Wednesday 2nd to Friday 4th November

Posted: 05/11/2016 16:00

Wednesday 2nd.  With the light to moderate N'ly flow continuing, it was another cool but dry day, high cover contributing to a reduction in surface heating and a corresponding reduction in the availability of thermal lift compared to Tuesday.  16 ATs were flown off runway 02 with the visitors from Shalbourne contributing the only solo launches of the day, K21 JVZ and the DG1000 being the only club gliders to fly.  Mike Smith, with one of the 4 First Flight pupils of the day, Bernard Overfield, had 36 minutes in the DG1000, helped by a 3,000' tow but also by some weak and localised wave, while Andy Parish and Andrew Bedford had 32 minutes in JVZ, the only two flights to exceed 30 minutes, although Andy and Chris Haresnape came closest with 27 minutes in JVZ.  The day's flying was completed by a single flight in the Falke.

Thursday 3rd.  The wind had swung into the SE, being light to start, but progressively strengthening to become light to moderate as it veered into the  SSW over the course of the day.  A low cloud base delayed the start of flying until after lunch and the skies remained cloudy with a little light rain accompanying the end of the flying day.  As a consequence, there were only 8 ATs, with K21 JVZ monopolising the flying log although the  Shalbourne GC visitors contributed 2 launches.   It was essentially a circuit day with no flights over 30 minutes, although visitor Jim Walters in his Vega managed to stay aloft for 26 minutes, the same time as one of the 4 First Flight pupils of the day, who flew with Andy Parish.

Friday 4th.  The start of the day saw the light to moderate wind in the SW, this slowly veering into the W as the day progressed.  The first launch of the day was off runway 24, but with the wind strength the ground run behind the Eurofox was long, so operations moved to runway 20.  The day provided tantalising bits and pieces of lift, maintaining the interest of those on site with the result that 24 ATs were flown, 4 of these for the day's First Flight pupils, while the visitors from Shalbourne GC contributed 4 launches on their final day on site.  Although nobody managed to exceed an hour, there were 7 flights in excess of 30 minutes, the result of weak and patchy wave and from the middle of the afternoon, some weak hill lift in the main bowl.  The latter resulted in Colin Troise, flying the  DG1000 solo, having 54 minutes, helped by a strategically positioned bonfire, with Carol Pike and Phil Morgan in their Janus having 45 minutes.   George Rowden, taking First Flight pupil Tia Govier-Brackpool up in K21 JVZ, was another to use the gentle hill lift to extend flight times, this time to 38 minutes, while Geoff Wright, a recently joined winter member, had 2 flights in the Ka8, to accumulate a total flying time of 69 minutes.  A few passing showers provided some partial, but vivid rainbows, with the excellent visibility adding to the enjoyable flying conditions.  As dusk approached the shower clouds and visibility combined to provide this reasonable representation of a human face complete with dangly earings.

face-in-the-clouds

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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