Friday 23rd to Tuesday 27th September

Posted: 27/09/2016 21:35

Friday 23rd.  A moderate SSW'ly blew for most of the day, veering into the S during the afternoon, the air mass also providing some reasonable thermic activity that was appreciated by those flying on the day but not tempting anybody to fly cross country.  The > 30 minute flying time list had 20 entries, out of a total of 33 ATs, with 12 flights exceeding an hour.    Graham Taylor topped the list with 3:04 in the DG303, while Mark Jerman, one of the 3 private owners to launch, had 2:31 in his ASW27 and Frank Wilson had 2:27 solo in the DG500.  Gerry Murphy had 1:56 in Astir DPO, and Keith Davey had 1:20 in Astir KRN on a day when all the club gliders were flown.  Visitor Baines from Burn GC had 1:47 in his LAK 17t, while new members Martin Clowes and Christina Griffiths had 1:20 and 1:34 respectively, Martin with John Carter in K21 KLW and Christina with Ron Beezer in the DG1000.  The day also saw 4 First Flight pupils sample the soaring experience.

Saturday 24th.  Saturday saw the  initially moderate SSE'ly veer into the S and become moderate to fresh, with gusts into the mid to high 20 kts.   This led to some turbulent conditions on approach to runway 20 that eventually resulted in flying coming to a halt around 1445 hrs.  However, prior to this, 18 ATs were flown, with some southerly wave providing soaring flights around the middle of  the day.  The best of these saw Jim McClean and Polly Whitehead contact the wave straight of their 2,000' tow and eventually climb to 6,100' asl over Coxwold, although the wave did not seem to extend much in either direction along the SE/NW orientated bar.    Jim and Polly were the only pilots to exceed an hour's flying time, although Mike Collins got close with 57 minutes solo in K21 JVZ, being one of 8 flights to exceed 30 minutes.  3 of the latter were Mile High pupils, H and T Macintosh and Mr Barker who had resectively 44, 36 and 38 minutes of flight with Fred Brown, Chris Gill and John Tayler as instructors. There were another 2 First Flight pupils and 6 Scouts to keep the 2 seaters busy.

Sunday 25th.  A eastward travelling front deposited 13.5 mm of rain overnight before moving off into the North Sea, its associated cloud bank delaying the start of flying to just before midday, the wind having veered and strengthened from a moderate S'ly to become a moderate to fresh W'ly, gusting to 25 kts.  The conditions led to a mix of launch methods with 6 ATs and 26 winch launches flown, the former principally for 4 of the 6 First Flight pupils of the day and 1 of the 8 Scouts.    The AT'ed First Flight pupils all enjoyed flight time of up to 45 minutes while Andy Noble, visiting from the Staffordshire GC  in his DG303 and Graham Morris from the Bristol and Gloucester GCin his ASw 27, 2 of the 7 private owners to fly, spent over 4 hours aloft searching for wave but not finding any of any significance.  The hill soaring conditions were also enjoyed by YGC club members with Tony Drury and John Marsh adding 2:16 and 1:33 to the flying hours of their DG303, and Roger Burhall and Tor Taverner similarly adding 1:44 and 1:09 to the log book of their ASW20.    The club Discus was also well patronised with Colin Troise having 1:26 off the first winch launch of the day, Nigel Burke following this with 1:23 and Sue Aherne adding her 1:00 later on.  Paul Whitehead and Mr Tsai joined the >1hr brigade with 1:03 in K21 JVZ and Paul also just missed out when flying 56 minutes with Steve Ball in the same glider.

Monday 26th.  A slowly advancing front brought a steadily lowering cloud base and bits and pieces of rain in the moderate SE'ly, an early attempt to beat the weather by John Carter and Geoff Turner in K21 JVZ only confirming the un-flyable nature of the day when they returned after a flight of 14 minutes, the conditions continuing to go downhill over the rest of the day.

Tuesday 27th.   Tuesday saw the arrival on site of a group from the National Housebuilders Registration Council, not to inspect the newly recovered   clubhouse/office/dormitory/hangar  roofs, though they did consider the job to be a good one, but to try their corporate hands at gliding.  Unfortunately, the weather refused to cooperate, the slowly advancing front of Monday being overhead around 1000 hrs, the wind being a moderate S'ly and cloud base being only a few hundred feet.   Recourse was therefore made to the simulator, with a thermally day over North Yorkshire conjured up to provide an introduction to soaring and gliding, this morning activity being preceded  by a bacon butty and followed by a 2 course lunch from Liz.  After lunch some of the group had some further time on the simulator with some opting for some low level,  fast jet transits along the Lakeland valleys.  The group left the site around 1500 hours just before the skies started to clear,  the wind veering into the W and strengthening to become moderate to fresh.  The winch was soon out and flying commenced at 1615 hrs, with 5 launches thereafter, K21 JVZ and the DG500 being used to explore the hill lift and search for wave in a promising sky, although none was contacted.  Visitors Andy Noble and Chris Jones had 2 flights in K21 JVZ, the first of 59 minutes and the second, to get another winch launch  in, of 12 minutes.  This latter objective was also chosen by John Carter who had 14 minutes in the DG500, while Bob Beck and visitor Tony Moore had 48 minutes in the DG500 exploring the ridge as far as Paradise Farm.  The day's flying was completed by the Morris's who had 24 minutes in the DG500.

 

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.

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