Thursday 4th to Sunday 7th May 2023
Posted: 08/05/2023 14:59
Thursday 4th. A moderate E'ly blew all day bringing in variable amounts of cloud and a cloud base that was low to start but gradually rose to around 3,500' asl. The conditions did not, however, temp anyone to fly.
Friday 5th. Overnight rain continued through the morning until around 1300 hrs, the cloud then breaking to give sunny intervals, but this only led to heavy showers as the moderate SSE'ly slowly decreased from moderate to light. Consequently, there was no flying.
Saturday 6th. A low overcast delayed the start of flying until around 1330 hrs when Bob Calvert took an AT off runway 20 into a moderate SSE'ly wind, returning some 3 hrs later, having ventured as far as Boroughbridge via Easingwold. The weather, although improving, got no better than provide a cloud base of just over 3,000' asl with generally 1-2 kt thermals, although Bob did find one that gave him an average climb rate of 3,3 kts. After visiting Boroughbridge, Bob spent the last half of his flight locally, while the only other flight of the day saw Dave McKinney/John Dore have an extended circuit in K21 JVZ.
Sunday 7th. Overnight rain ceased around 0800 hrs, but a legacy of low cloud delayed flying until around midday, with the weather slowly improving, so that by the end of the afternoon, nice looking Cumulus dotted the sky and the temperature rose to 20.3C, the warmest day of the year so far. The L&V wind saw operations off runway 24 with pilots mainly landing on 20. 10 ATs were flown, 2 by private owners and the remainder in K21 KLW, with 3 of these for First Flight pupils. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t and Steve Thompson in his Ventus A/B were the two private owners to fly, with Bob visiting Easingwold, Tontine and Thirsk and indulging in some cloud climbs which resulted in a best altitude of 5,500' asl, and a best average climb of 3,3 kts, but otherwise average climb rates were below 2 kts. Bob provided the following photo following one of his cloud climbs.
Steve's flight was somewhat shorter, 1:40. but a bit more eventful. Steve did an O/R to Wetherby, never getting higher than 2,900' asl and recovering from a number of low points, including one from 1,000' asl in the company of a Buzzard over my home village of Whixley. This I witnessed as I enjoyed open air village celebrations following the Coronation of King Charles 111. Steve later recovered from an even lower altitude as he got to 6 km of site. The only other flight to get to 30 minutes or more was by Chris Collingham/Naomi Kennard, their 30 minutes including a thermal climb from 2,500' asl (QFE 1,600') to cloud base at just over 3,100' asl. Fred Brown gave 2 of the day's First Flight pupils between 25-30 minutes of gliding experience, using the weak thermals to maintain around 3,000' asl on one flight and 2,200-2,400' asl on the other.
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.