Friday 8th to Saturday 9th September 2023
Posted: 10/09/2023 11:15
Friday 8th. The anticyclone started to slowly decline, but conditions remained hot and hazy with a low inversion and no cloud, as a light, mainly SE'ly blew. 27 ATs off runway resulted, including 6 First Flight pupils in the early evening to add to the 7 flown during the day as attempts were made to clear the current backlog. 5 visitors flew their gliders, with Polly Whitehead and Katherine Balkwill being the only other solo pilots. Polly flying k21 JVZ and Katherine K21 KLW. Only 2 flights recached or exceeded 30 minutes flight time, Barry Monslow in his LS8-18 having 33 minutes and Ed Sison in his LS6 30 minutes, both the result of 3,000' tows.
Saturday 9th. The anticyclonic conditions continued as the temperature at RAF Leeming reached 27.8C, the light to moderate mainly S'ly wind leading to operations off runway 20 with 20 ATs flown. The low inversion of the last few days disappeared and there were a few shallow Cumulus to be seen at times, providing some opportunities to soar, with 9 flights of over 30 minutes and 5 of these over an hour. All 3 private owners who launched, Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 and Martin Joyce in his ASW19, had > an hour flights, Bob having 3:57, Darren 3:26 and Martin 2:13. Darren and Martin flew locally but Bob visited the environs of Ripon, Kirby Moorside and Sutton on Forest. Dan Mclean and Adam Sayer in Astir DPO had 1:06 and 1:23 respectively while flying locally, with Adam having some BI training with Bruce Grain in K21 JVZ earlier in the day and Bruce/Steve Morgan having the longest 2 seater flight late in the day, 40 minutes in KLW. Thermals were generally 1-2 kts, with the occasional 3 knotter and cloud base under the scattered Cumulus reached around 4,500' asl.
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.