Monday August 13th – Wednesday Aug 16th
Posted: 17/08/2018 10:03
Monday:
With fronts coming at us from the Atlantic it was another non competition day. Frequent showers, some heavy, from towering CuNims restricted general flying to just a handful of flights. Seven of these were flown in the club's K21s. Steve Codd had a couple of flights in his K18 using thermal and hill lift to stay in the air initially for 40 mins and later for an hour longer than that. These were comfortably the longest flights of the day. To round off the day Nora V G had a short flight in the Discus no doubt confirming this will become her glider of choice from now on.
Tuesday:
A good day to sample the Sutton Bank ridge lift but it was never on to think about setting a task - again!
Many of the competitors took the opportunity to get in the air with flight times in the range one to two hours. Lift on the hill was reliable enabling full use of the west facing slopes but searches for wave were in vain, indication of its presence being evident but pilots were thwarted by lowish cloud cover with just the hint of gaps. Of the YGC Northerns competitors Steve Thompson in his Discus and Dick Cole/Nora V G in the DG1000 jousted for supremacy for almost two hours, each keeping an eye on the other in case there was wave contact. They gave in in the end. Late in the afternoon the Falke made an out and return to Pocklington, we assume this was to deliver their tug pilot home for the night.
Wednesday:
Almost a repeat of the previous day but with less cloud and there was wave contact for a few. Yet again conditions were unsuitable for a competition task. There were over twenty flights this day, mostly off the winch, into a brisk SW wind. John Carter and Nora V G set the target by climbing to c10000ft in the K21 off the first winch launch of the day. Getting into the wave was a combination of skill and good fortune or, in the case of John Ellis, judicious use of the engine. After climbing into the lift John topped 13000ft for a gain of just over 8000ft but even so found himself very low on the way back and just scraped on to the hill. Undoubted top of the pops for the day was Graham Morris who, apart from the early K21 flight, was the only one to climb away from the hill for an eventual gain of 10200ft and a 100km trip round a few local TPs. He was airborne for over five hours.
Of the many competitors to fly Steve Codd added another 3hrs 38 then a second flight of 2 hrs 25 to his growing total for the week saying he didn't come all the way from Kenley to stay on the ground. Our local heroes Dick Cole and Chris Teagle found themselves in a dual to see who could get the highest - it appears to have been a draw after almost three hours of trying. In the only club single seater flight of the day Chris Booker flew the clubs DG303 for a couple of hours. George Rowden, back from his holidays, didn't waste time getting back in the air and spent 2 hrs 50 searching for wave off the hill. He is not yet ready to take back the bloggers role but things should be back to normal before long.
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.