Sunday 21st to Monday 22nd April 2024
Posted: 23/04/2024 21:00
Sunday 21st. A light to moderate N'ly blew all day providing a good thermal soaring day that resulted in some long cross countries. The day's 27 ATs off runway 02 included 10 for private owners and 5 for First Flight pupils, with 18 flights exceeding 30 minutes and 10 an hour. 9 of the latter were by private owners with the other by Sanjay Nath in Astir DPO with 1:13. while Bruce Grain/Sue Ahern Toby claimed the longest 2 seater flight with 52 minutes in K21 JVZ, closely followed by Wilson/Rooben Johnson's 51 minutes in the same glider. Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt and Dean Crosby in his LS10t both declared the same task, 311 km with TPs at Rotherham, Alton Towers and Sheffield East and while Steve completed his, Dean abandoned his after passing Rotherham among concerns of getting back to site against the wind and instrument difficulties and instead visited Matlock, Goole South and York, covering 268 km in the process. John Ellis in his DG800 flew a fast 233 km task around Burton on Stather and Knaresborough at 94.7 kph, while Rob Bailey in his ASG29 abandoned an O/R to Grantham but still flew 188 km at 85.3 kph after getting to Bawtry . Visitor Vernon Bettle in his LAK17 AT flew an estimated 200 km with TPs at Rufforth, Beverley, Northallerton, Tontine, Northallerton and Thirsk but had to resort to his engine to get back to Sutton. I don't have a trace for visitor Martin Hargrave so do not know where he went during his 4:56 flight in his LAK 17T, but visitor Douglas Johnson in his Discus bt, 2:40, Greg Corbett in his Kestrel 19, 1:05 and visitor Kaximierz Fuks in his ASW15, 1:14, all stayed local. Cloud base rose to just under 5,000' with averaged peak thermal rates of just under 5 kts on one of the better thermal soaring days of 2024.
Monday 22nd. Monday reverted to type as a weak warm front made slow progress south around the eastern flank of the High Pressure centred to the west of Ireland. The synoptic situation resulted in a day of low cloud and periods of light rain, the light wind veering from the SE to the NW as the front passed the site.
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.