Wednesday 8th to Thursday 9th June.
Posted: 09/06/2016 21:35
Wednesday 8th. A first flight of the day saw Andy Parish and Mr O'Neil confirm a low base to the overcast that had spread in overnight on a light, mainly N'ly, flow, so flying was suspended awaiting some improvement in the conditions. This break in flying did have a beneficial side, however, as a number of willing painters were employed to provide new paint to the club house and adjacent structures, as the following photos show, Jon Morris making sure of not getting spotted with paint in the first while playing a supporting role to Steve Thompson in the second, Steve being a tower of strength in the refurbishment process.
The overcast skies finally started to break up mid afternoon and flying got under way again just before 1600 hrs with an additional 6 ATs being flown before flying ended for the day just before 1900 hrs. Off the last flight of the day, and taking a tow to 3.5k QFE, David Watson and Tom Dale were up for 27 minutes in K21 JVZ, while Andy Parish and Andy Evans had 20 minutes off a 2K tow in the same glider. Earlier, with the low cloud still in the process of breaking up, Tony Smythe had a number of 1,000 ' tows in K21 KLW with David Watson monitoring his circuit, approach and landing skills.
Thursday 9th. Although the low overcast had again covered the site overnight, Thursday saw it quickly break up and disappear, leaving rather milky blue skies, the wind being very light from the S to start, progressively increasing to light to moderate over the day and backing into the ESE. A low level inversion limited usable thermic activity until after lunch, a higher one restricting climbs to 2,500' asl initially, this increasing to around 3,000' asl later, but this was enough to allow 3 of the day's flights to exceed an hour. Rob Bailey took his ASG29t on a ramble across the moors, covering 77 km as he visited Carlton, the Tontine, Carlton, Helmsley and Carlton again before returning to Sutton in a flight of 2:18. This time was just beaten by Bob Bromwich who flew his LAK17 efs for 2:21 as he got in some early practice for the forthcoming Northerns which start at the weekend and another early arriving competitor in the competition, James Loveland, accompanied CFI Andy Parish in the DG1000 as they enjoyed 1:10 of late afternoon/early evening soaring. As well as these 3 flights of over an hour, the day's 22 ATs also generated an additional 5 flights of over 30 minutes, with George Rowden, taking advantage of a Mile High flight with Jenny Hartley, recording 42 minutes in K21 KLW and Mike Greenacre having 35 minutes in the Ka8. Flying came to a end around 1730 hrs as the sky clouded over due to the approach of a Atlantic front, while earlier in the day, Les Rayment and Mo Fay flew the Falke off to the seaside, only to be thwarted by the east coast sea fret a few kms inland from Whitby.
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.