Tuesday 2nd to Wednesday 3rd August 2022
Posted: 09/08/2022 17:31
Tuesday 2nd. A light to moderate SW'ly blew all day with overcast skies, with rain and low cloud delaying the start of flying until 1445 hrs. The weather caused the Tuesday night flying to be cancelled, but some members didn't get the message and so turned up, enabling flying to continue until the last landing at 2059 hrs. The hill was working but it was decided to AT off runway 24 with 6 launches to between 1100' and 1400' QFE, the day's total, all but two of which exceeded 30 minutes with 3 exceeding an hour. The >1 hr pilots were Steve Thompson, first with Ivan Mazca for 1:05 and then Stuart Wallace with 1:03, both flights in K21 KLW. Toby Wilson/Mark Watson were the other >1 hr pilots with 1:17 in K21 JVZ while Toby and Craig Scott had 58 minutes in JVZ with Colin Troise opening proceedings with 23 solo minutes in KLW.
Wednesday 3rd. Overnight rain stopped around 0700 hrs leaving a legacy of overcast skies and a moderate to fresh WSW'ly, the overcast breaking as wave set in, this being used by a number of pilots. Jesper Mjels in his DG400, self launching off runway 24 at 0756 hrs, returned at 0926 hrs having climbed to 11,400' asl. Winching commenced around 0950 hrs with Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t taking the first launch and subsequently visiting Ullswater, Kirkby Stephen and the Yorkshire Dales and climbing to 13,800' asl. The best climb of the day was by Martyn Johnson in his DG600, Martyn not straying too far from site but climbing to around 15,100' asl NW of Topcliffe before returning to let his syndicate Partner, Colin Troise have a flight. This he did in the early afternoon, climbing to 7,300' asl. Several pilots took advantage of the wave to fly cross countries in addition to Bob Calvert. Chris Teagle flew his Kestrel 19 around Catterick, Wetherby, Richmond and Knaresborough, covering 218 km and climbing to 10,300' asl, Clive Swain visited Masham, Ripon and Boroughbridge during his 8:31 flight, climbing to 11,200' asl, and Paul Whitehead turned Ripon, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge in his Ventus 2cxt with a climb to 7,300' asl. Other pilots to climb over 5,000' asl were Fred Brown in his Ventus 2t, 7.500', John Ellis in his DG800, 8,300' and Tony Drury in his DG303, 5,900' all asl. In among all this wave flying, ridge and thermal lift was also available, with all but one of the flights to exceed 30 minutes but be less than 60 minutes being flown in club aircraft. In addition 6 of the 18 flights to exceed an hour were flown in club gliders with Simon Altman acheiving his Silver duration with 5:10 in Astir DPO so well done Simon. Later, Simon's son Tomer had 2:19 in the same glider while Day Course pupil, Robin Adderley had flights of 1:10 and 1:45 with Guy Hartland first in K21 JVZ and then in the DG1000.
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.