Tuesday 10th May 2022
Posted: 11/05/2022 14:28
Tuesday 10th. A moderate to fresh and at times a fresh WSW'ly blew all day, providing hill lift for all, thermal lift for most and wave for some. The daytime operations were augmented by the Tuesday evening group's flying, with the result that 36 winch launches were flown off runway 24, with 26 of them leading to flights of over 30 minutes, 8 of these being in excess of an hour. For those mainly using hill lift, the main bowl was the limit of a few flights but excursions to Boltby were common, while the hop over to soar the Black Hambleton ridge was also undertaken by a few, but only Bruce Grain/Julian Pratt went further north, their 51 minute flight in the DG1000 almost reaching the Tontine As with many of the day's flights, their trip north was aided by thermal activity, this also being used to venture west, with Guy Harland/Andy Canden, also in the DG1000, getting as far as Topcliffe in their 52 minute flight, this also including a trip to Black Hambleton. 3 private owners launched, with Albert Newbery/Bill Payton in their DG1000t and Martyn Johnson in his DG600 both eventually finding and climbing in wave. Albert and Bill used thermal for most of their 5:43 flight getting nearly to Catterick, via Northallerton, and surviving a 1200' low point near Bedale before recovering to then visit Sutton on Forest via site. Flying west again they went to Knaresborough and Harrogate North before going north east to visit Carlton Bank and Guisborough West. Returning from the latter, they contacted wave south of Carlton Bank, climbing eventually to around 10,000' asl north of Carlton Bank and then visiting Ripon via Northallerton before returning to site. a distance of around 260km. Martyn Johnson also used thermal for the majority of his 2:28 flight, initially searching for wave between Kepwick and Easingwold before finding it some 11 km NE of site, and then climbing to around 7,000' asl. I haven't a trace for private owner Tony Drury's 2:11 flight in his DG303, so don't have any of his other flight details. 3 other flights climbed above 5,000' asl, Clive Swain/Roger Taylor got to 5,200' asl in K21 JVZ, Conrad Thwaites to 5,300' in the DG303 and Paul Whitehead/Adrian Funnell to 5,400' in the DG1000 while also visiting Kepwick and Borrowby and postingt the longest flight in a club 2 seater. The honours for the longest flight in a club single seater went to Rod Brister who had 2:08 in the DG303 All in all a great day's soaring at Sutton.
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.