https://dh-sufra.com/ 2026-10-18T09:00:00Z https://dh-sufra.com/writing/two-and-a-half-seasons-in-one-logbook.html2026-10-18T09:00:00Z

The theory papers in March, the practical test in September and the licence in the post at the start of October. The season is over, so here are the totals: 236 launches, 74 hours, and what they were made of.

https://dh-sufra.com/writing/fifty-two-minutes-over-the-quarry.html2025-08-17T09:00:00Z

The first time I stayed up on my own, in a thermal that the club says has been rising over the limestone quarry east of the field for as long as anyone can remember. How to find it, how to circle in it, and the numbers from the logger.

https://dh-sufra.com/writing/solo-on-the-eighty-seventh-launch.html2025-06-08T09:00:00Z

Yesterday afternoon my instructor climbed out, fastened the straps of the empty back seat and told me to fly one circuit alone. I flew three. Launch numbers, minutes, and a club tradition involving nettles.

https://dh-sufra.com/writing/cable-breaks-on-purpose.html2025-04-13T09:00:00Z

The most dangerous moment in a winch launch is the cable breaking near the ground, so instructors simulate it, without warning, by pulling the release. Nine practice breaks this spring at heights from forty to two hundred and sixty metres, and what I did at each.

https://dh-sufra.com/writing/downwind-base-and-final-forty-eight-times.html2024-09-29T09:00:00Z

A glider gets one attempt at every landing, so the circuit before it has to be the same every time. Heights, speeds and checks for a circuit at our field, and what forty-eight launches have taught me about my own judgement of height.

https://dh-sufra.com/writing/three-launches-and-a-day-of-pushing-gliders.html2024-04-21T09:00:00Z

My first day at a gliding club: on the airfield at nine, home at half past eight, seventeen minutes in the air across three winch launches, and the rest of the day spent pushing gliders, holding wingtips and writing down other people’s landing times.