Wednesday 26th February to Monday 2nd March 2020
Posted: 03/03/2020 11:44
Wednesday 26th. A light to moderate NW'ly blew, so operations commenced off runway 24 via AT, with the first launch finding the hill to be working, Dave Campbell and Andrew Cluskey in K21 KLW having 49 minutes, which turned out to be the longest flight of the day. They were followed by Fred Brown and Paul Bulmer in K21 JVZ with 39 minutes, before Bruce Grain and Andy Evans had 45 minutes in KLW. Bruce and Andy's flight proved to be the last of the day as the wind had increased to moderate to fresh with increased gustiness, making take offs very turbulent.
Thursday 27th. Not quite a carbon copy of Wednesday's conditions, but after the passage of a front around 0700 hrs which led to some overnight snow, the first and only AT off runway 24 took off around lunch time. However, with a moderate NW'ly blowing, Bruce Grain and Bob Garner in K21 KLW experienced significant turbulence on take off, this leading to flying being suspended when they returned to the site after 25 minutes. Any hope that that conditions would improve proved to be futile for, similar to Wednesday, the wind again increased to moderate to fresh with increased gustiness so that was the end of flying for the day.
Friday 28th. A wet, non-flying day ensued, as yet another named storm, Jorge, brought 8.1 mm of rain that fell during all the flying day.
Saturday 29th. With Jorge's centre just to the NW of Scotland, fresh to strong and cold WSW'ly winds at site meant it was a non-flying day, the wind backing into the ESE as a front crossed the site in the evening.
Sunday 1st March. The first day of meteorological Spring was still affected by storm Jorge, a very gusty and fresh WSW/SW'ly blowing all day, an afternoon of heavy showers contributing to a non-flying day.
Monday 2nd. The wind had decreased to become a light to moderate S'ly, this slowly veering into the SW and increasing to moderate. With initially blue skies soon filled with Cumulus, AT'ing off runway 24 got under way around 1115 hrs as the first of the day's 16 launches took off, Mark Newburn flying the DG303. The Cumulus provided some strong lift at times, with the hill and some weak wave also contributing as the wind veered into the SW. Mark landed after 1:16, the first of the day's 6 flights to exceed an hour. In fact all of the day's flights exceeded 30 minutes. The day also saw the first thermal based cross country of the year, with Rob Bailey covering 57.6 km in his flight of 2:31 in the Discus, during which he visited the Tontine and Thirsk, the latter a couple of times. Other pilots to have > 1 hour flight times were Duncan Pask in Astir DPO, with 2:05, winter member G Wright with 1:20, also in DPO and David Watson in the DG303 with 1:06. None of the day's 9 two seater flights exceeded an hour, including 2 for First Flight pupils, but John Carter and Peter Whitehead came closest with 53 minutes in K21 JVZ.
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.