Friday 23rd to Monday 26th August 2024
Posted: 27/08/2024 17:14
Friday 23rd. Atlantic storm Lilian brought strong winds, low cloud and early morning rain that ceased around 0900 hrs thus delaying the start of flying until early afternoon, with 8 winch launches thereafter off runway 24 into a moderate WSW'ly. All but one of the day's launches exceeded 30 minutes, with 6 exceeding an hour, the exception being a flight for a First Flight pupil. Both K21s were flown, with 3 private owners taking advantage of good hill soaring conditions, augmented by thermal and for a more limited group wave. Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 had the longest flight, 4:50, spent locally, mainly using thermal and the occasional touch of wave, while the club 2 seaters, other than that with the First Flight pupil, all had flights of 59 minutes to 1:30 with visits to the Black Hambleton and Forward ridges being the norm and Bagby and Thirsk also visited. The 1:30 flight was by Andy Parish/George Pilkington, with Andy/Patrick Eton having 1:29, Guy Hartland/Ryan Farant having 1:00 and Bruce Grain/G??? Nolan having 59 minutes. The 2 other private owner launches were by Bill Payton, flying his DG1000t solo and Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct. Both used their engines, Bill to avoid an outlanding during his 3:07 flight which, like the 2 seaters, included visits to Black Hambleton, the Forward ridge and Thirsk, and Bob to connect with the wave which he did after spending 11/2 hrs of local soaring in hill and thermal. After using his engine, Bob went wave hunting first in the Tontine/Northallerton area and then between Leeming and Topcliffe before eventually contacting east of Masham and climbing to 9,900' asl, increasing this to 10,500' asl 4 km W of Ripon and returning to Sutton via Wetherby S, covering 166 OLC kms.
Saturday 24th. The day opened with a light to moderate SSE'ly blowing, but with an weak occluded front approaching from the W, its associated low cloud delayed the start of flying until the late morning, when Jamie Quartermaine took the 1st of the day's 7 First Flight pupils up in the Falke. Two more flights were flown off runway 20 before the forecast wind veer into the W occurred. However, before operations could commence off runway 24, an accident involving a cyclist on the White Horse Bank led to 2 Yorkshire Air Ambulance helicopters landing on runway 24 to attend the incident. The injured cyclist was transferred from the scene of the accident to one of the helicopters by ambulance and taken to hospital, all this activity meaning that the restart of flying was delayed until 1430hr when James Prosser took the first of 11 ATs before increasingly turbulent conditions led to a change to winch launching around 1600 hrs with 7 additional launches flown. James had 4:24 using thermal while getting to or near Boroughbridge, Harrogate N and Pateley Bridge, while Toby Wilson/Josh Jackson's 1:01 in the DG1000 incorporated spinning practice. Overall, the day's 20 launches led to 12 flights of over 30 minutes, of which 9 were over an hour, with hill, thermal and wave again on offer to soaring pilots. Wave climbs ranged from the 7,000' asl achieved by both Fred Brown/Mark James in K21 JVZ and visitor Ken Reid in his Discus 2ct, to the 11,700' asl by Martyn Johnson in his DG600 who all contacted the wave relatively close to site and remained generally local, although Martyn visited the Ripon area. Other pilots to contact the wave included Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, Chris Teagle in his Kestrel 19 and Albert/Martin Newbery in their DG1000t. Albert and Martin climbed to 10,600' asl while flying in the Ripon and Knaresborough area, Chris got to 9,300' asl and flew in the Ripon, Pateley Bridge, Boroughbridge area after contacting the wave near Topcliffe, and Bob contacted the wave over Bagby and subsequently climbed to 10,200' asl south of Ripon, recording a solid 9 kts, before journeying to or near Harrogate N, Wetherby S, Garforth, Ripon and Tontine, an OLC distance of 189 km. Bob provided the following photo of the Leeds Festival at Bramham Park.
Sunday 25th. A sunny start to the day didn't last, with skies becoming increasingly cloudy and even a little light rain/drizzle later in the day. as a light to moderate SW'ly blew. Consequently, the day's launch total of 5 off runway 20 only led to 3 flights of over 30 minutes, with 1 of these exceeding an hour, The latter was by Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, his 1:46 being in thermal local to the site, while the 2 >30 minute flights were both for the day's First Flight pupils, James Prosser having 32 minutes with the first pupil and 34 minutes with the second, the first the result of a slow descent while the second utilised a weak thermal that briefly allowed them to climb back to launch height.
Monday 26th. A moderate SW'ly slowly decreased in strength as it veered into the WSW on a predominately cloudy day with very occasional light rain/drizzle. 40 launches were flown off runway 24, 23 via the winch and 17 via AT, with 19 flights exceeding 30 minutes of which 10 exceeded an hour, the day's 10 private owner launches accounting for 7 of the latter. The > an hour flights flown in club gliders were the 1:13 by Sarah Stubbs/Adam Sayer in the DG500, the 1:41 by Neil Paveley in the Discus and the 1:06 by Austin Harland in Astir DPO, all via hill lift. Austin utilised the lift on the main bowl, while Neil ventured a little farther N with Sarah/Adam visiting the Forward and Kepwick ridges. The extensive cloud cover limited thermal activity, with most pilots having peak operating heights of 1100' to 1,300' QFE in the hill lift, although Dean Crosby did manage a thermal climb to 3,300' asl in his second > an hour flight of the day in his LS10t, during which he visited the Black Hambleton ridge, but hill soared the main bowl on his second. Martyn Johnson went wave hunting in his DG600 during his 3:05 hr flight without success, but he was successful in recovering from some low points, the lowest of which was 100' QFE on the forward ridge. Martin Newbery, after hill soaring the Main Bowl for a while at 700-900' QFE, went wave hunting using his engine, but in spite of climbing to 5,000' asl failed to find any wave and landed after 1:19. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct was more successful in finding the wave, but only by using his engine to visit Ripon where a climb to 8,000' asl resulted. Bob increased this to 10,000 asl near Pateley Bridge and then flew to near the Kirby Stephen Station TP before returning to Sutton, this latter leg being a little tricky due to the cloud, rain and the parachute drop zone over Leeming. The weekend had seen the start of Slingsby week at Sutton and one of the visiting Slingsby gliders, a Skylark 4, graced the skies over the site for 50, 54 and 60 minutes in the hands of Tony Creswell, Andy Wilson and David Weeks respectively.
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.