Tuesday 12th to Wednesday 13th June 2023
Posted: 15/06/2023 12:20
Tuesday 12th. Another blue and hot day as the initially light to moderate NNE'ly slowly veered into the SSE and strengthened to moderate. Initial operations were off runway 02 before the wind change led to operations of runway 06. 42 ATs were flown, with 15 for Air League sponsored school children from South Yorkshire during the day complemented by those flown by the Tuesday evening group, with 6 private owner launches adding to the total. The limited soaring conditions locally led to only 1 flight of an hour or more and 5 more of between 30 and 60 minutes, but conditions further west were much better as demonstrated by Bill Payton in his DG1000t who had a 3:54 flight, reaching the west coast near Grange over Sands, via Masham Grassington and Kendal. Bill had to use his engine not long after take off but than found a good thermal to 5,000' asl just west of Thirsk followed by one to 7,000' asl just south of Leeming. Conditions over the Pennines were even better with a climb to a maximum of 8,300'. Coming back an engine burn some 20 km west of site was required to make it back. The other soaring flight saw visitor Chris O'Boyle in his Discus t have exactly an hour of local soaring during which he climbed to 3,800' asl. Visitors E and S Scothern also flew this Discus t for 35 and 40 minutes respectively, with Steve Thompson/Gili Altman in K21 KLW, Simon Altman in Astir DSU and Toby Wilson/Paul Steer in K21 JVZ being the other pilots to reach or exceed 30 minutes flying time with durations of 49, 46 and 30 minutes respectively.
Wednesday. Another blue, but slightly fresher day with the maximum temperature in the mid 20's, the wind being a moderate ENE'ly resulting in operations from runway 06, with choppy conditions on take off, free flight and landing. Bruce Grain/Craig Scott took the first flight of the day in K21 JVZ to assess the conditions and this was followed by 14 other launches, 12 of which were for a further group of Air League sponsored school children with flight times of 10-17 minutes. Some thermal activity helped Neil Amos to have two flights of 27 minutes in K21 JVZ, the longest of the day, first with Craig Scott and then with Bruce Grain, climbing to 3,300' asl on the first and to 2.800' asl on the second.
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.