Thursday 29th to Friday 30th June 2023
Posted: 01/07/2023 21:53
Thursday 29th. A favourable forecast for good thermic conditions, including a light to moderate WNW'ly backing into the W later, led to a busy day at Sutton with 30 ATs off runway 24,including 17 by private owners and some landings on 02. Laurie Clarke/David Bill in K21 JVZ set the ball rolling having an hour off the 2nd flight of the day, but in the event, the development of large areas of spreadout led to abandonment of many tasks and the use of engines, helping to ensure that nobody landed out. Where thermal activity occurred, cloud base rose to around 5,000' asl with peak average climb rates of up to 6.5 kts with a few pilots climbing higher eg Bob Calvert to 8,100' asl over Thirsk, Clive Swain to 6.900'asl also locally and John Ellis to 6,100' asl north of Retford. Bill Payton, flying his DG1000t solo had the most exciting flight of the day. After visiting Tockwith and Brigg, Bill continued down to Boston before flying out over the Wash some 7 km from shore before regaining land at Manby. Continuing north, Bill did a 14 km crossing of the Humber estuary to the west of Spurn Point before running into overcast skies and having to use his engine 5 km NE of Pocklington. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, toured around mainly to the west of site getting to the N of Leyburn and Pateley Bridge, close to Catterick and Rufforth but also including multiple visits to Ripon and Tontine. Rob Bailey set a 300+ km task, but had to use his engine near Rufforth en route to Tontine having turned Horncastle to claim 292 km. Les Rayment was another Horncastle aspirant but abandoned this quest near the East Yorks 1 TP, some 20 km short of Humber Bridge. Chris Teagle in his Kestrel 19 also abandoned his 300+ km task around Worksop E, Helmsley and Burn after turning Worksop E, but managed to make it back to site after covering 198 km. John Ellis in his DG800 also abandoned his task near Worksop and had to use his engine twice, first near Burn and then 15 km SSE of site on his way back home. Derek Taylor in his ASW22BL, abandoned his task and flew a circular route passing near East Yorks1, Driffield, Filey and Pickering while Fred Brown in his Ventus ct abandoned his 300+ task en route to Doncaster NW 8 km SSE of Wetherby South and also a later attempt to turn Tontine. More local fliers included Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19, who also flew just west of Ripon and to Tontine, with George Rowden abandoning his 100 km FIA task and flying 130 km locally in his LS8-18. Amid all this abandonment and use of engines, Guy Hartland/ Steve Morgan in K21 KLW flew a 97 km task around Tontine, Guisborough SW, Kirby Moorside and Thirsk surviving a couple of low points. In all, there were 24 flights of over 30 minutes, including 16 of over an hour. Clearing skies and late afternoon thermals allowed Tim Stanley in his ASW19, Konrad Kawalec in Astir DPO and Guy Hartland/Dean Crosby in K21 JVZ all to have over an hour's soaring.
Friday 30th. Early brightness soon gave way to overcast and lowering skies, with light rain setting in around 1100 hrs and continuing until 1800 hrs as a light to moderate S'ly slowly veered into the SW. 2 ATs for First Flight pupils were flown before flying was abandoned for the day, both flights resulting in extended circuits.,
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