Friday 9th October 2020
Posted: 10/10/2020 15:06
Friday 9th. A light to moderate W'ly blew all day, and there were also some showers about but they did not significantly inferfere with flying , The wind speed was not considered sufficiently strong for winching, so the day's 11 launches off runway 24 were by AT, most landings also being on 24 with runway 20 being occasionally used. Due to the wind speed and resultant softness of the hill lift, the main bowl of the western ridge was most favoured, but excursions along the ridge up to Paradise Farm were taken, as well as explorations out to Thirsk, Bagby and Dalton. All the 6 launches from the start at 1100 hrs until around 1500 hrs were undertaken in K21 JVZ, with the longest flights being by Bruce Grain and David Eccles with 50 minutes and Dave Thompson having 51 minutes solo. In the later part of the afternoon, the Stafford visitors flew, generating all the 5 flights on the day to exceed an hour's duration. Chris Jones in his Speed Astir and Andy Stout flying JVZ solo had 2:12 and 2:01 respectively while Tiago Oliveira, Paul Witters and C Darlow having 1:06, 1:21 and 1:43 respectively.
Meanwhile, up at Millfield:- No wave was forecast for today, and none was found. The wind was westerly all day, and the gusts eventually increased from the 30 knots experienced in the morning to a “put the tugs away” level in mid-afternoon. However, this still allowed Jim to fly his ASW24, and Tor to fly his ASW20 in the somewhat blustery conditions, whilst Poll, Paul, Marian, Sue and Colin variously had flights in the 1000 or 505 along with John and Bob. The various ridges did work, and thermals were available, but broken. Launches and landings required high levels of concentration – Milfield is a flat site that sometimes experiences ridge conditions; if this is confusing, then you obviously need to come and experience this airfield for yourself next year, when we hope to return to the real north.
This blog describes a snippet of life at the Yorkshire Gliding Club. Why not take a flight and try it yourself, or we can teach you to fly as a full club member.