Saturday 29th to Sunday 30th June 2019
Posted: 01/07/2019 11:16
Saturday 29th. The Spanish plume brought sunny, if hazy skies, a light to moderate wind varying from E to SE and the highest temperature of the year so far, 25.9C. What it didn't bring, however, was any soaring weather, so it was a day of circuits off runway 20 and a limited number at that, as 8 was the sum total of the day's launches, with 3 of these being for member Sam Sutter. Flight times were mainly around 15 minutes but Jamie Quartermaine and Alex Patterson in K21 JVZ eked out 32 minutes and Mark Newburn took the opportunity to fly his newly acquired ASW20 for 18 minutes.
Sunday 30th. A weak cold front had introduced a much fresher air mass to the UK and in soaring terms one that provided hill, thermal and wave opportunities. These were eagerly seized on by members, so a busy launch point at the end of runway 24 ensued, with 34 winch launches being the day's total, 26 of these giving flights of over 30 minutes and 14 of these flights of over an hour. The strength of the wind and extent of the cloud, meant cross country forays were limited, with Steve Thompson in his Discus visiting the Tontine and Dishforth and Jesper Myles in his DG400 Boroughbridge and Great Ayton. Both these flights utilised wave, with Steve getting to 7,300' and Jesper 14,200', all asl, Jesper using his engine to fully contact the wave. A number of other pilots visited Dishforth including Ron Beezer in his Nimbus and John Ellis in his DG800, while Darren Lodge in his LS8-18, John Ellis in his DG800 and Paul Whitehead in his Ventus all recorded wave climbs to 6,600', 5,800' and 5,300', all asl, respectively. Albert Newbery and Bill Payton in their DG1000t also flew a cross country to Carlton Bank and back, but spurned the wave and relied on hill lift. Darren Lodge, 5:09, Ron Beezer, 4:13 and John Ellis, 4:05, recorded the longest flight times of the day, while in club aircraft, Brian Wise had 1:27 in the Discus, and Bob Symonds had 1:26 in the DG1000 with Colin Troise after having 1:08 in the same glider with Bob Beck.
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.