Sunday 3rd to Monday 4th April 2022
Posted: 05/04/2022 11:54
Sunday 3rd. A combination of a good soaring and weekend day meant it was a busy at Sutton and thanks are due to the duty team, who ensured that those who wanted to fly to make the most of the conditions were able to do so. A light WNW opened the day, this increasing to become a moderate W'ly later, while an advancing warm front put paid to thermic conditions later in the day. The day's 34 launches, principally off runway 24, resulted in 13 flights of over an hour and an additional 10 of between 30 and 60 minutes, with 14 private owner launches and 9 cross countries. A 262 km Sutton/Burn/Tontine/Pontefract/Sutton task was attempted by 3 pilots, Kelly Teagle in her Kestrel 19, Les Rayment in his DG800, and Chris Booker in his LS1 with mixed fortunes. Les landed back at site after rounding the Tontine, Kelly abandoned her attempt to get to Pontefract due to the advancing warm front and Chris landed out at Burn. His subsequent AT retrieve allowed him to do some hill soaring when he arrived back at Sutton. Tomer Altman with Guy Hartland in the DG500 also had Burn in their sights but returned to site after getting within 11 km of their goal, posting the longest 2 seater flight of the day, 1:51, while Tomer's dad, Simon, flew the Discus for 2:11, which was the longest flight in a club single seater.. Steve Thompson in his Ventus did visit Pontefract on a 189 km task that included TPs at Ripon and Catterick, while Rob Bailey in his ASG29t flew the longest cross country, 290 km, visiting Helmsley/Castle Howard/a spot 21 km west of Masham/ Scarborough and Rufforth before returning to site. Chris Handzlik in his DG300, flew 224 km around Leyburn/Goole NE/Pocklington and Ripon while Fred Brown flew173 km with TPs at Ripon/Ley/Rufforth and Tontine. The cross country flight list was concluded by Thomasz Rusin who flew 134 km around Ripon/Sutton on Forest/York and Carlton as he acclimatised to his newly acquired Jantar Standard and Paul Whitehead, who flew 100 km around Pocklington and Rufforth, recovering from a low point of 1,000' in the process. Climbs to between 5,000 and 5,500' asl were the norm with average thermal strengths of between 2-3 kts, while the best climb rates were of the order of 5-5.5 kts on the best thermal soaring day so far at Sutton..
Monday 4th. The warm front that put paid to the completion of some cross countries on Sunday, crossed the UK overnight, leaving the site in a windy and cloudy warm sector. Although the cloud was not a problem from a flying point of view, the gusty and moderate to fresh WNW'ly wind was considered too strong for flying.
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.