Friday 14th October 2022
Posted: 15/10/2022 16:25
Friday 14th. A light to moderate and at times moderate SW blew, slowly veering into the WSW, the 22 ATs generating 16 flights of over 30 minutes of which 6 were over an hour, hill and wave lift providing the soaring opportunities. Starting off operations on runway 20, a switch was made to runway 24 around 1400 hrs as the wind veered and increased in strength. Most wave climbs were moderate, with Paul Rice/Terry Hardy in their club Perkoz climbing to 3,800' asl off the second flight of the day while soaring some 2.5 km SSE of the airfield and then maintaining 2,200-2,500' asl just in front of the main bowl in their flight of 58 minutes. Visitor Neil Oakley in his club's Astir CS climbed to 3,600' asl 8 km NE of site before returning to Sutton and hill soaring the main bowl at 9-1100' QFE in his flight of just over an hour, while Fred Brown in his Ventus ct, after having a 47 minute hill soaring flight around midday, contacted the wave on his second flight and climbed to 4,600' asl over Husthwaite, flew to Easingwold and then back to Sutton, arriving at 2,300' asl, gradually losing height and landing after 1:31. Toby Wilson in his Standard Cirrus contacted the wave off tow and climbed to 5,700' asl over the forward ridge, proceeding from there to the Tontine, then to 3 km E of Northallerton and 7.5 km S of Thirsk before retuning to site, slowly losing height on the way and landing after 1:44. The highest climb of the day was by Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct who reached 12,000' asl. Having contacted the wave off AT in front of the main bowlm and climbing to 6,000' asl there, Bob re-contacted over Thirsk and steadily climbed to his peak altitude over the forward ridge. Bob abandoned a push to the west while WSW of Masham after finding no lift, but re-connected with wave over Dishforth, at this point climbing back to 5,500' asl before flying to 5 km S of Boroughbridge and 2.5 km E of Northallerton and then returning to site. Visitor A Rieder in his LS6 was another pilot to have a > 1 hr flight, with that particular list completed by Clive Swain/Stuart Wallace in K21 FYF who, off the last flight of the day, had 1:18 undertaking multiple transits along the length of the W'ly ridge between the main bowl and High Paradise Farm at heights of between 500' -1100' QFE.
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.