James Smart)

 Dave Perriam received some back seat training from Mike. Andy Williams flew the Perkoz from the back with several willing volunteers in the front. Geoff Lawrence returned to flying after a couple of months away. Many Thursday regulars were there to fly solo or continue their training. 37 flights in total, pretty good for a December day. - James Smart