Friday 12th to Saturday 13th April 2024.
Posted: 14/04/2024 11:34
Friday 12th. A weak warm front brought a low overcast, but no rain, the low cloud delaying the start of flying until midday when Clive Swain/Nigel Walklett's AT in K21 JVZ found cloud base to be still around 1100' QFE, the consequent return to earth coming after 10 minutes. A pause in glider activity then followed, although the Falke was used to give 2 First Flight pupils a trip around the area. Glider flying recommenced around 1445 hrs with Les Rayment taking a third First Flight pupil up in KLW but the cloud base had only risen to 1,300' QFE. He was followed by Bob Calvert in his Discus 2 ct. who used his engine to contact the wave via a wave slot over Dalton, initially climbing to 5,700' asl 6 km south of Northallerton having being informed of the wave by CFI Bruce Grain who was flying the Falke. Bob then visited Richmond, Harrogate North, Kirkby Stephen Station and Garforth before meeting a wall of cloud associated with a cold front approaching from the west and returned to Sutton via a 100 mile final glide from 9,000' asl, covering an estimated distance in all of around 300 km. Bob's best altitude was around 9,900' asl near Kirkby Stephen Station and he provided the following photos from his flight.
Clearing skies later in the afternoon enabled higher ATs and more wave contact from site, with Clive Swain/Nigel Walklett in JVZ initially having to land out at Bagby, then, after having an AT retrieve from which they contacted the wave, they climbed to 7,700' asl over the north end of the main W'ly ridge in their flight of 1:54. Guy Hartland/Steve Wilks in K21 KLW climbed to 7,500' asl via a 7 km long NNW/SSE beat between Sutton and Thornton Le Moor in their 42 minute flight and, more modestly, Bruce Grain/Peter Hill in KLW climbed to 4,000' asl near Thimbleby in their 1:03 flight, before spending some time soaring the main bowl at 5-600' QFE. Peter Goodchild in his Pik 20E rounded off the day's flying with two self launches to bring the day's launch total to 8, these yielding 4 flights over 30 minutes and 3 over an hour and including a further 2 First Flight pupils.
Saturday 13th. A light to moderate SSW later veered into the WSW and increased to fresh as a weak cold front brought a brief period of rain in the early evening, long after flying had stopped for the day. Early morning cloud led to Kelly Teagle taking an AT in K21 KLW to check the conditions and she was followed by a further 8 ATs off runway 20, with James Prosser in his Ventus ct having 2 flights with the remainder of the flights in K21s JVZ or KLW. James' 2nd flight was the only one to exceed an hour, his 1:54 being the result of finding some weak lift in the Lake Gormire area before eventually climbing to 4,200' asl near Boltby in weak wave. Toby Wilson/David Walsh in JVZ and Bruce Grain/Ben Dawson in KLW had flights of 42 and 40 minutes respectively, both maintaining 1,000-1,300' QFE in the Lake Gormire area for most of their flights with Toby/David also finding some reduced sink around Carlton Husthwaite.
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.