Tuesday 9th to Friday 12th April 2019
Posted: 13/04/2019 18:33
Tuesday 9th. The anticyclone over Scandinavia continued to dominate the weather with a light to moderate ENE'ly soon backing into the NE, operations being off runway 02. A day of sunny intervals provided a soaring day for some, with 11 of the day's 29 ATs leading to flights in excess of 30 minutes, but with only 2 of these exceeding an hour. Two private owners launched, with Rob Bailey in his ASG29 having the longest flight of the day, 2:01, with a little excursion to Boroughbridge and Coneysthorpe while Steve Thompson in his Discus recorded the best height of the day 4,300' asl. Tor Taverner had the next longest flight, exactly an hour solo in K21 JVZ, with Bruce Grain and John French having 52 minutes in JVZ and John Carter and Paul Frost having 44 minutes in K21 KLW. Astir DPO was the only club single seater to be flown, with Steve Ogden having 30 minutes on a day when 4 First Flight pupils were flown. The Tuesday evening flyers ensured that operations continued until 20:00 hrs as the skies completely cleared of cloud.
Wednesday 10th. Cloud filled skies gradually cleared, so that by evening blue skies prevailed, the intervening period seeing 27 ATs off runway 02, the moderate ENE'ly providing some sporty take offs. Soaring conditions were somewhat better than on Tuesday, with 16 flights from the day's 27 ATs having durations of > 30 minutes and with 8 of these exceeding an hour. In addtion, 2 pilots flew cross countries, Steve Thompson in his Discus completing the 100 km Sut/Rufforth/Pocklington/Sut triangle and John Ellis in his DG800 covering 112 OLC km as his visited Pickering and Boltby. Steve considered the day to be better than originally indicated, with cloudbase eventually rising to around 4,500' asl. John Ellis had the longest flight, 2:19 with Steve having 1:44, while Ron Beezer, 1:26 in the DG303, Tony Drury, 1:21 in his DG300, Ron Bottomley, 1:18 in the DG303, Phil Turner,1:16 in Astir DPO and Colin Troise with 1:09 solo in the DG1000 were other solo pilots with flight times in excess of an hour.
Thursday 11th. A light and variable wind that varied between S and N eventually settled to become a light to moderate SE'ly, with 28 ATs flown off runway 20. Soaring conditions were similar to Wednesday, with a tendency to overconvect at times, cloud base rising to around 4,600' asl. With most of those soaring staying local, 10 of the day's flights exceeding 30 minutes, Rob Bailey and Paul Whitehead both completed cross countries. Paul took his Ventus around Ripon, Burn and Pocklington at 85 kph, a distance of 146 km, considering the task was underset. Rob flew 248 km in his ASG29, with TPs at Pontefract, Burn, Scunthorpe and Catterick, although the leg to Catterick led him into sea air coming up the Tees valley, and a consequential slow return to Sutton. Rob's 4:03 was the longest of the day, while Paul was back on site after just under 2 hours, with Colin Troise's 2:27 in his DG600 being the filling in this particular sandwich. Phil Lazenby, flying Astir HVK visited both Helmsley and Thirsk in his flight of 1:27, Martin Clowes also having an hour in this glider. Syndicate partners Jim McLean and Polly Whitehead had a combined 2:34 from their 3 flights in their ASW 24. while Bob Symonds had a total of 2:38 from his 3 flights, two of which were in K21 JVZ with John Carter and then Andy Parish and the other in the T21 with Tor Taverner.
Friday 12th. A gradually strengthening SE'ly wind that became moderate and slowly backed into the E saw 21 ATs off runway 20, cloudy skies gradually clearing to give excellent soaring conditions over the higher ground of the North Yorks Moors and the Wolds. Rob Bailey in his ASG29 made the most of the conditions, flying 283 km with TPs at Snainton, Humber Bridge, Guisborough SW and Snainton and posting the best height of the day, 5,000' asl and the longest flight, 4:23. Rob was only one of 4 pilots to exceed an hour, with Bill Payton having 1:08 in Chris Booker's LS1 before flying with Chris in the DG1000 late in the day and covering just under 100 OLC km as they visted Rosedale Abbey and the Tontine, their flight time being 1:32. Visitor A Mach was also a late launcher in his Nimbus 2C as he had 1:29 locally. Bruce Grains and A Wallace had started the day of well with 45 minutes in K21 JVZ and Andy Parish and Bob Symons ended it on a similar note wiht 46 minutes in JVZ, landing at around 1730 hrs.
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.