Thursday 8th to Friday 9th June 2023
Posted: 10/06/2023 09:48
Thursday 8th. The light to moderate wind had veered slightly into the ENE with the UK still under the influence of high pressure to the north of Scotland. The day's 8 ATs were mainly off runway 02 but runway 06 was also used for the occasional take off and landing. Under overcast skies, the first 6 flights were for First Flight pupils, the first 3 being limited to 1500-1700' QFE release heights due to the cloud, but the cloud started to break up mid afternoon, encouraging club members to fly. Steve Ogden, flying Astir DSU found some weak thermal, maintaining 2,200=2,700' asl for some of his 33 minute flight. Dave McKinney/Tor Taverner in K21 KLW, using runway 06 for their take off and landing, had 43 minutes off the last flight of the day, maintaining the same altitude band as Steve via a series of short climbs.
Friday 9th. The atmospheric pressure started to fall as the anticyclone started to lose its influence on UK weather and the wind, initially light from the ENE slowly increased to light to moderate. The low wind speed ruled against operations off runway 06, so cross wind take offs from runway 20 were accepted with most of the day's flights landing on 02., although the last 2 of the day's 8 ATs landed on runway 06. An initial overcast at around 1600' QFE soon broke up to leave a blue day, the low inversion limiting any convective activity so there were no flights of over 30 minutes. The longest of the day's flights were the 23 minutes flown by George Rowden and Derek Smith with 2 of the day's 5 First Flight pupils. with Ian Pattingdale/Austin Hartland taking a low tow before Austin did his first approach a\nd landing on runway 06 off the last flight of the day.
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.