Friday August 10th – Sunday August 12th
Posted: 13/08/2018 17:18
Friday: On a mostly cloudy day with few soaring opportunities flying got underway round about midday. The odd shower interrupted things now and again. With the exception of just two flights in the club Discus by visiting pilots all the days flying was carried out in the DG1000 and both K21's. Toby and Stan were the main occupants of the back seat with John Marsh and Toby Wilson helping out. Flying continued into the evening to enable Toby and Brian Wise to fly a bunch of scouts - last landing after 8-30pm.
Saturday: Eager attendees at briefing received confirmation that the day was expected to be GOOD. Strong lift to c5000ft was expected before cloud ahead of an Atlantic front moved in. Not surprisingly a queue of private owners lined up eager to get in the air. Not for the first time Lindsay Mclane in his Ventus was first off before 10am soon followed by Steve Thompson in his Discus.
Rather than give a longwinded description of all x/c flghts I will summarise achievements on this day. With the exception of Lindsay (who hides his light under a bushel) all appear on the BGA ladder so you can examine the traces in detail if you wish and no doubt regret missing out if you were elsewhere.
Lindsay McLane: O & R Royston. 500km. Good to Grantham then mostly blue and lower further south.
Paul Whitehead: Ventus. 426k: declared 512 km Gransden Lodge and Tontine. Good run to GL and back @ 80kph but increasing overcast meant landing at S/Bank missing out Tontine. This was the highest scoring flight on the National Ladder this day - about time we had it better in the north.
Steve Thompson: Discus. 387km of a 500km declaration - Peterborough/Northallerton/Pocklington. Steve abandoned the final TP's due to top cover.
Martyn Johnson: Completed a declared 311k task round Burton on Struther/Northallerton/Beverley. A good run keeping high.
Chris Teagle: Kestrel. 223km. decl Kirton in Lindsey - Northallerton. 76kph. Another good run keeping high.
Darren Lodge: 226km decl in his LS8. Scunthorpe/Northallerton/Pontefract. 66kph. His trace indicates no apparent problems on task.
Phil Lazenby: DG303. 184km. scenic trip inland from the coast down to Humber Bridge collecting a few TPs on the way
Andy Hatfield. Late t/off. O and R Market Weighton. 102km.
Others to fly x/c for whom I have no details include Les Rayment ( 5 hour flight), Ian Bullous, (3hrs 30 mins) and Bill Payton solo in the DG1000T. Also a number of Northerns competitors who arrived a day early enjoyed sampling the delights of Yorkshire soaring, some completing a practice day task set by Andy Parish.
In the midst of all this x/c excitement two of the club 2-seaters carried out site checks, instruction and the odd trial lesson with various club instructors meeting the need. Chris Knapp flew Discus HVR for a couple of hours in the local area, Tim Pearson and Paul Bulmer soared in the K8 and after an earlier trip in Astir DPO Nora V G rounded off a memorable day by converting to the Discus. "Loved it" she said. Well done to her.
Looking back it was one of the better days this season with strong lift to >5000ft asl and nice Cu. It was a shame that the overcast ahead of the approaching front resulted in a curtailed soaring day. Another couple of hours and August 11th 2018 would have been talked about for a long time.
Sunday: The Glorious Twelfth and Start of the Northerns:
In previous years the Northerns have run from Saturday for nine days. This year the sensible decision was made to run the comp Sunday - Saturday to allow competitors (some of whom actually work!) to have more time to travel to/from Yorkshire and get organised before the comp starts. Inevitably Sods law reared its ugly head and, whereas Saturday would have been an ideal competition day, Sunday was a washout and no flying could take place. The best that can be said is that organisers and competitors alike had a day to make sure everything was ready for the off when the weather gods relent.
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.