Thursday 24th April 2025
Posted: 25/04/2025 13:08
Thursday 24th. A light to moderate NNW'ly blew all day with large patches of Altocumulus making cross country flying tricky at times. The launch total off runway 20 was 30 including 2 self launches, with 18 flights of 30 minutes or more and 10 of these over an hour. Although there were 19 launches by private owners/visitors, only 4 cross countries were flown, one resulting in a land out and another requiring recourse to engine power to make it back to site. The land out was by James Prosser in his Ventus 2ct who, after climbing to 3,200' asl after release, set off to the Tontine and landed near there having found no lift en route. James returned to site later in the day and had a 2:35 local flight. Dean Crosby in his LS10t flew what would have been an 145 km O/R to Doncaster NW while operating between 1,800 and 3,000' asl, but, after recovering from a series of low points below 1300' asl, had to resort to his engine when below 1000' asl near Wetherby S on the way back from Doncaster . Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct flew 159 km while generally operating between 2,200' and 3,600' asl with TPs 8 km south of Rufforth then Tontine and York, while Neil Paveley flew 125 km in his Nimbus 2, with TPs at or near Carlton Moor, Rufforth and Boroughbridge. Visitor Andrew Sampson in his AS 33 flew 123 km with TPs at York, Knaresborough and Helmsley, the day's cloud base being from 3,500'-4,500' asl and peak average thermal strengths typically 3.5 kts. The longest flights in club gliders saw James Shaw/Neil Amos have 32 minutes in the DG500 off a 1100' tow and Rob Bottomley have 45 minutes in Astir DSU, with the day's 2 First Flight pupils having 30 and 26 minutes of flying time, the day's flying being completed by a single sortie in the Falke.
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.