Sunday 18th to Tuesday 20th June 2023
Posted: 21/06/2023 15:26
Sunday 18th. A generally cloudy day with rain setting in in the early evening, the wind being light, initially from the SE, before veering into the N. The day's 11 ATs included 4 for First Flight pupils and were all in either of the K21s, the lack of any significant lift restricting flying times to under 30 minutes, Dave McKinney taking one of the day's First Flight pupils for 29 minutes, the longest of the day, used a weak thermal to gain a little altitude, while Clive Swain/Naomi Kennard had 2 consecutive flights of 28 minutes, weak thermals slowing down their rate of descent. The Falke was used to undertake a navigation exercise around Pocklington and Knaresborough.
Monday 19th. A light to moderate SSW/WSW'ly blew all day bringing in a few light showers that didn't affect operations off runway 20. The prospect of some soaring weather led to 9 private owner launches out of the 32 flown on the day, but conditions proved somewhat tricky, with an initially low cloud base and weak thermals, although the cloud base eventually rose to around 4,000' asl with the occasional strong thermal. The 5 YGC private owners who launched all had flights of over an hour, but none completed their intended tasks or had to resort to their engines in order to get back to site. Steve Thompson declared and O/R to Belvoir but had to resort the engine of his Ventus bt over Pocklington and then did a tour along the coast between Scarborough and Whitby, from where the following photo was taken, before returning to site.
Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct visited Boroughbridge, Harrogate N and Rufforth climbing in cloud to around 7,400' asl and then finding a bit of wave that took him to 8,000' asl. Bob took the following photo after his cloud climb, but had to use his engine some 6 km SW of site in order to get back.
Rob Bailey, declaring Horncastle, abandoned the task approaching the Humber bridge and after returning to site decided to continue on to the Tontine. However, a shower over the TP put a stop to that and Rob decided to call it a day after his flight of 2:28. Bill Payton, flying his DG1000t tried twice to get to the Humber Bridge and had to use his engine 3 times to stay aloft, while George Rowden in his LS8-18 t abandoned his task soon after starting it in rain and flew around 2 hours locally, ironically having to use full brake down the whole of his circuit to obviate an extensive area of lift. Visitor John Hill flying his Discus had 58 minutes flying locally, while Paul Whitehead had 45 minutes with Chris Young and 43 minutes with Tim Tennant both in the DG1000, and Peter Goodchild/Tor Taverner had 44 minutes in K21 JVZ.
Tuesday 20th. A day of low cloud and rain from 1000-1600 hrs, as a light wind varied between NNW and NNE, meant there was no flying, the clearance coming too late even for the Tuesday evening group.
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.