Monday 11th to Tuesday 12th 2022
Posted: 16/07/2022 00:18
Monday 11th A thin high cover persisted locally for most of the day and those who went cross country found it thicker in places. The light SW'ly resulted in operations off runway 20 with the occasional landing on runway 24, with the day's AT total 24 generating 9 flights of over 30 minutes with 5 greater than an hour. 3 of the 7 private owner launches led to cross countries with mixed fortunes. Chris Handzlik in his DG300 set off to visit Camphill but abandoned that due to thick Cirrus but reached Barnsley S with a clearance through Robin Hood airport airspace. Chris then turned Pocklington before returning to Sutton, a distance of 190 km. Rob Bailey in his ASG29t flew 150 km with TPs at Burn and a self selected one at Black Hambledon, while visitor Gary Lewis in his Ventus 2cxt flew around Pocklington, Knaresborough and Castle Howard but had to resort to his engine over Easingwold on the way to Castle Howard. 3 of the 4 flights of over 30 but under 60 minutes were for First Flight pupils with Guy Hartland/John Dore's 36 minutes in K21 FYF being the longest by club members in a club 2 seater. The longest in a club single seater was by Simon Altman with 3:17 in Astir DPO, during which he did an O/R to Burn, his Silver Distance. This badge flight was also notable for a save from 800' approaching Burn and a climb to 6,800' just after leaving Burn from which he was able to fly a 49 km final glide. so well done Simon.
Tuesday 12th. A light to moderate S'ly veered into the SW later in the day as predominately cloudy skies cleared following the passage of a weak front whose light rain and low cloud delayed the start of flying until midday. Operations were off runway 24 with either 24 or 20 used for landing as the Tuesday evening group extended flying until around 2130 hrs. Initial flying was of the extended circuit variety as the overcast skies, wind direction and speed did not provide any soaring conditions. However, this all changed with the clearing skies as wave conditions set in with lift just in front of the main bowl with 10 of the day's flights of >30 minutes being after 1730 hrs and all 7 of > 1 hour flights. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t was the first to contact and remained aloft for 3:30. He was followed by James Prosser in his Ventus 2t, 2:41, Jesper Mjels in his DG400, 2:39, Andrew Wilmot in his ASW20, 1:20, Tomer Altman in Astir DPO,2:04, Julian Gerretsen in Astir FSH, 2:08 and Steve Ogden in Astir DSU, 1:16. All the above pilots had significant climbs to between 6,000' asl by Steve as the wave died, to 12,000' as by Jesper, with with James and Andrew climbing to around 11,000' asl and Tomer and Julian having their best solo wave climbs to 9,500' and 8,300' asl respectively and achieving their Silver heights, so well done to them.. Jesper visited Richmond, Catterick, Darlington and Northallerton, James Ripon and 20 km south of Sutton while Tomer flew to the NNE of Northallerton. The best of the day's 2 seater flights saw Toby Wilson/Stuart Wallace have 57 minutes in K21 JVZ, catching the tail end of the wave to maintain close to their release height of 3,200' asl for 45 minutes.
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.