Sunday 2nd to Monday 3rd October 2022
Posted: 03/10/2022 21:09
Sunday 2nd. The W'ly wind had become light to moderate, so that while operations were still off runway 24, AT'ing was the launch method, this remaining the case when the wind veered into the NW later in the day. In spite of the lower wind speed, wave was still present and in fact for those who contacted it, greater height gains resulted, particularly for those taking off in the morning, while for those not contacting or losing the wave, the home bowl of the main ridge provided some hill soaring, albeit at low levels. The day's 36 launches, 16 for private owners and 5 for First Flight pupils, yielded 21 flights of over 30 minutes and 12 over an hour, with 2 of over 4 hours. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct had the longest flight, 4:59, in which he climbed to 12,000' asl just north of Settle, having being stuck at between 6-8,000' asl as he flew northwards and then westwards from site via the Tontine, Northallerton and Catterick. After leaving Settle, Bob visited Alston and Kirkby Stephen Station before returning to site, a distance of around 235 km. The other > 4 hour flight was by Darren Lodge who had 4:03 soaring locally in his LS8-18, contacting the wave over Felixkirk and climbing to 7,600' asl, while Rob Bailey in his ASG29t and Martyn Johnson in his DG600 both climbed to around 9,000' asl locally. Rob contacted the wave over Sutton village and Martyn while near Boltby, with Rob's maximum altitude being achieved just to the north of Thirsk and Martyn's 4km to the SE of Northallerton. Rob didn't stray too far from the local area but Martyn flew to 4 km to the N of Catterick before returning to site. Tomer Altman, flying Astir DPO contacted the wave straight off tow and climbed to 7,500' asl over South Otterington, while Fred Brown/Frank Maczka in K21 JVZ also contacted the wave straight off tow and climbed to 5,900' asl over Knayton. The wave system started to weaken around 1300 hrs, with Kelly Teagle's climb to 5,400' in her Kestrel being the best for those locally soaring later in the day the fickle attributes of wave being well illustrated by Chris Booker's flight in his LS1. Taking off within 2 minutes off Kelly departure and being dropped in the same area Chris was not able to contact the wave and spent most of his 43 minute flight soaring in soft hill lift. Clive Swain in his Kestrel, a little later, did manage to climb to 4,800' asl but then lost the wave and spent the latter part of his 2:29 flight hill soaring the main bowl at around 5-600' QFE. The last of the wave climbs was by Jesper Mjels in his DG400 who ventured west and after surviving a low point of 1500' asl near Dishforth, eventually climbed to 6,100' asl 9 km west of Masham. Tomer Altman's 1:28 was the longest flight in a club single seater, followed by Dan McLean with 47 minutes in Astir DPO, while Fred Brown/Frank Maczka's 55 minutes was the longest flight in a club 2 seater.
Monday 3rd. A light to moderate SSE'ly blew all day with the skies obscured by increasingly thickening and lowering cloud. An occasional wisp of low level orographic cloud developed over the southern ridge, but not enough to affect flying, while the presence of patches of zero sink kept hopes alive of some lift in an otherwise quiet day both on the ground and in the air. The hopes of some more significant lift were not realised, with the 22 minutes flown by visitor A Noble and YGC member Steve Ogden in K21 FYF being the longest of the day, just pipping the 21 minutes by George Rowden and one of the day's First Flight pupils in K21 FYF. The longest solo flights were the 18 minutes achieved by Andrew Bedford and George Rowden while both flying JVZ 13 ATs were flown off runway 20, with 2 of these by First Flight pupils and 7 by Charles Frecheville, 5 dual with Craig Scott as P1, including a landing on runway 06, and 2 solo in K21 JVZ.
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.