Saturday 7th March 2020
Posted: 07/03/2020 21:40
Saturday 7th. A moderate SSE'ly opened the day, which was generally cloudy at the medium to high level. The first AT of the 15 on the day saw Ian McFarlane and Ben Hutchinson have a 53 minute flight in K21 KLW, with southern ridge lift at low levels and some weak wave that took them to a maximum altitude of 4,100' asl. They were followed by John Marsh and Ali Allibhai in the DG1000, who flew the second longest flight of the day, 1:23 and also registered the highest climb, to 5,700' asl, as they explored the ridge and wave to beyond Helmsley, almost reaching Stonegrave. John and Ali's time was just exceeded by Darren Lodge, who, flying his LS8, had 1:28, spending a significant proportion of the flight soaring the White Horse portion of the southern ridge, although still climbing to around 3,700' asl. Others to climb to 4,000' asl or more were Steve Thompson and Tasha Dodds who got to 4,300' asl in K21 JVZ in their 45 minute flight, while Ian McFarlane and Ben Hutchinson repeated their earlier exploits with another 53 minute flight in the DG1000, this time, climbing to around 4,000' asl. The wave system was quite mobile and the upper winds more westerly and strong and this combination led to 2 pilots landing out. Tor Tavener, flying the Discus landed out some 5.7 km east of the site just to the north of the A170, just failing to wrest the Aux Vache trophy from the current claimant Steve Thompson, while Duncan Pask, flying Astir HVK, landed out in Bilsdale, near Fangdale Beck some 15 km from the site. After the end of flying members retired to the briefing room where Steve Thompson gave a second lecture on the weather, this time concentrating on using published weather information to predict good gliding days and plan cross country and wave flights, including the use of Tephigrams.
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.