Tuesday 30th August to Thursday 1st September
Posted: 02/09/2016 10:11
Tuesday 30th. A light WSW'ly was accompanied by Cumulus with a low base, the clouds slowly dissipating to leave blue sky by the end of the flying day. The low cloud base had a deleterious effect on cross country efforts with non reported, but Jesper Mjels proved there was wave to accompany the thermals with a climb to 9,934 ' asl in his DG 400. The Slingsby week visitors had another busy day, contributing the majority of the 29 private owner AT launches out of the day's overall total of 49. Dave Cornelius in his Ka6 topped the endurance table with 2:32, followed by another Slingsby Week attendee, Bob Lloyd, who had 2:00 in his Skylark 4, while YGC members Albert Newbery and Stuart Heaton had 2:16 in their DG1000t. Other pilots contributing to the 15 strong list of those exceeding an hour in the air included Ken Reid and Ken Porter in their Duo Discus with 1:21, Bob Beck and Alex Constantine with 1:04 in K21 JVZ and Will Blackburn with 1:22 in the Discus.The club 2 seaters accommodated the day's 5 First Flight pupils and the Falke contributed a single flight to the day's activities.
Wednesday 31st. A light to moderate S'ly opened the day as a weak cold front moved south, its passage resulting in a breaking up of the cloud sheet, a rise in cloud base and a veer of the wind into the WSW with an increase in strength to moderate, maximum gusts being of the order of 26 kts. The front also delayed the start of flying until after midday but thereafter, the day saw a mixture of AT and winch launches, the former totalling 6 and the latter 28. All the ATs were by club 2 seaters, including 2 for for the day's 4 First Flight pupils, but the winch proved much more popular for the Slingsby Week visitors, with 19 of the latter flown by them. AT's contributed 1 flight of over an hour to the 19 flown from the winch, while of the 12 flights of over 30 minutes, 9 came from winch launches. Dave Cornelius in his Ka6 again topped the endurance table with 4:20, being accompanied by John Castle in his SB5E in exceeding the 4 hour mark. 4 flights exceeded 3 hours, B Winch with 3:17, Richard Lucas with 3:09 in his Skylark 4, Barry Pridgeon with 3:02 and Mike Armstrong with exactly 3 hrs in his Olympia 463. Among the 7 pilots to have between 2 and 3 hours were YGC members Martyn Johnson and Jesper Mjels, both of whom achieved wave climbs with Martyn getting to 15,607 ' asl in his DG600 and Jesper getting to 12,313' in his DG400. In fact Jesper had 2 flights of over 2 hours on the day, while Howard Marshall, another YGC member, was happy to have a single flight of 2:07 in his Ka6. Visitors D Plylis and Dave Whyte topped the 2 seater duration table with 2:09, while Ken Reed and Gillian Brind had 1:37 in their T21. As well as contributing to a busy airfield, the Slingsby Week visitors, and especially their gliders certainly brightened up the place as the following photo, taken by Rob Bailey, shows.
Thursday 1st September. A light to moderate WSW'ly greeted those attending morning briefing, with a weak cold front out to the west not expected to affect flying over the course of the day. Cumulus soon started to form and with a forecast for cloud base to rise to 4,000' asl a number of pilots embarked on thermic cross countries. This proved to be somewhat optimistic, as all who did either abandoned their tasks or had to fall back on engine power, while Slingsby visitors Ken Reid and William Cook landed out in their T21. However, the fickle thermal conditions were augmented by unforecast wave that provided a more certain means of flying cross country, while hill lift provided a means of staying up locally as the wind veered into the W and strengthened to become moderate. The 48 ATs of the day included 28 by private owners and 5 for First Flight pupils, including a Mile High flight and the varied soaring conditions resulted in 38 flights in excess of 30 minutes, with 28 over an hour. The latter included 1 over 5 hours, 1 over 4 hours and 5 over 3 hours. Lindsay McLane was the pilot to exceed 5 hours, succeeding in reaching his TP at Spurn Point, but then having to resort to his engine on the way back to Sutton as the sky turned blue, after covering around 110 kms. A thermal soon after meant the engine burn was brief and Lindsay carried on to connect with the wave in his Ventus. George Rowden, abandoned his triangular task after turning Stamford Bridge due to blue conditions and, after struggling to get back to Sutton with sufficient height to continue soaring, transitioned from a thermal 4 km to the SE of the site into the wave and, after climbing to 8,100' asl, did an O/R to York to record 134 km, before exploring the wave locally in his flight of over 4 hours. Bill Payton and Stuart Heaton in their DG1000t, also abandoned their bid to get to the Humber Bridge, again due to blue conditions to the SE of the site and after using their engine, connected with the wave and climbed to 6.000' asl. Richie Toon, relying on wave lift alone, flew an O/R to the other side of the Pennines in his LS7, while Paul and Polly Whitehead. like George, flew an O/R to York in the DG500, finding the wave to be barely marked to the south. Martyn Johnson also used the wave to get to 8,600' locally in his DG600, while Phil Lazenby, director of Slingsby Week, hitched a ride in an Olympia 463, and enjoyed 2 hours of nostalgia as he climbed up to 6,000' in the wave. The Slingsby visitors had another interesting and soarable day, with many getting into the wave, while YGC members also profited, Frank Wilson having just over 3 hours in the DG303 and John Carter and Chris Haresnape having 1:17 in the DG1000.
Post Script. August turned out to be probably the best wave month ever for the YGC with a total of 225,071' height gains, with the result that the YGC is top of height gains on the National Ladder with a total of 373,917' gained by the end of the 1st September. Not surprisingly, there are 11 YGC pilots in the top 25 on the National Ladder for height gains and this is despite not all pilots recording their height gains.
Also, our congratulations are due to Chris Gill who came 4th in the Junior Nationals held recently at Tibenham.
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.