Monday 19th to Tuesday 20th July 2021
Posted: 21/07/2021 20:21
Monday 19th. Another hot and sunny day with some Cumulus that didn't provide much lift, the wind being light mainly from the south. The three private owners who launched all recorded flights of over an hour, with Rob Bailey in his ASG29 having 1:23 and Peter Goodchild in his Pic 20 having 1:05. Both stayed relatively local with Rob climbing to 5,200' asl, the best of the day. Only Derek Smith in his DG800 set an task, an O/R to Sheffield East. This proved to be very ambitious as the soaring conditions were very poor and after struggling at low altitude north of Garforth, Derek abandoned the task and returned to Sutton, having to use his engine en route, but nevertheless recording the longest flight of the day, 2:11. The longest of the remaining 14 flights of the day was by Chris Knapp in the DG303 with 38 minutes, with no one else longer than 25 minutes, this by John Carter and Tomasz Rusin in the DG1000. Justin Wills, having flown down from Aboyne the previous day in his Arcus, flew again in a glider of slightly inferior performance, sharing a 19 minute flight with Nick Gaunt in the T21. no doubt relishing the T21's superior air conditioning courtesy of its open cockpit.
Tuesday 20th. There was not much apparent change in the synoptic situation as the anticyclone still held sway, but it was a day of better, if somewhat tricky soaring conditions, with convergences a feature of a number of cross country flights. The light and variable wind was mainly from the south so operations were off runway 20 but, by the time the evening group took over operations, the wind had become E'ly so operations switched to runway 06. The combination of day and evening flying resulted in 50 launches, with private owners contributing 14 and also providing 12 of the flights to exceed an hour. The longest flight of the day was by Steve Thompson in his Ventus, 280 km of a 408 km Grantham/Ripon/Burn declaration that was abandoned before getting to Ripon as after turning Grantham, a struggle under an overcast sky up to the Humber led to a hot and tired pilot that even a good sea breeze from the Humber to York that led to a climb to 5,400' asl couldn't revitalise. Andrew Cluskey also abandoned his task of 308 km after turning Grimwith Reservoir and reaching Alston in his Shark, but enjoyed a convergence along the edge of the Pennines that got him to a cloudbase of 6,300' asl and reached home after scraping away from a low point near Leeming after covering 202 km. Chris Handzlik in his DG300 declared an O/R to Camphill but with large blue areas en-route flew around Pontefract/Wetherby/and Pocklington instead also finding a sea breeze to aid his progress and climbing to just over 6,000'asl. Rob Bailey had two launches in his ASG29 and combining the two flights visited Guisborough West, Pocklington, Gowthwaite Reservoir and overhead RAF Linton while Paul Whitehead also visited RAF Linton in his Ventus. Bill Payton, flying his DG1000 solo, went east/ southeast to Kirbymoorside/Malton and York while on another foray from Sutton flew west of Ripon between Masham and Pateley Bridge. Everybody else stayed local to site but of those that did, Resh Khodabocus made the most of it with 2 flights of around hour, the first of 1:03 with Bob Beck in the DG1000 and the second 56 minutes with Peter Goodchild in the same glider. while Laurie Clarke had 34 minutes in the Discus.
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.