Tuesday 19th to Wednesday 20th June 2018
Posted: 21/06/2018 14:17
Tuesday 19th. The conditions had not altered greatly from Monday, the now WSW'ly wind having moderated slightly while having a tendency to back into the SSW. Accordingly, it was again a wave day with the first flight of the day seeing Will Blackburn take the first of the day's 6 First Flight pupils to 8,200' in the DG500. However, most of the day's high climbs were prior to midday with Jesper Mjels in his DG400 getting to 11,600', Lindsay McLane to 11,400' in his Ventus, John Ellis to 8,500' in his DG800, and Andy Parish and Tim Monday getting to 7,500' in K21 KLW. The only high climbs post midday saw Graham Evison get to 9.200' in his Nimbus and Ron Beezer and his Mile High pupil get to 6,200' (all altitudes asl). Both the latter pilots remarked on the presence of an undulating sheet of altostratus containing a few holes through which they climbed/descended, with Graham, on descending under the sheet, describing the experience as like swimming under a undulating ice sheet, albeit without any accompanying Penguins or Orcas. The conditions did not tempt many people to go far, although Paul Whitehead visited Durham City but ran out of lift on the way back and landed his ASW 24 south of Tees Valley airport after covering around 100 km and John Ellis flew to the west of Ripon before returning to site, covering around 70 km. The day saw 9 flights of over an hour, Rob Rose in his Nimbus and John Ellis both having just over 3 hrs flying, with all the other > 1 hr flights being between 1-2 hours with Phil Lazenby being one of 2 Discus pilots to be in this group. In addition, there were 12 flights of over 30 minutes with the best of these being Stan and Jake Greenwood with 55 minutes in the DG1000, Jon May in his recently aquired Ventus with 50 minutes and Colin Troise with 45 minutes solo in the DG1000. Come evening time, the Tuesday group continued the flying day until the last landing at 20:38, Ron Beezer and Dave Murgatroyd demonstrating that there was some weak wave still present with a climb to 3,300' to the west of Black Hambleton, although this required a lot of cloud dodging, the result of an advancing front. The day's total of 42 ATs was complimented by 2 flights in the Falke.
Wednesday 20th. The front which had provided some cloudy contitions on Tuesday evening gave some rain, low cloud and gusty winds during the morning so flying did not get under way until the middle of the afternoon, the moderate WSW'ly leading to winching off runway 24. The hill soaring conditions saw Colin Troise have 1:37 solo in the DG1000 and Jesper Mjels exactly an hour in the Discus, while Andy Parish and Geoff Turner had 51 minutes in K21 KLW and Jon May 50 minutes in his Ventus. However, a sudden change in wind direction and strength coincided with Will Blackburn and his P2,s launch in the DG500 the resulting low launch onto a non-functioning hill having the inevitable result of a land out, the retrieve seeing the glider back on site before the end of the flying day in spite of an uncooperative farmer. The change to a light NNW saw a group of 6 from Thirsk Rotary have ATs off runway 02 from the late afternoon, with P1s George Rowden and Tony Drury both finding some occasional lift for the visitors including some from what appeared to be a convergence. Once flying was over, a larger group from Thirsk Rotary enjoyed a 2 course meal provided by Liz and were given a short talk on gliding by George Rowden before they departed with thanks for an entertaining and interesting visit.
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.