Sunday 3rd to Wednesday 6th July 2022.

Posted: 07/07/2022 16:34

Sunday 3rd.  A light to moderate W'ly blew all day with 13 AT's off runway 24, all but 2 of which led to flights of over 30 minutes, with 11 > an hour, the longest of which was 2:44 by Bob Calvert in his Discus 2.  Toby Wilson in his Standard Cirrus was the only other private owner to fly, having 1:16.  3 of the club's two seaters and both Astirs were flown, with best climbs being to around 4,000', with Adam Sayer  having 1:34 in Astir DPO, Andy Tyas having 1:22 in Astir DSU and Fred Brown/Daniel McLean having 1:17 in K21 KLW. 

Monday 4th.  A day of sunny intervals, as the moderate to moderate to fresh westerly provided lift in the form of hill, thermal and wave and launching was via the winch.  The day's 30 launches, including 7 by private owners,  resulted in 22 flights of more than 30 minutes, with 11 of over an hour. Clive Swain topped the latter list with just over 8 hours in his Kestrel, mainly in thermal and hill lift, but with some periods in wave, although not getting higher than 4,500' asl.   Chris Teagle in his Kestrel contacted wave over the forward ridge, climbing to 9,500' asl and then attempting the club 200km wave task but, not being able to get to Barnard Castle, flying a 208 km task with TPs at Leyburn/Harrogate N/Leyburn and Wetherby South before returning to Sutton.  A peak altitude of 12,500' asl was reached just NW of Masham.  Others to contact the wave and have significant climbs were Martyn Johnson in  his DG600, 10,100' asl, Simon Altman in Astir DSU, 6,900' asl, Jesper Mjels in Astir DPO, 8,700' asl, and John Ellis self launching in his DG800 who climbed to 7,300' asl and set off westwards but, finding no significant wave, turned back just SW of Ripon and returned to site to hill soar.  No further significant wave climbs were achieved after John's, with pilots using thermal and hill lift during the afternoon and then hill lift alone as the thermals died later in the day.    Conrad Thwaites, flying Astir DPO used thermal and hill lift to do an O/R to the Tontine.  The best climb rates were 6-7 kts in wave and 4.5 kts in thermal.   The longest of the day's 2 seater flights was the 1 hour shared by Simon Altman and guest G Altman as they  hill soared off the penultimate flight of the day in K21 JVZ, closely followed by the 58 minutes flown earlier by Bruce Grain/Sue Aherne in K21 KLW.

Tuesday 5th.   The wind had become more WNW/NW'ly and had decreased to light to  moderate, so operations were again off runway 24, but with ATs as the preferred launch method.  Flying commenced just before 1100 hrs and continued, courtesy of the Tuesday evening group, until the last landing at 2154 hrs, the launch total being 43, including 9 by private owners.   Wave was not evident, so the 24 flights of over 30 minutes, with 10 of these over an hour, were thermal based, with a number of cross countries flown.   The longest of these was the 318 km task flown by Derek Smith in his DG800, with TPs at Grantham and Kirton in Lindsey.  After having to use his engine to stay aloft locally after self launching, Derek found conditions good until  the second leg,  with the cloud base  around 5,000' and peak average  climb rates of 5,5 kts. Thereafter, cloud base reduced to 3,000' asl  under spreadout conditions.  Rob Bailey in his ASG 29t flew 212 km around Tontine/Garforth/Beverley and Northallerton, experiencing a number of low points, but also cloud base at 5,000' asl and a peak average climb of 4.9 kts.  Chris Handzlik in his DG300 first flew 25 km west of site before turning back and flying 3.5 km out over the North Sea off Saltburn before returning to site, a distance of around 130 km, although only claiming an O/R to Guisborough of some 73 km.  John Ellis, self launching in his DG800,  also set off westwards but ran into some heavy sink after visiting Dishforth and had to resort to his engine over Little Sessay before returning to site, while Martyn Johnson visited Northallerton and the Tontine in his DG600 having the best average climb rate of the day, 6.2 kts.  A number of pilots flying club gliders took advantage of the conditions with Adam Sayer having 2:11 in Astir DPO, Julian Gerretson 1:43 in Astir DSU, Albert Newbery 1:03 in DPO and Paul Whitehead/Keith Davey 1:13 in K21 KLW, Julian's soaring flight lasting until 2014 hours.   The day also saw new acquisition  Astir FSH test flown by Steve Thompson, before Ben Dawson later had 1:09 in it.

Wednesday 6th.  Early hours rain eased around 1000 hrs, leaving generally cloudy skies and a moderate W'ly, with 13 AT's flown off runway 24.  Tantalising evidence of wave was not translated into significant climbs for most, the exception being Martyn Johnson in his DG600 who contacted near Borrowby after around 2 hours of searching.  After climbing relatively slowly to 7,500' asl, Martyn few west a few km  and eventually reached his maximum height of  8,900' asl over Pickhill.  Further explorations, mainly downwind of site,  didn't lose him much height but neither did it gain him any, landing back at site after 3:24.  Most other flights relied on hill lift, with some experiencing periods of wave that helped them maintain height for a while.  Seven flights exceed 30 minutes with 2 over an hour, the most significant of which saw Dave Thompson  achieve his Silver Duration with 5:05 in Astir DSU, most of the time being between 700' - 1,100' QFE, so congratulations to Dave.     

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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