Sunday 2nd to Thursday 6th May 2021
Posted: 07/05/2021 20:27
Sunday 2nd. The second day of the weekend was again programmed with set tasks for cross country flying but again the weather refused to cooperate, a mixture of overcast skies and showers restricting soaring to 5 flights of the 27 flown on the day and one conservative cross country. The latter was flown by Chris Handslik in his DG300 who visited Helmsley in the longest flight of the day, 1:38. The other pilots to soar were Tomasz Rusin with 1:09 solo in the DG500, Andy Tyas with 1:04 in the Astir, Steve Thompson and Sarah Stubbs, 54 minutes in K21 KLW and 44 minutes by Simon Altman in the DG303. Those able to soar generally did to above 4,000' asl, with Thomsz climbing to 4,600' asl and Chris Handslik to 5,300' asl. The longest cross country was by the Falke which flew an O/R to Pocklington.
Monday 3rd. An Atlantic depression, the first for a long time, brought low cloud after a bright morning, rain as well as snow and strong S'ly winds, so it was a non-flying day.
Tuesday 4th. The depression was still close enough to affect the site with strong and gusty NW'ly winds accompanied by a low overcast and frequent showers, so another non-flying day resulted.
Wednesday 5th. The depression had moved away leaving the site in a light NW'ly, with the unstable airmass producing some hefty showers later in the day. These caused launching to come to a halt mid afternoon, although Bill Payton and Rob Bailey in Bill's DG1000t didn't land back until around 1615 hrs, having completed a 265 km O/R to Blackpool. Steve Thompson flying his Ventus bt abandoned his 300 km task due to rain and snow showers over his intended route and instead flew an undeclared 200 km with Tps at Woodhall Services and Knaresborough. The Arctic air gave rise to strong thermals and high cloud bases, with Brian Wise, flying K21 KLW solo off the last launch of the day climbing to 6,100' asl, with all the day's flights climbing to at least 4,400' asl. Bill and Rob's flight time of 3;58 was the longest of the day, with Steve having 3:04 and the other 3 flights of the day having between 39 and 49 minutes each.
Thursday 6th. The unstable airmass again resulted in heavy, slow moving showers of rain and hail and thunder come the afternoon, but the strong thermals and high cloud bases enabled Albert Newbery and Stuart Heaton to visit Pocklington, Humber Bridge and Burn in a flight of 3:12, covering 174 km. Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt again abandoned his declared task due to the showers, but still had to do some significant diversions as he flew the club 100 km task around Pocklington and Rufforth, being airborne for 1:36. Rob Bailey in his ASG29 visited the Tontine before setting off south but showers barred his way in spite of 2 attempts to get to York, landing back at site after 1:16. . The showers led to flying coming to a halt around 1230 hrs, but not before the day's 11 ATs off runway 24 had led to 10 soaring flights. Chris Knapp flying the Discus visited the Tontine and C Swan in the DG303 visited Boroughbridge twice. Most flights climbed to 4-4,500' asl but Albert and Stuart reached just under 6,000' asl. It was a day when single seater flights, 8, easily outnumbered two seater flights, as although 3 two seaters were flown, two of these, by Alan Beaumont in the DG500 and Sue Aherne in K21 KLW were solo affairs.
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