Dartmoor Gliding News- ICL 2017 North Hill 6th & 7th May

Well I think my retrieve may be a story on its own but... how did we get to that ? Well due to the Icl weather going back to form... Saturday was scrubbed. Sunday was a 50/50 chance, but , as all glider pilots are so positive they turned up from far and wide. Tasks were novice 98km, inter ...128km and pundit 151km.

The weather info was not clear so very hard for the task setters to second guess. What was clear was a late start, low cloud base and a possible early cut off. Joy!

Roger Appleboom in true British grit took the novice task onboard and took a winch launch and with no fuss he was off towards the first turn point while all the time fighting the head wind and low cloud base. On cutting the task short and returning to Northill he made the choice to land in a field well below the high airfield of the club rather than stretch a final glide. (Retrieve one of the day. )

The Novice Task

I was particularly thankful of this at the end of the day as it meant Roger was all packed up and ready to go when he got the notice from control that I too had landed out after an almighty struggle. I got 100km on the 150km task. Only Sam (wyvern )got back on the task and paddy (Mendip) in the intermediate task.

An Ambitious Intermediate

Everyone else either had to cut and run or persisted till they found a nice field. ( me included)

If you look carefully at the trace below you will work out that I got away from minus 50ft.
( this only being possible as Northill is so high and while on down wind leg into a selected field with wheel down I chanced upon a 1.5 knot climb that I cajoled to lift me up) I then knew with the day dying I would not get back so selected a convenient private airstrip to land at. ( how lucky was that)

And One for the Pundits

No aero tow retrieve possible from Northill late in the day , Roger and his wife to the rescue .....(possible story on its own for this one)

Be a part of it.

Next is upavon. Already got pilots but more the better to get the Dartmoor message out there.

If you think that in the next two icl's at upavon and the park we have a full compliment of pilots from Dartmoor I am happy that we have done ok to date with only three out of the possible six chances used in the first two icl's

Onward and definitely upwards ,any how

Scores for Icl at Northill were- 

Novice:
No one passed Y without administrative penalties
Class not scorable

Intermediate:
Mendip - 6 points (1st)
Wyvern - 1 point (2nd)
DSGC - 0 point

Pundit:
Wyvern - 6 points (1st)
Dartmoor - 5 points (2nd)
DSGC - 0 points

Points don't count , smiles do!!!

Richard Roberts