Monday 5th August 2024
Posted: 06/08/2024 14:53
Monday 5th. A light to moderate SSW'ly brought a day of wave, with peak altitudes of 12,600' asl and a couple of wave based XCs, including a trip to the other side of the Pennines. The day's flying started at around 1030 hrs with Bob Calvert taking the first of the day's 4 First Flight pupils for a 25 minute flight in K21 JVZ. The flying day ended around 1700 hrs as Guy Hartland landed with the last of the day's First Flight pupils after a 30 minute flight in K21 KLW, the intervening period having a further 10 launches off runway 20, of which 7 exceeded 30 minutes with 5 exceeding an hour. 3 private owners flew, with flight times from 1:13 by Tony Drury in his DG303, 3:35 by Dean Crosby in his LS10t and 3:29 by Jesper Mjels in his DG400. Dean and Jesper both flew wave XCs but I don't have a trace for Tony so his exploits remain a mystery to me. Dean, contacting the wave straight off tow over Sutton Village, climbed there to 8,600'asl, and set off west via Catterick to Penrith East and returned via Knaresborough, climbing to his maximum altitude of 11,600' asl near Warcop, an OLC distance of 224 km. Jesper, on the other hand, contacted the wave over Black Hambleton with a climb to 5,000' asl before climbing to 8,800' asl in the Thirsk area. He then proceeded via Ripon to Aysgarth and Hawes, climbing to his maximum altitude of 12,600' asl to the SSE of Hawes before returning via Harrogate N and covering 126 km. Contacting the wave was not, however, restricted to private owners, as Guy Hartland/Reuben Johnson in K21 KLW contacted the wave straight off tow to the south of Bagby and steadily climbed to their maximum altitude of 6,300' asl just to the SE of Northallerton while flying a NNW/SSE aligned beat between Northallerton and Bagby. They then did a O/R from Sutton to Black Hambleton at around 5,000'asl before landing after 1:20. They were followed by Andrew Bedford/Bob Calvert in K21 JVZ who also contacted the wave off tow and did multiple beats between Northallerton and Boroughbridge getting to a maximum altitude of 7,700' asl just to the north of Thirsk and landing after 1:48 with Andrew providing the following photos.
It wasn't all wave flying though, as Bruce Grain/James Horton in K21 KLW had 35 minutes soaring the White Horse ridge at 5-700' QFE before landing on 02, while for the rest of the day's flights, bits and pieces of lift either over Old Byland to the NE of the site, Husthwaite to the SW or on the SW facing part of the main bowl helped extend flight times into the mid 20 minutes.
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.