Sunday 24th to Wednesday 27th July 2022

Posted: 30/07/2022 00:33

Sunday 24th.  A moderate to fresh SSW'ly slowly backed into the S over the course of the day, the day's 12 winch launches and 1 AT off runway 24 leading to 9 flights of over 30 minutes, with 4 greater than an hour. Lift was available in both hill and thermal guises, with the White Horse section of the S'ly ridge providing lift later in the day.  Boltby was the furthest north anyone got via hill soaring, with the main bowl being mainly used, while thermal lift became available from about 1100 hrs.  Three private owners flew, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2t, 2:38, John Marsh in his DG303, 1:12 and Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t , 2:02,  claiming 3 of the 4 > an hour flights, with Paul Whitehead/Pat Fowler claiming the other one, with1:08 in K21 JVZ.  All three private owners stayed local with thermal lift helping Bob to get the best altitude of the day, around 4,800' asl.  Paul and Pat in KLW used thermal lift but also used the hill lift on the western and southern faced escarpments, getting to Boltby on the western slope and Wass on the southern slope.  Off the last winch launch of the day before light rain set in , Bruce Grain/Dave Thompson had 42 minutes in K21 FYF, spending part of the time soaring the White Horse slope, while Toby Wilson took a late AT in his Standard Cirrus, but could only have 28 minutes before the rain arrived.

Monday 25th.  A light to moderate W'ly slowly veered into the NNW, with 14 ATs off runway 24 being followed by 7 winch launches off the same runway.  13 of the day's flights exceeded 30 minutes, with 5 exceeding an hour.  Visitors from Stubby in their Astir CS contributed one of these, M Guard having 1:12 off an AT, while Ron Beezer, 2:48 in Astir FSH, Brian Wise, 1:03 in Astir DPO and Polly Whitehead, 1:02 solo in K21 KLW were the others, again off an AT.  Andrew Watson/Naomi Kennard in K21 FYF were the only pilots off a winch launch to have >an hour, 1:05 being their flight time, with again Boltby being the furthest N anyone visited via hill lift.  Thermal activity meant most flights made use of this lift, with a best altitude of around 3,800' asl being recorded by Ron Beezer. 

Tuesday 26th. Rain from 0500 - 1300 hrs delayed the start of flying until around 1500 hrs but the addition of the Tuesday Evening Group's flying until just after 2100 hrs pushed the launch total to 25, all but 3 being off runway 20 before a wind shift from W to NE led to a change to runway 06, the wind remaining light to moderate.  The legacy of the rain was an overcast sky which restricted any soaring opportunities, this being reflected in flight times with only 2 flights exceeding 30 minutes, these being by Fred Brown and Angela Jorgenson in K21 JVZ, 37 minutes and Steve Thompson/Mark Walton in K21 FYF, 33 minutes.  Dual flights were the mainstay of the day, with solo flights totalling 5, 2 by visitor Pat Fowler in his Astir CS, 2 by Adam Sayer in Astir DPO and 1 by Steve Ogden also in DPO.

Wednesday 27th.  A light to moderate S'ly that slowly veered into the SW saw operations off runway 20, good soaring conditions leading to a busy launch point, with 17 private owner launches off runway 20 out of a total of 36.  Flights of >30 minutes numbered 23, with 15 of these over an hour, ranging from the 7:47 by Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 to 1:01 by Andrew Watson/M Meakin in K21 JVZ.  While most pilots stayed local, a number flew cross countries, finding conditions a little slow and low to start but improving as the day progressed, with some pilots finding a localised convergence to the east/south east of the site in the late afternoon that provided strong lift to 6,000' asl and Clive Swain climbing to 8,000' asl as he toured around York, Kexby, Stamford Bridge, Foston, Castle Howard and Helmsley.  Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t also toured around starting off with a near visit to Burn, then Pickering, then to just WSW of Scarborough, just north of York, 8 km east of Pateley Bridge and then back to site.  Those flying set tasks included Toby Wilson in his Standard Cirrus who flew 136 km with TPs at Market Weighton and Wetherby South, while Steve Thompson flew a 203 km task with TPs at Beverley, Garforth and Northallerton, finding it slow and low for the first 40 minutes but later connecting with the aforementioned convergence and climbing to 6,000' asl.  Fred Brown in his Ventus 2t flew a 186 km task with TPs at Market Weighton, Pateley Bridge and the Tontine before returning to site and then spending an hour enjoying the strong lift and high cloud base of the convergence.  Martyn Johnson in his DG600 fancied a trip to the seaside and did so via Guisborough, venturing out to sea near Saltburn and while conditions along the coast looked good, a lack of known landing areas led to Martyn returning to site via the Tontine and Pocklington  but not before he too had enjoyed soaring the convergence.  Martyn subsequently claimed a shorter 150 km task on the ladder.   Not to be outdone, Ron Beezer flew the DG1000 solo around the club 100 km triangle with TPs at Rufforth and Pocklington, while another club pilot to have more than an hour of soaring flight was Barry Stephenson who had 1:35 in Astir FSH  Among all the above activity, 8 First Flight pupils were flown, mainly by Nigel Burke.               

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.

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