Thursday 12th August 2021
Posted: 13/08/2021 16:48
Thursday 12th. A light S'ly flow slowly veered into the SW and strengthened to light to moderate, providing a day of variable soaring including wave. 35 ATs were flown, all but the last two off runway 20 before operations were changed to runway 24. 9 private owners flew with the majority setting off on cross countries, however, weak, blue thermal conditions at and south of the Humber led to a number of declared tasks being abandoned, with those who pressed on having to work hard to stay aloft. Principally among the latter was Paul Whitehead who flew via the Humber Bridge to Market Raisen, returning via Market Weighton and Pocklington and more than once considering engine power. Rob Bailey, setting off on the same task as Paul in his ASG29, abandoned it north of the Humber and instead flew a task with TPs at Market Weighton, Garforth and the Tontine, while David Latimer in his Ventus 3M completed his task of Beverley/ Pontefract and Knaresborough. Martyn Johnson in his DG600, Tony Drury in his DG303 and Thomasz Rusin in his DG300 also found the conditions further south not to their liking going no further than York, Boroughbridge and Foston. Ron Beezer in his Nimbus 2 visited Kirbymoorside and Rufforth and had a couple of forays towards Boroughbridge looking for wave, this becoming more evident locally later in the day, with Colin Troise in his DG600 having a climb to around 5,000' asl, the best locally. cloud base being around 4,500' asl. The best wave climb of the day, to around 19,500' asl, was by Jesper Mjels who used the engine of his DG400 to connect with wave to the NW and achieved his maximum height in between Blanchland and Alston. The 9 private owners had flights of between 1:46 and 4:48 with club gliders adding the balance of the 15 flights over an hour flown on the day. Chief among the latter were James Prosser who had 1:31 in the Discus and Ben Dawson who had 1:29 in the DG303. Two seater pilots were also not to be left out and with conditions improving late in the day, Bruce Grain/Mike O'Neil in K21 JVZ had 1:26 off the penultimate flight of the day and Clive Swain/John Dore had 1:14 in K21 KLW to end a successful soaring day at Sutton.
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