Sunday July 2nd 2017
Posted: 05/07/2017 21:48
An optimistic briefing anticipated a good soaring day with wave. Thermals and hill lift were sometimes unpredictable and difficult to use so wave contact was not always easy. Most launches were by aerotow (27) but 11 pilots used the winch with most eventually getting away. All four 2-seaters were in demand with several of these flights contacting the wave. Best of these I am aware of was John Carter in the DG1000 who achieved around 9000ft with Tony Kirby. John produced a couple of great pics from that height close to the site. One of these appear below:
Not to be left out various club pilots utilised all the club singles with the Discus being flown twice and the others once each.
12 private owners rigged and flew, all having lengthy flights and most contacting the wave. Four of them registered x/c flights. Rob Bailey turned a number of Yorkshire TP's to rack up 273km during a flight of 4 hrs 30 reaching around 7000ft. Steve Thompson and Darren Lodge tied for the longest flights of the day both having around 5 hrs 45 . Darren took advantage of a low point from a winch launch to claim a gain of 10742ft and Gold Height. Congrats go to him - yet another achievement for YGC pilots. Steve Thompson flew 261km (over 300km on OLC) round TP's west of the A1 reaching about 10000ft in the process. Derek Taylor flying his ASW22BLE, seemingly lacking imagination, almost replicated his flight of the previous day by shuttling between the Ripon area and Barnard Castle at great speed. His OLC distance of 258.8km was just 200 metres short of his OLC flight the day before - a slightly wider circuit on this day would have given a perfect match although Derek admits this was not the plan. Bill Payton in his DG1000oT joined the wave x/c brigade during his flight of 4.5 hours with club member George Claydon. We have no details of his route.
Yet another excellent wave day at Sutton Bank,.
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.