Wednesday 26th to Friday 28th June 2019

Posted: 28/06/2019 20:44

Wednesday 26th.  The feed of low cloud off the North Sea in  the light to moderate N'ly wind continued into Wednesday, and although conditions slowly brightened, the cloud base never rose sufficiently to allow the gliders to be employed.  However, the Falke was put to good use, first by Derek Smith and George Clayton as George made progress towards his Bronze C, and then by Paul Whitehead who flew 3 First Flight pupils on a local sightseeing trip under the overcast.  This eventually showed signs of breaking up as the evening approached.

Thursday 27th.  The demise of Wednesday's overcast had continued overnight so Thursday dawned clear and sunny and Cumulus started to appear mid/late morning as a light to moderate ENE'ly blew.    The relatively sparse Cumulus were of the flat variety, so most of those who flew found it difficult to get much above 3,500' asl and thermal strengths were generally weak.  However, a number of pilots set off on cross countries.  Masham was a popular TP, with Bill Payton and Stuart Heaton in their DG1000t and John Ellis in his DG800 both doing O/Rs to there in flight times of 1:30 and 2:15 respectively.  Rob Bailey also visited Masham but went a little further west in his ASG29t to south of Aysgarth before returning to site.  Nick Gaunt in his LS7 had the longest flight of the day, 3:07, and also climbed to 4,500' asl  as he visited Osmotherly and Ripon, heading the list of 5 flights to exceed an hour.  Steve Thompson in his Discus was the other cross country pilot visiting the Tontine and Rufforth in  his Discus but just failing to get back to site, landing in a field just south of Kilburn.  Alan Beaumont in Astir HVK was the only pilot to have over an hour in a club aircraft, 1:12 to be precise, while Andy Parish and Joan Hartley had the longest flight in a club 2 seater with 55 minutes in K21 JVZ   Most of the day's operations were off runway 02 but switched to 20 around the middle of the afternoon, with subsequent landings being on one of 20, 02 or 06. 

Friday 28th.  A layer of stratocumulus at 1,000' had again spread in from the North Sea overnight, the wind being  a light to moderate E'ly with a tendency to strengthen and veer into the ESE.  The cloud slowly broke up to yield completely cloud free skies by early afternoon, but early flights off runway 20 were limited to the 1,000' QFE cloud base, this not being a problem for Bruce Grain and Tasha Dodds who was intent on circuit and landing practice.  With little demand at the launch point, they immediately repeated the exercise.  3 further flights followed as Keith Davy had a similar intent to Tasha, and Richard Margetts and Andy Tyas were keen to just get their feet off the ground.  Both Keith and Andy, having set up to do a left hand circuit onto runway 20, were tasked with landing on 02 which they successfully accomplished,  Demand for flights dried up at this point as those who  had flown reported some turbulence but  no usable lift. The flying day did, however, include the efforts of Paul Whitehead in the Falke who provided flights for the day's 3 First Flight pupils and a running commentary on the various natural and man made features of interest within easy flying distance of Sutton.        

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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