Tuesday 5th to Wednesday 6th April 2022.
Posted: 07/04/2022 10:59
Tuesday 5th. The site was still in a warm sector, so it was of day of overcast skies, above average temperatures and a moderate to fresh W'ly. The overcast was sufficiently high to allow flying, with 5 winch launches off runway 24 flown, the limited launch total being not weather related but due to demand. K21 KLW and the DG500 were utilised, with flight times of between 34 minutes and 1:02, the former by A Watson/D Hammond in KLW and the latter by Derek Smith/Dave McKinney in the DG500. The overcast limited climbs to around 2,000' QNH (1100' QFE) but a number of pilots soared as far north at Black Hambleton and also visited the forward ridge, with instructors very willing to demonstrate how to safely access these areas on suitable hill soaring days.
Wednesday 6th. Compared to Tuesday, the cloud was more broken and higher and the wind was now a WSW'ly, being moderate to moderate to fresh. Winching was again the order of the day and although demand was again limited, 9 launches were flown, with 5 of these for First Flight pupils. Flight times ranged from 14 to 57 minutes, the latter by A Watson/Tony Kirby in K21 KLW off the first flight of the day and the former by Derek Smith/Dave McKinney in KLW. The 14 minutes resulted from Derek giving Dave a simulated cable break at around 400' QFE as part of his Instructor Assessment of Competence following his completion of his Assistant Instructor Training Course. A later flight in which they climbed to 3,000' asl in a thermal, saw Derek conclude his assessment, with Dave becoming YGC's most recent Assistant Instructor, so congratulations to Dave, the occasion being caught on camera as shown below.
Most of the day's flights used the 8 km long main W'ly ridge for soaring, but Guy Hartland and one of the day's First Flight pupils, sampled the soaring on Black Hambledon, a further 4 km north, while Guy and Nick Gaunt later used a combination of hill and thermal lift to fly 20 km north to the Tontine in the DG500, climbing to the day's best altitude of 3,800' asl in thermal in the process.
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.