Tuesday 11th to Wednesday 12th July 2023
Posted: 13/07/2023 15:16
Tuesday 11th. A moderate WSW'ly blew all day, overcast skies and a few afternoon showers not affecting flying too much, with the Tuesday evening group flying until 2130 hrs and enjoying clearing skies as well as soaring opportunities. After a quiet morning with 2 ATs off runway 24, one for the first of the day's 6 First Flight pupils, activity increased post lunch and by the end of the day the launch total stood at 23, with Bob Calvert being the only private owner to launch. The other am launch saw Konrad Kawalec have 1:43 in Astir DPO, the first of 6 flights to extend over an hour with 11 more between 30 and 60 minutes. Konrad climbed to 3,300' asl using thermal whilst also using hill lift and while spending most of his time soaring the main bowl, did explore the lift on the forward and main ridges as far as Boltby. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct spent the first 2 and 1/2 hours of his 5:37 flight hill and thermal soaring but eventually contacted wave 6 km NW of Thirsk. climbing to his peak height of 13,100' asl over RAF Topcliffe. From there he visited Ripon, Masham, Hawes, Pateley Bridge and Knaresborough, supplying the following photos.
No one else had a significant wave climb, but a number of pilots had small wave climbs in the Felixkirk area amongst their predominately hill/thermal soaring, including Konrad Kawalec on his second flight in Astir DPO, Fred Brown/Dominic Hammond in K21 JVZ, Steve Thompson/ Sam Dawson in JVZ and Ron Beezer/Julian Gerretsen in the DG500. The other >an hour flights saw Toby Wilson/Josh Jackson have 1:13 in K21 KLW and Ron Beezer have 1:11 in DPO, with most flights climbing to 3,000'/ 4,000' asl, although Fred and Dominic climbed to 4,700' asl.
Wednesday 12th. The moderate WSW'ly continued to blow, again with predominately overcast skies and a few light showers. The day's launches consisted of 9 off the winch and 2 ATs for First Flight pupils, with the day's 2 private owner launches each having an hour or more, in which achievement they were joined by Conrad Thwaites, who had exactly an hour in Astir DPO, experiencing thermal and at times weak wave enhanced hill lift while soaring the main bowl. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct and Martyn Johnson in his DG600 were the two private owners to fly, with Bob having 2:20 and Martyn 2:0. At one point being down to ridge height, Martyn eventually reached 3,400' mainly in thermal while exploring the local environment as far as the A19 to the north and south of Thirsk. Bob explored a similar area while having a peak climb to 3,700' asl. The Laurie Clarke/Paul Steer combination had 2 flights in K21 KLW, the first lasting 50 minutes and the second 47 minutes. Both flights saw Laurie and Paul soar the main bowl at around 800-1100' QFE for the majority of their time in the air. They did, however, have an excursion to Boltby on first flight while on the second climbed to and maintained around 2,000' QFE over the forward ridge for a while.
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.