Thursday July 26th – Tuesday July 31st
Posted: 01/08/2018 00:57
Thurday: The day complied pretty well with a forecast that predicted the prolonged hot and sunny spell was coming to an end. Hot and humid conditions with limited soaring on offer led to a day dominated by trial lessons and instructional flights in the club's 2-seater fleet. Flight durations were generally less than half an hour off r/w 20 in a moderate southerly. Ian Bateman flew the Discus for 27 mins in the only single seater flight of the day. Of the private owners only Messrs Newbery and Son flew in their DG1000T logging the longest flight of the day by far, just over an hour, during which it seems they sampled somewhat better conditions over the moors.
Friday: More humid and very warm conditions with significant cloud cover allowed just five glider flights, three of which were in K21 JVZ with Roger Spiller completing a couple of solos after an initial check flight. Andre Feldman took Astir DPO for a couple of airings, the second of which gave him 27 mins, this being the longest flight of the day. With the gliders back in the hangar things got very lively. Winds from the ESE gusting to over 30kts and more than half an inch of rain with flashes and bangs thrown in.
Saturday and Sunday: Heat wave? Drought? Not any more. Heavy rain, sometimes torrential, strong winds and plunging temperatures meant the hangar doors were firmly closed and the club became a fairly dismal place with most members deciding to earn brownie points at home.
Monday: At last some gliding action. The brighter conditions with some lift under Cu led to a total of 21 flights on the day, All but two in the club 2-seaters providing instruction and an introduction to gliding for the trial lessoners. In addition Andre Feldman flew Astir DPO a couple of times. All flight times were in the 25 - 40 minute bracket.
Tuesday: Things got better. The day dawned with blue sky and sunshine. Early Cu led to a rigging frenzy in the private owner park. Flying got under way around 10-30 and the first private owners took off from 11 onwards, many with x/c tasks in mind. Unfortunately it was the same old story for most. A good looking sky soon changed to considerable spreadout so the early conditions that had promised much did not deliver. One of our top guns arrived back after abandoning his task grumbling that three good looking clouds in succession gave zero lift followed by a marginal glide back to the site. The result was that many pilots flew conservatively and did not stray too far, notching up flight times in the range 1 - 3 hours.
Three pilots defied the gloom and doom and were rewarded with commendable cross countries. Of these Paul Whitehead is first on the rostrum completing a declared task of 212km at 95kph actual speed. After turning Beverley he had a great run to Pontefract using a convenient cloud street at 5000ft into the SW wind. His third leg to Masham was "slow" ( but not all that much) due to wave interference. Bill Payton and Albert Newbery flew c250km turning Pickering, Scunthorpe, Pontefract and Bedale - this being deduced from Glidernet so the TP's may not be entirely correct. Finally airfield gossip at the end of the day suggested that in his flight of over 5 hours Lindsay McLane ( our stealth pilot - no flight trace found) had visited Humber Bridge, Scarborough, Richmond and Doncaster NW giving him close to 400km. Well done to all.
Not a great day for the club single seaters. After a thorough DI and subsequent inspection the 303 was declared u/s due to a probable flying control problem. With the Discus being away at a comp this meant that the Astir was well utilised by a number of pilots in flights of around one hour. Conrad Thwaites and Phil Lazenby reached an amicable compromise about who should fly the K8 first. Conrad won and enjoyed over an hour in good thermic conditions - its suspected we have convert to the K8 enthusiasts club. Phil Lazenby then flew the glider in a an attempt to contact wave which had seemed attainable much of the day. Abject failure so it was an hour and a half in late thermals and hill lift.
It being Tuesday, the intrepid evening team took over ensuring that the regular members of the Tuesday gang got their weekly instructional fix in ideal and pleasant evening conditions with stunning vis. The last landing was 9-15. Over 50 flights were logged on this day. Good for the club's coffers.
Footnote: After the third day of the Hus Bos Challenge cup its good to report that our YGC contingent are equal first. Lets hope it stays that way when there is a flying day!
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.