Thursday 5th July 2019

Posted: 09/07/2019 11:38

Thursday 5th.  A light SSW'ly with an accompanying thin, high cover opened the day, the wind increasing to become moderate by the afternoon and veering into the WNW and the high cover thickening.  In spite of the high cover, Cumulus eventually developed, providing some help on a very soft ridge, but prior to this the early flights were of the up round and down nature.  However, as the wind picked up so did the wave and from mid afternoon most flights contacted and climbed to between 8-10,000' asl.  Visitors Bob Bromwich and David Masson in Bob's DG500 were the first to contact the wave and in their flight of 6:15 climbed to 10,000' as well as visiting the foothills of the Pennines.  They were followed by Martyn Johnson in his DG600, who reported good climb rates to around 7-8,000' and then a bit of a struggle to get higher, although he did get to 10,000' in his flight of 3:45, as did Phil Lazenby in the club Discus and Steve Thompson in his Discus, Steve visiting Aysgarth to cover 88 km..  Les Rayment, self launching in his DG800, posted the 3rd longest flight, 2:48, and climbed to 8,300'.  The  height band between 8 and 9,000' asl was popular with pilots, with Peter Clay in his Ventus, Paul and Polly Whitehead in K21 JVZ, visitor A Wilmot in his ASW19 and Keith Davey in the club DG303, all climbing into this height band.  Keith, down to 900' QFE and starting to plan his circuit, contacted a thermal that took him into the wave and subsequently had the longest and highest flight of his gliding career so far, 2:12 and 8,600' asl.  The wave was still working as Bruce Grain took the last of the day's First Flight pupils up in K21 KLW on the last flight of the day, treating him to a flight of 48 minutes during which they climbed to just under 7,000' asl.   The day therefore provided a good welcome to the early arrivals for Competition Enterprise which starts on Saturday 7th July.

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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