Saturday 2nd to Friday 8th March 2019
Posted: 08/03/2019 21:58
Saturday 2nd. You may have noticed that the previous Blog described the happenings at the YGC on Saturday 2nd March and if you did, you may now wondering what else there is to say. Well in fact the majority of YGC members were elsewhere on the 2nd March and for a very good reason, in fact for 2 very good reasons. These were presentations of Diplomas for outstanding contributions to gliding to Albert Newberry and Dick Cole at the BGA annual awards dinner. Copies of their citations are given below.
Both Albert and Dick were heartily supported by the 30 or more YGC and ex YGC members who were there, most of who were dressed and behaved immplecably as the following photo shows.
However, there is always one!!!
So our congratulations to Albert and Dick
Sunday 3rd. A moderate SSW'ly blew, enabling the 2 ATs of the day, the first, with Bob Beck and Colin Troise in K21 JVZ, having just over an hour hill soaring the main ridge, with a southerly excursion to Thormanby. They were followed by Mike Collins in Astir DPO who had 1:37 and he was followed by no one, as an advancing front from Storm Freya brought low cloud and rain which persisted for the rest of the day, the wind initially decreasing and then increasing to become moderate to fresh from the East with gusts to over 40 kts overnight.
Monday 4th. Storm Freya had moved off into the North Sea leaving the site with a moderate to fresh WSW'ly with associated thermal activity. So it was a winching day, although only three launches were flown due to heavy showers in the untable post frontal air mass. All three flights were in K21 JVZ with the first lasting 38 minutes and climbing to around 1,740' QFE, the second of 20 minutes with a peak height of 900' and the third and last lasting just 14 minutes and climbing to 700' QFE.
Tuesday 5th. An initial light to moderate SE'ly wind soon veered to become a moderate SW'ly, so it was again a hill soaring day, albeit via AT'ing off runway 24. K21 JVZ and the DG500 were the mounts for the day, Tony Drury and H Elliot, a Day course pupil, flying the DG500 twice for a combined flight time of just under 2 hours. John Carter flew 4 of the other 5 flights in JVZ with Derek Smith and Dave McKinney flying the other one. Mark Newburn's check flight with John was the shortest of the day, 20 minutes, but Mark then flew JVZ solo for 40 minutes, while John's other flights included one of an hour with Bob Symonds and one of 47 minutes with Derek Smith.
Wednesday 6th. Wednesday proved to be a wet one, with 16 mm of rain falling, mainly overnight, but with sufficient continuing into the day, plus the associated low cloud, to prevent any flying .
Thursday 7th. The combination of low cloud and rain, albeit mainly light, again meant a non-flying day, the moderate S'ly wind initially decreasing in strength and then veering into the NW and increasing to moderate with 30 kt gusts.
Friday 8th. A brief ridge of high pressure meant a flying day, albeit truncated by another Atlantic low, whose frontal low cloud and rain put a stop to flying around lunch time after 6 launches had been flown. The light to moderate SSE'ly resulted in operations off runway 20 behind the Eurofox, but with no useable lift, flight times were short, the longest being the 18 minutes flown by Paul Whitehead and Tony Kirkby in K21 JVZ. Bob Symons and John Dore, who had 2 flights each, concentrated on circuit training with tows to 1000' QFE, while Bob Spiller flew the only solo flight of the day, registering 11 minutes in the DG500.
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.