Monday 12th to Wednesday 14th August 2019
Posted: 14/08/2019 21:32
Monday 12th. A light WSW'ly blew most of the day, being accompanied by low cloud and occasional rain until the afternoon. Task Week participants were given a Snooker based task based on an expected clearance to the weather in the early afternoon. This duly arrived and with better than expected conditions, excellent visibility, a high cloud base and good thermals, 2-3 hours of soaring were enjoyed, the task requiring 6 available Red TPs and 6 available Coloured TPs to be visited in accordance with the rules of Snooker. The 9 Task Week competitors covered in total 1332 kms with Jon May flying the longest distance, 211 km in his Ventus 2ct, and winning the day in his Ventus 2ct with Andrew Clusky getting the bonus for making the highest Snooker break of 24. With preference given to launching the Task Week gliders, there were only 2 club glider launches, Mike Collins flying Astir DPO for just over an hour and John Carter taking visitor A Teldmann for 35 minutes in K21 JVZ. The light W'ly became a light NW'ly later in the afternoon so approaches onto runway 24 became approaches to the diagonal of 24, designated runway 28.
Tuesday 13th. A transient ridge of high pressure provided an excellent soaring day, with good visibility, high cloud bases and very strong thermals, the instability of the air mass, particularly in the morning, giving rise to a number of heavy showers that had implications for those flying cross country. Thus, Steve Thompson in his Discus and Paul Whitehead in his ASW24 both turned the Tontine and then headed south but had to abandon their tasks around York due to shower development. While Steve made it back to site, Paul was forced further and further east and eventually landed out near Malton. The Task Week competitors were also affected as they flew a cricket based task, being asked to fly a maximum of 6 O/Rs from Sutton from an offering of 8, the number of runs scored per O/R being based on the TP distance from Sutton, with 6 being on offer at increasing distance from Sutton per each O/R. Pilots had to be flexible with respect to which O/R and TP they flew due to the shower activity and Toby Wilson landed out due to the showers as he attempted his first O/R to Snainton, landing out at Wombleton on the way back to Sutton. His choice of a stubble field recently sprayed with slurry earned Toby the Mug of the day award, a Toby mug being presented on Wednesday by Phil Lazenby,who was standing in for Task Week Director George Rowden who couldn't be present. Those surviving the showers found lots of very strong lift with variometers often on the stops, and 2 pilots flew over 300 km with the total distance covered by all competitors being around 2,200 km. John Ellis in his DG800, after an early relight, won the day, flying 363 km and scoring the most runs, 16, taking time out to enjoy a cloud climb to 10,300' asl that covered the leading edge of the wings with ice and did no good at all to his L/D. The day's 52 launches included 18 by private owners, 12 of these competing in Task Week, and generated 30 flights of over an hour, with 1 over 5 hours, 4 of 4-5 hours, 3 of 3-4 hours, 6 of 2-3 hours and 8 of 1-2 hours. A number of pilots not taking part in Task Week also flew cross countries, with Rob Bailey in his ASG29 doing an O/R to Market Raisen and Albert Newbery and Stuart Heaton in their DG1000 visiting the Tontine, Leyburn, Ripon and Pontefract, a flight that would have scored them 12 runs if each TP had been flown as an O/R from Sutton. The light W'ly to start the day led to operations off 20 in order to give a long runway for tugging, but a change of runway was necessary around 1500 hrs as the wind speed increased to light to moderate and the W'ly became a WNW'ly. Flying continued until 2045 hrs as the Tuesday evening group took over operations, flying after 1900 hrs being circuits at the end of a very good soaring day.
Wednesday 14th. A vigorous Atlantic depression led to a day of light to moderate ESE'lies, low cloud that shrouded the hill at times and rain, some 8 mm falling during daylight hours. Accordingly there was no flying but some very interesting old film of gliding activities from the YGC archives was viewed and some useful discussions held by interested parties regarding digitisation of the club's archive, the latter being of national importance.
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.