Thursday 19th to Saturday 21st January 2023.
Posted: 22/01/2023 10:04
Thursday 19th. A light W'ly with increasingly cloudy skies led to 10 ATs being flown from runway 24 with landings on 24 or 20. Most early flights were straight descents from the release point, but later, bits and pieces of lift and reduced sink were utilised to extend flight times to between 20 and 29 minutes. The latter time was flown by Nigel Burke with the day's 2nd First Flight pupil in K21 JVZ off the last flight of the day, reduced sink and bits of lift being found in front of the main bowl. Tony Drury, flying Astir DPO was the only pilot to register any climbs, having a climb back to his launch height of 2.500' QFE over Sutton village, then a climb to 2.400' QFE followed by a climb back to 2,100' QFE both in front of the main bowl during his flight of 26 minutes. John Forrester's 25 minutes in DPO, on the other hand was the result of maintaining 900' QFE for a while in the main bowl.
Friday 20th. A light to moderate NW'ly meant there was no flying.
Saturday 21st. A virtually stationary front over the west of the UK resulted in a light SSE'ly flow at site, with attendees reporting foggy conditions enroute to a bright and sunny Sutton Bank. 21 ATs were flown off runway 20, over a sea of fog/low stratus in the adjacent vales of York and Pickering, the fields close to site remaining clear and providing emergency landing areas in case of a low tow failure. Flying conditions were quiescent, resulting in flight times of 15-20 minutes with only 2 flights of over 20 minutes. Malcolm Morgan flying Astir DPO had 21 minutes off the 2nd flight of the day and later, flying with Dave McKinney in the DG500, had 22 minutes, in both cases the extended flying times being due to zero/reduced sink areas in front of the southern ridge.
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.