Friday 29th June to Monday 2nd July 2018

Posted: 03/07/2018 17:25

Friday 29th.  A light to moderate N'ly blew all day accompanied by blue skies, as the Scandinavian  anticyclonic  continued to dominate the weather, meaning it was another day of limited soaring opportuities, with only blue thermals to arrest the inevitable return to earth.   The 2 seaters were busy all day with members, 7 First Flight pupils and a Mile High pupil, with 5 flights for a group of Scouts extending flying into the evening.  Stan and Chris Ogden shared a flight  in K21 KLW of 1:19, the longest of the day, with Stan, this time with Leo Keuken in the DG500, also recording the 2nd longest flight of 1:01 and Paul Whitehead and John Dore in KLW completing the 1 hour or more tally with exactly an hour.  Mike Collins, with 2 flights in the Ka8, Steve Ogden in the Astir and Colin Troise in the DG500 joined Paul Bulmer in his Swallow on the list of solo flights with Colin's 49 minutes and Mike's 46 minutes being 2 of the 9 flights to be in the 30-59 minute range.

Saturday 30th.  The initially light N'ly meant flying commenced around 1045 hrs off runway 02 into clear blue skies but, with the wind veering into the ESE and strengthening to become moderate, operations were switched to runway 06 from early afternoon,  In all, the day saw 21 ATs with 3 private owners rigging and launching and providing the only 3 flights to exceed an hour.  Jon May had 1:51 in his Ventus, Duncan Pask 1:16 in his LS10 and Peter Goodchild had 1:04 in his Pik 20, these statistics illustrating the limited soaring potential of the day.  In addition to the above flights, a further 5 exceeded 30 minutes, 2 of these being by the day's 2 Mile High pupils and another by one of the day's 4 First Flight pupils.  The 2 remaining > 30 minute flights were by Andy Parish and Jerry Henderson Newton with 36 minutes in K21 KLW and by John Marsh and Natasha Dodds with exactly 30 minutes in the DG500 while the Falke added another flight to the day's total.

Sunday 1st July.  Another start off runway 02 with a light NNW'ly blowing only lasted a few launches as the wind again veered into the ESE and strengthened to become moderate, a runway change to 06 being the result.  The day's 16 launches involved only the club's 2 seaters and Jon May's Ventus, the latter sharing the day's best flight time of 35 minutes with one of the day's 2 Mile High pupils, Andy Hatfield being P1 in the latter.   The lack of any soaring opportunities led to minimal interest in flying from club members, with 10 of the day's flights being for First Flight pupils, although there was sufficient interest in flying the Falke for it to have 2 sorties.

Monday 2nd.  A light to moderate NE'ly blew all day, so operations were off runway 02, but, unlike previous days, the day provided some usable lift and even some Cumulus, encouraging  2 pilots to venture cross country.  Flying came to an end around 1740 hrs, by which time 20 ATs had been flown, with members of a week's holiday course, a Day course pupil and 3 First Flight pupils being able to experience some soaring.  Two private owners, Martyn Johnson and John Ellis, both rigged and flew, with Martyn having 3:14 in his DG600 and John 2:02 in his DG800.  Martyn visited Boroughbridge, Pateley Bridge, Masham and Carlton, covering 113 km and climbing to a peak height of over 6,000' asl, while John flew 151 km in visiting Masham, Grassington, Boroughbridge and the Tontine.  A 25 kt easterly at flying height made John think twice about turning Grassington but a climb to 5,500' asl proved to be the perfect platform for that leg of the flight.  Day course member, Paul Sadler had 1:10 with Dave Campbell in K21 KLW, while members Peter Clegg and Jerry Henderson Newton also had 1:00 and 1:07 respectively, both with John Carter, Peter in KLW and Jerry in the DG500.  Apart from Martyn and John, the only other solo flight was by Alan Beaumont who  had 43 minutes in the DG500, one of the 7 flights to be between 30 and 59 minutes, with John Carter and Dave McKinney almost making it out of this grouping with 58 minutes in the DG1000, while course members Michael Bennet and John Crossman also had soaring flights of between 32 and 50 minutes.  As the gliders, tugs and ground equipment was being put away for the night, George Rowden welcomed a group of Beaver Scouts, with accompanying Scouters and parents to the club.  The visit included visiting the hangar to see and sit in a glider,  a question and answer session on gliding followed by a experience of gliding on the simulator.

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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