Saturday 17th to Monday 19th August 2024
Posted: 19/08/2024 21:16
Saturday 17th. A light to moderate WSW'ly blew all day, early sunny skies progressively clouding over with the result that any soaring was done before early afternoon and XC's were limited in number and distance, although cloud base reached around 4,500' asl and best average thermal strengths were around 4,5kts during the soaring period. 21 ATs were flown off runway 24, with the 8 private owners who launched contributing 7 of the flights to exceed an hour, the additional one being Sam Batchelor's 1:37 flying locally in the Discus. Dean Crosby in his LS10t flew the longest XC of the day, abandoning his declared task at Market Weighton due to spreadout and returning to Sutton, an 157km O/R, with other XC's limited to O/Rs to near Northallerton for Ian Bullous in his DG808 and near Boroughbridge for Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, although both Ian and Bob had to resort to their engines during their flights. Martyn Johnson in his DG600. Roger Burghall in his ASW 20, Adam Sayer in his ASW19 and Toby Wilson in his Std Cirrus were the other > an hour pilots with Toby spending the first part of his flight hill soaring before joining the others in local thermals. The longest flight in a club club 2 seater was the 51 minutes by Jamie Quartermaine/David Trouse in K21 KLW, with 6 First Flight pupils also flown.
Sunday 18th. Sunday proved to be a much better soaring day with the moderate W'ly generating hill, thermal and wave lift that resulted in 3 XC's and a wave climb being posted on the BGA Ladder and 4 other XC's and 5 significant wave climbs flown from the day's 34 launches from runway 24, 23 via AT or self launch and 11 by winch. The longest of the XC's on the Ladder was flown by Dean Crosby in his LS10t, 250km of a declared 306 km wave flight starting/ finishing at Ripon with TPs at Eastgate, Pateley Bridge and Eastgate, Dean abandoning the task some 20 km from his second visit to Eastgate due to 8/8ths cover and returning from there at speed back to Sutton, climbing to 11,800' asl during the flight. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct flew 223 km around Brough, Hawes, Kirby Stephen Station and Harrogate N, climbing to a max altitude of 15,400' asl, while Derek Smith flew his DG808 247 km choosing a self declared starting point at Felixkirk and continuing on to Kirby Stephen Station, Knaresborough, Masham and Rufforth before returning to Sutton, his max altitude being 11,800' asl. Fred took a couple of hours of thermalling before contacting the wave near Northallerton but Martyn Johnson contacted from straight off the main bowl ridge after his winch launch and eventually climbed to 13,400' asl while flying in the Topcliffe, Ripon, Leeming area and covering around 130 km OLC. The other XC pilots were Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19, Rob Bailey in his ASG29t and Peter Goodchild in his DG400. Clive and Rob both took some time to contact the wave, which they did in the Ripon area, while Bob and Peter had early contact in the Thirsk/Topcliffe area, Peter aided by his engine from launch. Bob flew 327 km OLC, with TPs at or near Kirby Stephen, Carlise, Harrogate, Tontine and Boroughbridge climbing to 10,300' asl, Clive flew 162 km OLC with TPs at or near Harrogate, Leeming and Pateley Bridge with a max altitude of 12,200' asl, Rob also climbed to 12,200' asl in his 154 km OLC flight to or near Pateley Bridge, Leyburn, Richmond and Carlton Bank, while Peter climbed to 10,300 and provided the following photo while approaching Northallerton.
Malcolm Morgan in Astir DPO and John Forrester in the Discus used thermals in their 3:21 and 2:22 flights as those flying club gliders made the most of the conditions, while Dave McKinney/David Trouse in the DG500 contacted the wave and climbed to 8,800' asl over Boltby on another good soaring day at Sutton.
Monday 19th. A front approaching slowly from the W kept the site under overcast skies with light rain in the early evening as a moderate S'ly blew. 14 ATs were flown off runway 20, with lift hard to find. The day's 5 First Flight pupils all had flights of 20-27 minutes, mainly the result of tows to 2,500' QFE, the 27 minute flight finding some bits and pieces of lift on the White Horse ridge to slow their descent rate for a while. Bruce Grain/David Trouse off the last flight of the day, managed to sneak over the 30 minute mark with 31 minutes in K21 JVZ, finding some hill lift between Wass and Ampleforth and on the White Horse ridge as well as a weak thermal. The pilots of the Falke, meanwhile, flew down to Husbands Bosworth for lunch before returning to Sutton.
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.