Wednesday 29th March to Tuesday 4th April 2017
Posted: 05/04/2017 20:58
Wednesday 29th. A light to moderate S'ly accompanying some weak fronts which slowly made progress eastwards, kept the site in cloud for some of the day and subject to on and off periods of light rain, with 2.7 mm of this falling during 'flying hours', thus turning them into 'non-flying' hours.
Thursday 30th. A initially moderate SSW'ly that later declined to light to moderate and veered into the SW, brought an increasingly warm air mass with a peak temperature of 14.9C. A generally cloudy morning led to a showery afternoon but in spite of this, 6 ATs were flown, all in K21 JVZ, with 4 of them for the day's First Flight pupils. While none of the day's flights exceeded an hour, 4 exceeded 30 minutes with Paul Whitehead taking First Flight pupil A White for 45 minutes off a 1,000' tow above a soarable southern ridge. Nick Gaunt, flying JVZ solo had 40 minutes off an identical tow height as he ventured as far east as Stonegrave before returning to site. Paul later gave another First Flight pupil, Rob Butler, 40 minutes off a 2,000' tow.
Friday 31st. An initially moderate S'ly, which gusted into the high 20 kts and was accompanied by some early rain, later declined to light to moderate as it veered into the SW, thermal conditions allowing 5 of the day's 19 AT'd flights to exceed an hour and a further 8 thirty minutes. Duncan Pask, the only private owner to rig, had 1:41 in his LS10, while Rob Bailey flying the Discus had 1:34 as he visited Boroughbridge, Thirsk and some other personal TPs to cover 83 km. John Marsh, flying the DG303, had 1:22, getting to the best altitude of the day with 4.330' asl near Hawnby, while the longest of the two seater flights was the 51 minutes enjoyed by Paul Whitehead and Paul Bulmer in K21 JVZ. John Marsh, flying JVZ with Phil Turner, had 50 minutes, while Geoff Turner had 45 minutes with John Tayler in K21 KLW.
Saturday 1st April. A light and predominately S'ly wind brought in some showers from mid-afternoon, but not before 10 ATs had been flown with the two K21s and the DG500 providing the means to do so. The day's two Mile High pupils featured in the day's > 30 minute flight list, with Graham Evison taking Peter Doogan for 35 minutes in K21 JVZ and Fred Brown taking Kyle Morrison for 30 minutes in the DG500. However, Colin Troise and Tony Drury did not rely on a high tow to achieve the longest flight of the day, 44 minutes in the DG500, their combined expertise, no doubt, being the main factor. Fred Brown and his P2, whose name I couldn't decipher from the log, rounded of the above list with 30 minutes in K21 KLW, while the Falke chipped in with 2 flights.
Sunday 2nd. A light to moderate NE'ly soon veered into the SSW as an overnight front cleared to the SE. providing some good soaring over the North Yorkshire Moors from around 1400 hrs. The prospect of a good soaring day, or half a day, meant the trailer park was busy, with the day's flight log recording 14 private owner launches, while 5 Falke flights added to a busy day at the launch point as 49 ATs were flown, the last of which landed at around 1830 hrs. 6 of the day's flights exceeded an hour with a further 15 between 30 and 59 minutes as 5 First Flight pupils and members enjoyed the day. The good soaring conditions over the Moors did not extend to over the Vales of York and Pickering, and Rob Bailey, flying his ASG29t, had to venture into the stable blue of the Vale to get to and return from his TP at Castle Howard in his flight of 3 hrs, during which he flew 138.4 km and also visited Carlton Bank, Kirbymoorside, and the Tontine. His visit to the latter TP, allowed him to take the following photo of the new hill soaring TP at the hill top wireless station NW of Osmotherly, trigraph #TWS, this being visible as the white square near the bottom right hand corner of the image..
Other pilots to exceed an hour included Steve Thompson with 1:51 in his Discus, Mark Newburn with 1:20 in the DG303, Roger Burhall with 1:15 in his ASW20 and Ken Arkley with 1:09 in the Discus. Albert Newbery led the two seater flight time list with 52 minutes in K21 KLW with P Frost, closely followed by John Carter with 51 minutes in the DG500 with Jana, one of a group of 8 Oxford University Students at the start of their week's flying at Sutton, while John Marsh and Graham Wharmby had 46 minutes in KLW.
Monday 3rd. With high pressure firmly in charge, the day saw early morning low cloud and mist disappear to be replaced by sunny, if slightly hazy skies, and some flat Cu, the day going blue later as the moderate SSE'ly soon veered into the SSW. 24 two seater based ATs were flown, with flying taking advantage of the longer days by continuing until around 1920 hrs. The thermal conditions, although only moderate, generated 2 flights of over an hour and an additional 6 over 30 minutes and also encouraged 2 private owners to rig. John Carter and Phil Turner had 1:04 in K21 JVZ, with Steve Thompson and Elliot Akama-Garden having 1:03 in the DG500, with visitor Chris Balance in his Astir just failing to get to an hour with 55 minutes. John Wright, the instructor with the Oxford University group, had 49 minutes with Osvaldo Gamara in K21 KLW while Mike Smith took Keith Hutchinson, one of the day's 3 First Flight pupils, for 36 minutes in the DG500.
Tuesday 4th. Another late morning start as the low cloud/murk of the dominant high pressure system burned off to leave another blue sky day, although with a thin cover of high cloud, the light to moderate N'ly slowly backing into the NW. 2 private owner launches contributed to the 22 flown on the day, the early launches being off runway 02, before operations transfered to runway 24. The private owner launches generated the longest flights of the day, Rob Bailey in his ASG29t having 1:41, as he visited Ripon and Masham, covering 79 km in the process, while Duncan Pask had 55 minutes in his LS10. The 7 flights to exceed 30 minutes included Steve Thompson with Elliot Akama Garren who had 49 minutes in the DG500 and John Carter and Ron Linton with 43 minutes in K21 KLW. Flying continued into the evening, coming to an end around 2000 hrs as the year's first session of Tuesday evening flying took advantage of the benign conditions, perfect for ab initio training.
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.