Thursday 28th July to Monday 1st August
Posted: 02/08/2016 16:22
Thursday 28th. A light to moderate SSE'ly blew as a front advanced from the SW, its low cloud and rain bringing flying to a halt late morning and restricting flying to 4 ATs, none of which exceeded 30 minutes in duration in the lift free skies. The flying that was done was dominated by the Newbery family, with son Martin having 2 flights in Astir KRN, and Dad Albert taking grandson Peter for a flight in the DG500. The only non-Newbery flight was by John Carter who took First Flight pupil Barry Kernen for a 24 minute sortie in the DG500 to record the longest flight of the day apart from those in the Falke which had 2 flights. Another First Flight pupil was given an extended period in the simulator by John Carter, this including hill soaring in the Lakes, winch launching at Pocklington and launches from Sutton with subsequent landings at RAF Topcliffe.
Friday 29th. The details of Friday's flying are currently not to hand so will be reported later.
Saturday 30th. The early light to moderate NW'ly soon backed into the W, the day providing some good soaring at times but also some over-development that proved to be something of a hazard for those flying cross countries. 35 ATs were flown, with the majority of the club fleet utilised and 15 private owners launching, flying going on until around 1740 hours. Club President Nick Gaunt topped the timesheets with 5:07 in his LS7 during which he visited Thorngumbald and Bedale, covering around 220 km, while a number of other pilots exceeded 4 hours flying time. These were Fred Brown in his Ventus with 4:16, Steve Thompson in his Discus with 4:13 and David Latimer in his Ventus with 4:12. Steve, after a short first flight, completed 73% of his Sut/Garforth/Northallerton/Pontefract/Sut task, covering 176 km before the over development caused a return to Sutton. Chris Teagle, flying his Nimbus, was another pilot to have his task affected by the spreadout, attempting Sut/Pontefract/Northallerton/York/Sut and completing 85%, 179 km, before returning to Sutton. Chris Gill and Liam Watts, flying the club DG1000, on the other hand, completed a 191 km task with TPs at Burn, Humber Bridge and Langtoft, getting some help from a weak sea breeze, Martyn Johnson completed his 237 km task in his DG600, with TPs at Garforth, Northallerton and Pontefract and David Latimer flew 220 km around Pontefract and Thorngumbald, looking for wave after returning to Sutton, but not finding any. Both Martyn and David's flights were affected by spreadout at times. Back at site, Conrad Thwaites and Colin Troise both separately recorded 1:11 while flying the DG303 and Brian Wise gave First Flight pupil Neil Gunn 1:19 in the DG500.
Sunday 31st. A moderate WNW'y airstream provided some very good soaring conditions to start the day, but the dreaded spreadout meant an afternoon of overcast skies, with consequent problems for those pilots going cross country. 38 ATs were flown with all but 2 flights exceeding 30 minutes, 15 exceeding an hour and 6 over 2 hours. The 16 private owner launches provided most of the long duration flights but Simon Altman flew Astir KRN for 2:12 and Ron Beezer had 2:07 in the DG303. The best of the 2 seater flights saw John Carter and Conrad Thwaites have 1:14 in the DG1000 while John and G Murphy had 1:01 in the same glider. Steve Thompson, flying his Discus completed his 189 km task around Burn, Hemsley and Fridaythorpe, but found the last leg back to Sutton a hard slog under the overcast. Derek Taylor in his ASW22 attempted Chesterfield and Horncastle but had to resort to his engine north of York on the way back to Sutton due to the spreadout after covering 319 OLC km, while Martin White in his Libelle and Kelly Teagle in her Std Cirrus both landed out at Rufforth, Kelly after rounding Market Weighton and having two attempts to get back to Sutton from Rufforth. Paul Whitehead, with 3:19 in his Ventus and Tony Drury with 2:14 in his DG303 were the other pilots to exceed 2 hours flying time, while those First Flight pupils who flew in the morning, of the 7 who were flown during the day, were rewarded with a taste of thermal soaring and those who flew in the afternoon had more quiescent flights.
1st August. A light W'ly opened the day but this progressively backed to become SE'ly and light to moderate by the end of the flying day. A few showers associated with a depression to the south affected the site around 1600 hours but the day's flying prior to this interruption consisted of 19 ATs and the continuation of flying in the evening added another 12, all off runway 20. Soaring conditions were very variable, periods of thermal activity being relatively brief as the Cumulus readily spread out to cover the sky. 3 of the day's flights exceeded an hour, Lindsay McLane staying up for 3:34 in his Ventus and Nigel Burke 1:35 from his second flight in his DG600, Lindsay and Nigel being the only private owners to fly, while Joan Wilson had 1:05 in the Ka8. 5 other flights exceeded 30 minutes, the best of these being by George Rowden and a returning First Flight pupil, Mr Boothroyd, who had 52 minutes in the DG1000 while David Watson had 46 minutes with a visitor from Lasham, Mr Gavan, in the same glider, Mr Gavan being the forerunner of another 3 visitors from Lasham who arrived on site during the day. The pre-rain flying also saw the re-solo of Alan Beaumont, so congratulations to him. Following the interruption due to rain, 11 Explorer Scouts and their accompanying Scouter, part of a group having a summer camp near Ripon, were flown via a very slick operation that lasted 1:46, the first launch taking off at 1657 hrs and the last being at 1843 hrs. This record breaking operation utilised a single Eurofox tug flown by Paul Whitehead, 3 two seater gliders flown by Brian Wise, Fred Brown and George Rowden and an efficient ground crew of Polly Whitehead, Tom Dale, Naomi Kennard and Ian Barwick with contributions from Joan Wilson.
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.