Sunday 28th Febrary to Thursday 3rd March
Posted: 04/03/2016 11:48
Sunday 28th. A light and cold ENE'ly flow brought sunny skies initially, these being filled with streeting Cumulus by late morning, the conditions from around midday being good enough for 17 flights to achieve durations of > 30 minutes of which 5 achieved > 1 hour out of the 25 flown on the day. The AT total for the day included the 3 Scouts who had not flown on Saturday and 2 First Flight pupils. All the club gliders were flown, with Mark Newburn posting the longest flight of the day with 2:14 in Astir DPO, while Lindsay McLean had 1:43 in the Discus. Brian Wise and Tom Dale were the other 2 solo pilots to exceed an hour, Brian having 1:16 in the DG303 and Tom 1:11 in Astir DPO. The only 2 seater flight to join the > 1 hour list was that by Paul Whitehead and Mr M Collins, they having 1:10 in the DG1000, this flight being the first by Mr Collins as a club member, he joining the club following an earlier flight on the day as a First Flight pupil. Paul and Martin Joyce almost joined the > 1 hour list with 53 minutes in the DG1000.
Monday 29th. A light, becoming light to moderate, SSE'ly wind saw an initial high overcast progressively thicken and lower as fronts approached from the west although the day remained dry. 6 ATs were flown in either the DG1000 or K21 KLW but the absence of lift meant it was an up-round-and down day with only one the first of the days flights exceeding 20 minutes, this being by John Carter and Chris Knapp in the DG1000 with 21 minutes. John and Howard Marshall in K21 KLW were best of the rest with 18 minutes but at least the conditions provided an gentle introduction to gliding for the one First Flight pupil of the day. March, meterologically speaking, signifies the arrival, this event no doubt leading Dick Cole to give our new Eurofox a thorough clean in anticipation of the arrival of the get-to-work paperwork from the LAA, as the following photo shows.
Tuesday 1st March. A overnight front deposited 10 mm of rain with a further 1 mm falling during the day, accompanied by low cloud in a moderate to fresh W'ly that gusted into the mid 30 kts around the middle of the day. Although conditions improved a little during the afternoon, with the cloud becoming more broken, its low base plus the presence of showers precluded any flying.
Wednesday 2nd. A southward travelling depression saw the pressure fall to 1088 mb at site with a period of heavy snow during the morning, this rapidly thawing as the depression moved away and the temperature rose from its overnight minimum of -0.2 C to a maximum of 3.7C. A somewhat variable, light to moderate wind from mainly a N'ly direction, this briefly gusting to around 25 knots around midday, did nothing to encourage flying, and neither did the low cloud base.
Thursday 3rd. A clear and sunny, if cold morning with a light W'ly flow, soon developed convective cloud, this becoming extensive and restricting soaring opportunities. Nevertheless, the day's 13 ATs off runway 24, while not producing any flights of over an hour, did produce 4 of > 30 minutes, with John Carter and David McKinney topping the charts in K21 JVZ with a flight time of 53 minutes. Next came Tom Dale with 40 minutes in the Discus, a particularly meritorious effort as this was his first flight on type, so well done Tom. Dave Campbell took First Flight pupil Chris Hudson for 34 minutes while the other First Flight pupil of the day, Katie Hume, requested and received and aerobatic flight in K21 KLW with Paul Whitehead. John Carter and David Bradley completed the > 30 minute tally with 33 minutes in the DG1000 as another depression steadily increased the extent of high and medium level cloud over the site. Earlier those on site and in the air were treated to a Red Arrows display over RAF Linon on Ouse, complete with some nice smoke effects which might intrigue the mathematicians among you as shown below.
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.