Wednesday Aug 1st – Thursday Aug 2nd 2018
Posted: 02/08/2018 22:36
Wednesday - Yorkshire Day:
No White Rose pennant flew on the windsock pole but something special to celebrate the occasion seemed likely as blue skies and early Cu promised a good day. It remained that way until lunchtime. Strong thermals to c5000ft asl and good streeting encouraged a bunch of solo pilots to take to the air. We have neither verbal nor electronic details of where Rob Bailey (ASG29) went on his flight of nearly 3 hours but no doubt he did notch up a turnpoint or two. Frank Wilson took the club Astir south of York and back using classic cloud streets. Other pilots stayed closer to home, perhaps because the forecast suggested the soaring weather would go downhill. It did. Increasing cloud cover, albeit with some lift underneath, moved in from lunchtime onwards as a weakening warm front approached from the west. Amongst private owners to fly were Simone Latimer in her Discus, Polly Whitehead in the ASW24, Duncan Pask (LS10) and Derek (Grinner) Smith in the syndicate DG800.
A surprising entry on glidernet flight log indicated that the Falke had taken off before 8am and landed back on site about 7-30pm. It turned out that Lindsay McLane had an important event in Oxford which centred around a 50 year re-union with fellow students from Uni way back in his youth. With Paul Whitehead acting as P1 a flight to Bicester enabled Lindsay to meet up with his colleagues from the past. The prevailing southerly wind was well demonstrated by the 2 hours flight time down but half an hour less on the way back.
Needless to say the club 2-seaters were busy with John Carter, Stan and Will handling a mix of students and first flighters. As always thanks to them for their efforts.
Thursday
Safety topics were covered at John C’s briefing in addition to the usual stuff about the weather etc. Much appreciated by the attendees. Looking out of the briefing room windows wave beckoned although this was not indicated on the RASP forecast. First off was John Carter with Simone Latimer in the DG1000. They successfully contacted wave SW of the club which gave them a climb to >5000ft over Thirsk until thickening cloud dictated a descent back to the club. Will Blackburn and passenger in the DG500 had to airbrake down from about 3000ft through a disappearing gap and Phil Lazenby in the Astir fled back to the site pretty quickly as his 3kt climb in the blue turned into a rapid descent in the grey.
By late morning eight eighths cloud cover with a low base led to a pause in launching and an early lunch. When flying recommenced the cloud had opened up with a mixture of stratus, cumulus and wave gaps. The latter allowed Will Blackburn and Stan to provide their trial lesson passengers with stunning views and cloud vistas from heights up to 5000ft and by the end of the day John Carter had taken pupils to c6000ft on three occasions. With the absence of both the Discus and the DG303 the Astir was in demand. Reg Rowlinson, Andre Feldmann and Andy Tyas all had flights in the one hour range, Andre being especially chuffed as he contacted the wave and climbed to around 3000ft - his first experience of this form of lift. At the end of the day Phil Lazenby launched in the K8 expecting to contact the wave but had to make do with hill lift and evening thermals instead. By then the vis was stunning showing off the Yorkshire G C site in all its glory.
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.