Tuesday 8th to Friday 11th February 2022

Posted: 11/02/2022 21:15

Tuesday 8th.  A mild, moderate to fresh WSW'ly brought in a low overcast with occasional showery rain, so  there was no flying.

Wednesday 9th.  A cold front traveled southwards overnight, leaving a day of sunny intervals and a moderate to fresh W'ly that provided good soaring conditions via a mix of hill lift and thermal activity, the latter enabling a number of pilots to climb to over 3,500' asl. These included Clive Swain who got to 3,900' asl in the Discus, Dave Cockburn, 3,800', also in the Discus, Bill Payton, 3,700' in the DG303,  Derek Smith/ Nigel Burke , 3,700', in K21 JVZ and Clive Swain/David Key, also 3,700', in the DG1000.  Pilots reported strong thermal activity with peak climb rates of up to 8 kts.  As well as climbs to cloud base, the conditions allowed the whole of the ridges to the Tontine to be explored with Steve Thompson/S Wallace being the first to do so in the DG500, also via the forward ridge.  They were followed by Bill Payton in the DG303, Bill also visiting Baldersby, while the Black Hambledon ridge was also a popular destination with Clive Swain/David Key in the DG1000, Bill Payton in the DG303, Conrad Thwaites in the Discus and Clive Swain/Stuart Wardle? in K21 KLW visiting.  The day's low point went to Bill Payton who recovered from 300' during his second flight of the day in the DG303.  The day's 31 winch launches resulted in 23 flights in excess of 30 minutes, with 12 of over an hour, the latter ranging from Fred Brown/Duncan Pask's 1:02 in KLW to the 1:50 by Bill Payton in his flirst flight of the day in the DG303, with the last flight landing around 1715 hrs as club members made the most of a great day's soaring.

Thursday 10th.  The wind had become WSW'ly but remained moderate to fresh, so it was another day of hill soaring with winching off runway 24, 18 launches resulting before a lack of custom led to flying coming to a halt around 1530 hrs.  14 of the day's flights exceeded 30 minutes with 7 in excess of an hour, the longest flight, 1:43 by Clive Swain/John Dore in K21 KLW seeing them visit the Black Hambledon ridge and climb to 3,100' asl in thermal.  Thermal activity was a little subdued compared to Wednesday and with a lower cloud base only 2 flights climbed above 3,000' asl, the aforementioned Clive/John in KLW and Tony Drury, who climbed to cloud base at 3,300' asl in the DG303.    Excursions north along the  westerly ridge were also more constrained, Clive Swain/Adrian Funnel getting furthest with a visit to the Thimbleby ridge, south of Osmotherly, with a number of pilots reporting severe sink on approaching High Paradise Farm near Boltby that led to decisions not to progress further onto the Kepwick ridge, although Guy Hartland, first with Nick Northeast in K21 JVZ and then with Eamon Cooney in the DG500 did just that after Eamon had his second flight of the day following his first as a First Flight pupil.  Guy and his P2s also visited the forward ridge as did George Rowden in the Discus and Bruce Grain/Rod Brister in the DG500, their flight including a visit to the environs of Thirsk. 

Friday 11th.  The wind had become a light SE'ly but slowly increased to light to moderate and veered into the S as a depressions approached the UK, its high cover slowly thickening and lowering as the day progressed.  16 ATs were flown off runway 20 with a lack of lift making for flight times of 10 to 26 minutes dependent on tow heights for most of the day.  However, the increasing wind strength led to some improvement in flight times with launches towards the end of the day, finding some reduced sink and bits of lift on the White Horse ridge and the ridge over Wass,  Thus, Bruce Grain and Jim McClean had 28 minutes in K21 KLW soaring the White Horse ridge while visitor Mark Rushton had 27 minutes in the same glider soaring the ridge above Wass. The longest flight of the day, however, came not from hill lift but from weak thermal activity, Rob Bailey having a 52 minute flight in the Discus off the penultimate flight of the day, with the weak thermals over and around Sutton village, not so much increasing his altitude as delaying his descent.  The site also welcomed a motor glider visitor from Pocklington while the YGC Falke had a single sortie practicing touch and go landings.

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.

Back to Blog index