Thursday 14th October 2021
Posted: 15/10/2021 20:46
Thursday 14th. If Wednesday was a tantalising wave day, Thursday was a terrific one as a initially light W'ly increased to moderate, leading to a mixture of 13 winch launches and 9 ATs off runway 24, with 9 of the flights climbing to 10,000' asl or above and a number of cross countries flown. Steve Thompson taking the 1st AT in his Ventus bT, set of north, but found confusing cloud patterns and after 3 low points, and a high of 10,700' asl, eventually lost the wave and landed out at the Borders GC at Millfield, a distance of 188 km. With the glider safely hangared at Millfield, Steve returned home by train no doubt intending to retrieve the glider himself the next day. The highest altitude reached on the day was 19,800' by Jesper Mjels in his DG400, this being reached over Stanhope, having flown there via Boroughbridge, Haydon Bridge and Hawes. Martyn Johnson, establishing a low point on the home ridge after a winch launch, eventually reached 17,600' while staying relatively local to site, while visitors Adrian Noble and Simon Gutman in their ASK21 failed to contact the wave on their winch launch but reverting to a later AT climbed to 14,800'. Later in the day, Adrian, this time with Enrico in the ASK21, took another AT and climbed to 12,300'. both flights being local. Fred Brown in his Ventus and Bill Payton/Dave McKinney in Bill's DG1000 both flew wave based cross countries, Fred visiting Ripon, Leyburn, Barnard Castle and Newbiggen in the upper Tees valley above High Force before returning to site via Richmond and Ripon having a high point of 13,900'. Bill and Dave also visited Barnard Castle as well as Hawes, Pateley Bridge and Masham while also exploring the wave downwind of the site with a visit to Guisborough SW, their high point being 12,300'. Cross countries were not, however, solely by private owners, as Chris Handzlik and Thomasz Rusin flew the DG500 170 km around a couple of self declared TPs as well as Leyburn, Darlington and Wetherby and climbed to 11,300'. The list of pilots climbing to over 10,000' asl was completed by visitor Jamie Steel who took his LS23 to 13,100' while staying local. The day's 22 launches resulted in 15 flights of over 30 minutes with 11 of these over an hour, in the latter case the score being 8 to 3 in favour of ATing over winch launches. There were 6 flights of over 3 hours, ranging from the 6:19 by Jesper Mjels to the 3:15 by Martyn Johnson on a great wave day at Sutton with Jesper providing the following photos, the sheet of high cirrus above the lower cloud having the appearance of having been formed by an hydraulic jump triggered by the Pennines.
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.