Tuesday 12th to Thursday 14th September 2017
Posted: 15/09/2017 18:09
Tuesday 12th. A moderate W'ly that veered into the WNW before later backing into the SW and decreasing to light to moderate meant it was a winching day, albeit with a single AT, the skies remaining predominately cloudy although with some convective activity. 28 winch launches were flown, with 7 pilots having flight times in excess of an hour and a further 15 > 30 minutes. Andy Wright, flying his Nimbus 3, posted the longest flight of the day, 5:14, with forays along the ridges as far north at the Tontine, a northerly point also reached by Martyn Johnson in his DG600 who also pushed out west to the AI motorway in his flight of 3:26. A similar flight time was recorded by Lindsay McLane in his Ventus but this included an O/R to Pocklington, while Stuart Heaton/Albert Newbery had another > 3hr flight in their DG1000 that was generally local. Visitor Ross Lorenz, flying his LS8 and Phil Lazenby flying DG303 both had flights of over 2 hrs while Bill Payton had 1:10 in his second flight of the day in the Discus. The soarable conditions meant that the day's 4 First Flight pupils and Jasper Latham, a Day Course pupil, all had flights in excess of 30 minutes, while David Campbell and T Kirkby had the longest flight of the day in a club 2 seater, 59 minutes in K21 JVZ. The day's single AT was flown by Howard Marshall in his Ka8.
Wednesday 13th. The overnight passage of storm Aileen did not bring the forecast strong winds as the centre of the low passed further south of the site than originally predicted, an overnight maximum gust of 32 kts being recorded. Consequently, the day's WNW'ly winds were in the moderate to fresh range resulting in another winching/hill soaring day. 19 launches were flown, with all but 2 resulting in flights of . 30 minutes of which 8 exceeded an hour. 7 of the day's 14 two seater flights were for First Flight pupils who were able to experience both hill and thermal lift in their flights of between 35 and 47 minutes, club members, Nora v G and Bernie Sizer having considerably longer flights of 1:34 and 1:53 respectively with John Carter and Paul Whitehead for company. The northern limit of hill soaring was around Osmotherly with the convective activity allowing Coxwold and Thirsk to be visited, cloud base rising to just over 3,500' asl during the day. Visitors S Cuthew in his ASW20 and Ross Lorenz in his LS8 made the most of the conditions with flights of over 3 hours, while Bill Payton continued where he had left off on Tuesday with a flight of 2:47 in the Discus. David Campbell, foresaking tuggie and instructional duties had 1:50 solo in K21 JVZ while Andy Parish and Alan Beamish had and hour in K21 KLW of the penultimate flight of the day.
Thursday 14th. The departure of storm Aileen to the east brought a light to moderate NW'ly flow to the site so AT operations were off runway 02, the usual lumpy take offs being experienced. In spite of convective looking skies, lift was hard to find with the result that only 1 of the day's 10 ATs managed to exceed 30 minutes of flight time and this was the result of a high tow for a Mile High pupil. Apart from Mike Greenacre's 20 minute flight in the DG303, all of the other flights were in one of other of the club's K21s and were for First Flight pupils with Will Blackburn undertaking the majority of them, but with Andy Parish, John Carter and Albert Newbery providing Will with periods of rest.
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