Saturday 15th to Monday 17th October 2022
Posted: 17/10/2022 19:58
Saturday 15th. A moderate to moderate to fresh WSW'ly blew under partly cloudy skies, 13 winch launches being flown off runway 24, onto which all the returning gliders landed. The 13 launches led to 9 flights of over 30 minutes with 4 greater than an hour as hill, wave and some thermal lift provided the soaring opportunities. Kelly and Chris Teagle set the ball rolling, flying K21 FYF for 48 minutes in hill lift from the first flight of the day, making multiple visits to the northernmost end of the main ridge at High Paradise Farm while maintaining 8-1100' QFE. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2t followed, again mainly hill soaring but gained to a peak altitude of 3,200' asl just in front of the home bowl before landing after 1:45. Others to exceed an hour and find moderate climbs in wave included Toby Wilson in his Standard Cirrus, 1:35/ 5,000' asl over Old Byland and Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, 3:11/4,800' asl just north of Gormire Lake. Peter Goodchild, flying K21 JVZ solo, reached 3,400' asl just downwind of Gormire in his flight of 56 minutes and Fred Brown reached 3,000' asl over Gormire on his second flight of the day in his Ventus 2t, the flight lasting 59 minutes. The day's best climb was by Jesper Mjels in his DG400. After launching, Jesper spent an hour soaring the W'ly ridge at 11-1200' QFE before contacting the wave and climbing to 5,000' asl over the forward ridge. Proceeding westwards, Jesper resorted to his engine over Topcliffe and re-contacted the wave over Leeming, proceeding NWwards to reach his maximum altitude of 18,800' asl 6.5 km ENE of Catterick. He then returned to site at altitude via Northallerton, before returning to the location of his maximum climb to the ENE of Catterick, reaching the location at 6,500' asl, but was not able to re-connect with the wave, so returned to site and landed after 4:19.
Sunday 16th. A moderate to fresh WSW'ly blew at the beginning of the day, this decreasing to light to moderate and backing into the SSE by the end of the flying day. 22 ATs off runway 24 behind the Pawnee resulted, with 13 of these leading to flights of over 30 minutes of which 8 were over an hour. Hill and wave lift dominated the day with 3 pilots climbing to over 10,000' asl and a further 4 over 5,000' asl. The latter group included Darren Lodge in his LS9-18, 7,100' asl just NE of Thirsk, visitor Neil Sheed in his Cirrus 18m, 6,600' asl over Thirsk, Dave Cockburn in Astir DPO, 7,900' asl over Ripon and Sarah Stubbs in Astir DSU, 6,900' asl over Sutton village, while Mike Collins in Astir FSH climbed to 4,500' asl over Gormire. Jesper Mjels in his DG400, Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct and Fred Brown in his Ventus 2t were the 3 pilots to climb above 10,000' asl. Bob, taking off as the first of the three, spent over an hour at 2-3,000' asl over the main ridge before using his engine to contact the wave over Thirsk where he slowly climbed to 5,900' asl as he proceeded towards Northallerton, before flying to Ripon, from where his exploration towards Masham got him to his maximum altitude of 12,600' asl. Bob then flew to the vicinity of Hawes, returning to Sutton via Knaresborough having covered around 190 km. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2t, had 45 minutes hill soaring before connecting with the wave just in front of the home bowl and climbing to 7,800' asl. Flying west, Fred re-found the wave 4 km ESE of Ripon and climbed to his maximum altitude of 12,400' asl some 12.5 km WNW of Ripon. Fred then flew to the WNW of Aysgarth before returning to site via Boroughbridge, covering some 140 km. The day's maximum altitude was again claimed by Jesper Mjels in his DG400. Using his engine, Jesper had his first major climb 8 km ESE of Masham, getting to 8,700' asl before climbing to 14,800' asl over Masham and then following a wave bar north and reaching his peak altitude of 15,000' asl 12 km east of Staindrop. Jesper then went further north and visited the area around Bishop Auckland before flying south to Harrogate North and returning to site via Ripon and Boroughbridge, covering an estimated 260 km. The day's longest 2 seater flight saw Clive Swain/James Kirkwood have exactly an hour in the DG1000 while amid all the above soaring, Chris Handzlik and Dave McKinney introduced 6 First Flight pupils to gliding.
Monday 17th. A moderate SW'ly soon increased to fresh with gusts to 40 kts and although the wind speed abated a little as the wind veered into the WSW later in the day, it was still to strong to allow any flying. It was otherwise a pleasant day, with a maximum temperature of 14C and a predominately blue sky except for a few scattered Fracto Cumulus clouds.
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.