Friday 19th to Saturday 20th January 2024
Posted: 24/01/2024 15:15
Friday 19th. A bright start to the day didn't last long, with skies clouding over as a moderate WSW'ly blew. Cloud base was, however, not a problem and a good soaring day resulted, 4 initial ATs off runway 24, two for the days First Flight pupils, being followed by 21 winch launches, resulting in 14 flights of over 30 minutes with 5 over an hour. Soaring was primarily via hill lift but Chris Handzlik, flying the Discus off an AT, found some weak wave just to the W of Kilburn that enabled him to climb 400' to his maximum altitude of 1,900' QFE. With the wave dissipating, Chris dropped back onto the main bowl and soared at around 800' QFE before landing after a flight of just over an hour. Other pilots of have between 1:04 to 1:09 included Dave McKinney/John Carter in the DG1000 who hill soared as far north as Black Hambleton, returning via the forward ridge, Chris Collingham in Astir DSU who stayed on and in front of the main bowl gaining up to 1,600' QFE and Bill Payton who had a flight in Astir DPO to the Kepwick ridge, surviving a low point of 200' QFE over Gormire and then, later in the day, taking the Discus again to Kepwick but this time including the forward ridge in his excursions. While generally maintaining 6-900' QFE, the flight again including a series of low points, the lowest again being 200' QFE. Those not quite reaching 60 minutes included Neil Paveley who flew his Nimbus 2 for 57 minutes and Steve Thompson in Astir DSU who visited High Paradise Farm at the northern end of the main ridge and returned via the forward ridge in his flight of 56 minutes. They were joined by Toby Wilson/Andy Tyas with 52 minutes in K21 KLW, Fred Brown/John Forrester in the DG1000 and Ian MacFarlane/Mark James in KLW who both had 49 minutes, Fred/John doing an O/R to High Paradise Farm and Ian/Mark using the main bowl, with operating heights mainly in the region of 700'-900' QFE.
Saturday 20th. A moderate SSW'ly blew all day, but spits and spots of rain delayed the start of flying until around 1130 hrs when the first of 19 winch launches were flown off runway 20, the first time this runway has been used for winch launching for a considerable time with release heights of 1000' to 1.300' QFE being typical. Most of the day's flights were of short duration, but there were 2 flights of over 30 minutes and 2 more of between 20 and 30 minutes. Toby Wilson/Dan McClean had the longest flight, 48 minutes in K21 KLW, maintaining 900-1300' QFE on the section of the main bowl between Gormire and the A170. A brief excursion out over Sutton village found no lift so a return to the main bowl resulted with further soaring at 7-900' QFE. Toby/Dan had had an earlier flight of 24 minutes in KLW during which they dived down to hill top height before soaring back up to 8-900' QFE. Fred Brown/John Forrester had 31 minutes hill soaring in K21 JVZ while Bruce Grain/Jesper Mjles in JVZ had 27 minutes.
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.