Sunday 15th to Tuesday 17th October 2023
Posted: 18/10/2023 15:24
Sunday 15th. The NW'ly wind had become light to moderate, allowing flying to take place off runway 24, with the Arctic airmass generating some thermal activity and Cumulus from late morning to mid afternoon. This soaring period enabled 10 of the day's 25 ATs to generate 10 flights of over 30 minutes with 5 of over an hour, with even a brief cross country to Tontine and back by Rob Bailey in his ASG29t. Rob soared locally for a while before getting his best climb of the day, to 3,600' asl, over the site and then setting off to the forward ridge area where another climb to 3,200' asl allowed him to proceed to Tontine and then return to site after a 2:22 flight. Visitors Barney Wainwright in his DG300, Michael Monson in his Astir CS and Malcolm Guard in his Ka6cr all soared locally, Barney for 1:30, Michael for 1:03 and Malcolm for 1:34, while YGC member Nigel Burke also had 1:07 flying locally. The longest of the flights >30 but < 60 minutes was the 38 minutes flown by Toby Wilson/John Forrester in K21 JVZ, while the 2 seater flying was split 12/7 between the YGC's K21s and that of the visitors from Portsmouth Naval GC (PNGC).
Monday 16th. High, thin cover and eventually a light SSE'ly after a period of calm led to a busy day of 28 ATs off runway 20, the lack of lift meaning no one flew for 30 minutes or more, the 4 longest flights being by the visitors from the PNGC. Barney Wainwright in his DG300 had one flight of 27 minutes and another of 24 minutes, while Nobby Noble had two flights of 25 minutes, the first with Chris Hensman and then with Elaine Bunting. The Noble/Hensman flight was in their K21 LPV while the flight with Elaine was in the YGC DG500, a high tow being taken to allow a spinning exercise to be undertaken.
Tuesday 17th. A light to moderate ESE'ly slowly strengthened during the day, providing some practice at cross wind take offs and some landings on runway 20, with runways 02 and 05 also being used for landings. A day of variable cloud cover and base, the latter being low enough to stop flying at times, restricted flying to 19 ATs, but after lunch the sky improved and developing streets allowed some limited soaring to take place. Two flights exceeded 30 minutes, both by visitor Barney Wainwright in his DG300, a 33 minute jaunt pre-lunch and a 40 minute one mid afternoon, the latter making use of some weak thermals under the well defined streets. The YGC K21s contributed 10 ATs to the day's total, with this including 5 for First Flight pupils, one of whom, flying with George Rowden, had the bonus of sharing a weak thermal with a Kestrel and a Red Kite. Towards the end of flying, Nobby Noble/ Elaine Bunting took a launch behind the recently returned Pawnee in the PNGC's K21. At around 150' QFE, they encountered a sharp gust which caused an inadvertent release, a subsequent quick 1800 turn leading to a landing on runway 06 and the shortest flight time of the day. .
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.