Thursday 7th to Friday 8th April
Posted: 09/04/2016 12:05
Thursday 7th. Another day of showers in a light to moderate predominately N'ly wind, the showers becoming heavy in the afternoon with hail. In spite of this, 13 ATs were flown, all in 2 seaters, although soaring conditions were noticeable by their absence with no flights over 30 minutes. 3,000' tows for the 5 First Flight pupils of the day meant that 3 of them, Rob Buchan, S Broscombe adn R Clayton had flights of 25 - 24 minutes with either Andy Parish or Rob Bottomley for company, while John Carter and Chris Haresnape had 23 minutes in K21 JVZ off the first flight of the day. The increased ease of operation of the doors of the North Hangar, much to the appreciation of members, was due to the work of Ian Barwick over the weekend as the following photo shows, so thanks Ian from the rest of the membership.
Rumours that the Board were considering a more powerful tug to complement the new Eurofoxes reached fever pitch when a Piper Saratoga appeared in the Tug Hangar, as the following photo shows.
However, it turned out the aircraft was undergoing some maintenance by Bagby based Flying Fox Aviation and the hangar was being used as shelter from the showers.
That, however, was not the only excitement of the day as weekday office manager Josephine was presented with a birthday cake in recognition of a) her imminent arrival at the significant age of XX and b) her love of cats (note the cake decoration). Happy birthday Josephine from all the members.
Jpeg
Friday 8th. A weak ridge of high pressure preceding an Atlantic front suggested a potential soaring day and initially sunny skies led to some eager anticipation and early emptying of the hangars of club aircraft. However, the skies soon filled with low level cloud, although this soon dispersed to be replaced by extensive Cumulus with a base of around 1500' QFE as the following photo shows.
Conditions slowly improved throughout the day, but with some cycling of over development, but cloud base eventually reached around 3,500' asl. 28 ATs were flown off a still soft runway 20, with Phil Lazenby demonstrating the extent of his Baliwick (or should that be Baileynick) by getting his name down first for the club Discus and subsequently taking it for a 70 km, 1:47 flight, the best of the day. Rob Bailey responded with a 49 minute flight later in the afternoon, with Polly Whitehead having 42 minutes solo in K21 KLW, Tom Dale having 40 minutes solo in the DG500, George Rowden taking Mike Johnstone, one of the 4 First Flight pupils of the day, for 38 minutes in K21 JVZ and John Tayler having 37 minutes in the DG303. In all, 8 flights exceeded 30 minutes on a day when Tom Dale completed his Bronze Badge, so congratulations to him.
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.