Monday 6th to Tuesday 7th March 2023
Posted: 07/03/2023 21:57
Monday 6th. An initally light to moderate W'ly soon veered into the NW and increased to moderate to fresh, ruling out any hope of flying. Its subsequent decline to light came too late for any flying on a predominately cloudy day that developed into an medium level overcast from mid afternoon.
Tuesday 7th. A weak cold front travelled south overnight leaving the north of England in a cold, unstable air mass from the Arctic. Cumulus were soon popping and the day provided a cloud base of 4-4,500' asl, strong streeting thermals peaking at 6-8 kts and gin clear visibility. The surprising feature of the day was the low attendance at site, resulting in only 9 ATs off runway 02, as a light to moderate WNW/NWly blew. The 9 launches included 3 for private owners and 3 for First Flight pupils, with the balance for 2 members. All the private owners went cross country with Rob Bailey in his ASG29t completing a declared task of 219 km at 88.4 kph around Tontine, Scunthorpe and Garforth, with a best climb to 4,300' asl and a best average climb rate of 4 kts. Tim Milner in his LS3 flew a similar task I think, but I don't have a trace, while Chris Hanszlik flew his DG300 some 160 km, visiting just of the north of Ripon, Leyburn, Selset Reservoir and Catterick. Chris's best altitude was 4,500' asl and a best average climb of 4.3 kts. Back at site those locally soaring found conditions equally good and were able to give the day's 3 First Flight pupils a good introduction to soaring. The three private owners had flight times of 3-3.5 hrs with Bruce Grain/Steve Morgan having 1:14 in K21 JVZ while Dave McKinney/Tor Taverner had 42 minutes in K21 KLW late in the afternoon.
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.