Tuesday 16th to Friday 19th August 2022
Posted: 23/08/2022 20:36
Tuesday 16th. A light N'ly in the morning strengthened to become moderate in the afternoon, causing a change of runway before operations ceased at around 1400 hrs. Some thermal activity led to cross country flying, with visitors Johnson & Hollowell having 1:34 in their DG1000t as they did an O/R to Strensall, just N of York. Toby Wilson/Dan McLean in the club DG1000 also made a cross country foray but this ended with a land out near Easingwold. The remaining 4 launches comprised 2 by Bruce Grain/David Scolfor in K21 KLW and 2 for First Flight pupils.
Wednesday 17th. Overnight rain that stopped at around 0900 hrs left a legacy of overcast skies and no significant lift, as the moderate wind blew from the NE. Most take offs were from runway 06 and landings on 02 but occasionally other runways were used. The lack of any significant lift led to a day of extended circuits, with the occasional flight managing to gain a few feet over launch height, the latter being restricted to 2000' QFE or less by the cloud. Only the club's 2 K21s were used for the day's 15 launches and only 3 flights exceeded 30 minutes. Guy Hartland and NIgel Paterson, one of 2 Day Course members, having 32 minutes in JVZ, his brother David having 33 minutes in KLW also with Guy, while Clive Swain/David Scolfor's 39 minutes in JVZ was the longest of the day. The K21s were also used for 3 solo fights by Guy, Konrad Kawlec and Rod Brister, with Guy managing 28 minutes. and nobody else having more than 21 minutes.
Thursday 18th. A light to moderate/moderate SSE'ly slowly veered into the SSW over the course of the day, with bits and pieces of light rain/drizzle at times, this and its accompanying low cloud delaying the start of flying until around 1330 hrs. Thereafter, the weather brightened, with 10 ATs off runway 20 and some local thermal and hill soaring. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t had 2:08 of local thermal soaring, the only pure glider flight to exceed an hour, with Dave Thompson having 58 minutes hill soaring the main bowl and the White Horse ridge in Astir DPO. Later Bob, Johnson/David Scolfor had 44 minutes soaring the same ridges with Nigel Burke and the last of the day's 5 First Flight pupils having 29 minutes soaring just the White Horse ridge. Paul Whitehead and Dan McClean had just over an hour in the Falke, undertaking an O/R to just south of Burn.
Friday 19th. A day of isolated showers and a moderate and at times moderate to fresh WSW'ly,, provided some good hill and thermal soaring conditions, with the wind strength persuading most people to stay local. Paul Whitehead in his Ventus cxt was not, however, one of these. completing a 220 km task around Sutton/Kirton in Lindsey/Garforth/Kirton in Lindsey/Sutton and finding conditions weak to start but better over the later stages of the flight. Bill Payton flying his DG1000t solo, did a 269 km O/R to Horncastle, recording the highest climb of the day to 4,860' asl, while visitors Bob Johnson/Clive Thomas flying their DG1000t covered around 150 km with TPs at Whitwell on the Hill, Goole and Wetherby. The ,good soaring conditions were illustrated by the day's 29 launches, 25 by AT and 4 via the winch, generating 25 flights of over 30 minutes, with 16 of these over an hour. In addition to the longer cross countries described above, those flying locally also included some longer forays. Martyn Johnson in his DG 600 included a trip to just south of Northallerton, Nigel Burke in his DG800 included a trip to near Dishforth, while John Ellis included a trip to Boroughbridge in his local soaring. Ron Beezer, Dave Thompson, Chris Collingham and Konrad Kwalec flying club Astirs all had over an hour, with Dave's 2;11 being the longest, while Clive Swain/David Sculfor's 55 minutes in K21 JVZ was the longest in a club 2 seater.
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.