Wednesday 16th June 2021
Posted: 17/06/2021 20:53
Wednesday 16th. A reversal of Tuesday's soaring conditions saw wave being the predominant source of lift during the day as a light to moderate SSW'ly blew, this tending to veer into the SW. Thus, 13 of the day's 31 launches resulted in climbs to over 5,000' asl, with the best altitudes reached being 10,000' asl or more. Jesper Mjels in his DG400 reached a peak altitude of 11,100' asl as he flew around 200km with TPs at Masham, Pateley Bridge, Kirkby Stephen, Barnard Castle and Northallerton, a similar distance being flown by Bill Payton and Rob Bailey as they took Bill's DG1000 on a tour that encompassed Masham, Leyburn, Barnard Castle, Guisborough, then out over the sea offshore Saltburn, before returning to site after visiting Glaisdale and Northallerton,. Their maximum altitude was around 10,000' asl. Meanwhile, Derek Smith in his DG800 contacted the wave over RAF Topcliffe at around 4,500' asl and proceded to fly 180 km with TPs at Ripon, Aysgarth, Selset Reservoir, Leyburn and Masham, his altitude varying between 6,500 to 10,000' asl. Martyn Johnson in his DG600, flew a more modest cross country taking in Northallerton, Bedale and Pateley Bridge, climbing to 9,300' asl, while Andrew Cluskey in his Shark climbed to 7,300' asl as he visited Kirbymoorside and Northallerton. Andy Tyas in the Astir, Chris Knapp in the Discus and Andrew Bedford in the DG303 took off successively in the early afternoon and vied for maximum altitude. Andrew came top of that particular contest with a climb to 5,600' with Chris at 5,300' and Andy at 5,000' asl. Two seater pilots were not left out of the fun with Ron Beezer and Ian Johnston climbing to 5,100' in K21 KLW, while 2 of the day's 6 First Flight pupils were taken to just over 5,000' asl by Mark Newburn in K21 JVZ and Ian McFarlane in the DG500. In all a good day's wave soaring at Sutton, with 24 of the day's flights exceeding 30 minutes and 13 an hour.
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