Thursday 10th August 2017
Posted: 10/08/2017 16:52
Of course the best day in August so far had to coincide with the club temporarily having just one tug available so the launch queue became an quite impressive length. However it wasn't all bad news. The forecast was for a good x/c thermal day and thats how it turned out. In spite of the launching delays over 50 aerotows were achieved, almost all behind the Eurofox. Thanks to Albert Newbery and Paul Whitehead for their efforts. After the CFI's plea ( or was it an instruction?) to pilots to pull off as soon as they could most entered into the spirit of things and about 20 benefitted from the £10 1000ft tow offer so that pleased a heap of mean Yorkshiremen if not the YGC Finance man. Nora Van Genugten flew Astir DPO, soaring for 45 mins before landing with a smile on her face. Although she has flown solo in a K8 and K13 at Booker before joining YGC this was her first solo flight in a glass glider. Welcome to the world of glass Nora.
Thermals started to pop soon after 10am and generally conditions remained good until after 5pm with cloudbase eventually rising to about 4500ft asl. The club 2-seaters were busy all day with instructional flights and no fewer than 7 trial lessons fitted in as well. All the club single seaters were flown, both Astirs flying twice as did the K8. Chris Knapp flew the DG303 and Dick Cole took the Discus round a 220km task in good time.
About 20 launches of privately owned gliders took place with all having soaring flights extending over the Yorkshire countryside and beyond. Derek Taylor topped the distance list with a flight of 527km having a great and easy run to the south but finding things more challenging on the way back. At the time of writing his flight tops the UK OLC flight records for the day. Lindsey McLane in his Ventus set off early on another epic returning after 6.5 hrs in which he must have covered over 400km but no clues as to where. Other recorded x/c flights were 300km by Chris Teagle, the first in his newly aquired Kestrel, and a 300km flight for Steve Thompson ( Discus) who abandoned his 500 attempt at Belvoir realising he was running out of time. To complete the list of 300's Rob Bailey turned Grantham in the ASG29T which, with a few minor detours, gave him 326km.
In summary it was a good flying day in every respect and everyone coped with the frustration of launching delays with patience, good humour and cooperation. Thanks to the flying staff who did their best to keep things moving. Special thanks to Andy Hatfield who was despatched to Bagby to collect the Super Cub which was supposed to be "ready at lunchtime". In the event he hung around for over three hours so it was almost 4pm before it could be used for towing. Obviously lunch is late at Bagby!
John Carter took this pic as he soared over the Yorkshire moors with a pupil. Thats why we fly out of Sutton Bank - probably the best club in the World!
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.