Tuesday 4th to Friday 7th April 2023
Posted: 08/04/2023 17:16
Tuesday 4th. The light to moderate/moderate SSE'ly flow continued as the anticyclone started to decline, while the lowering inversion led to a day of unbroken sunshine and weak thermal activity that resulted in none of the day's ATs off runway 20 exceeding 26 minutes. Guy Hartland/Roger Taylor in the DG500 had that 26 minutes, while only 10 of the day's 30 launches had more than 20 minutes. All the club's 4 two seaters were kept busy flying extended circuits but the lack of any soaring was however compensated by the views over the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors, as the following photo taken by Guy shows.
Wednesday 5th. The anticyclone was replaced by a slow moving Atlantic front that kept the site in low cloud and rain all day, so there was no flying.
Thursday 6th. The front and its attendant rain finally cleared the site around mid morning, but the legacy of low overcast limited flying to 2 Falke flights, one for a Junior member and the other for a First Flight pupil with O/Rs to Kirbymoorside and Linton on Ouse undertaken.
Friday 7th. A ridge of high pressure led to a light to moderate NNW'ly flow that slowly veered into the NNE, so operations were off runway 02, with some landings on 33. A sky full of Cumulus promised much but delivered little, with only a few flights of the 24 flown on the day managing to climb above release height. All but one of the day's flights were in the club's 2 seaters, with 7 First Flight pupils flown, the exception being Martin Newbery's flight in Astir DPO which, lasting 35 minutes, was one of the day's 5 flights to last or exceed 30 minutes, with none exceeding an hour. Laurie Clark with his first flight pupil had 46 minutes in K21 JVZ, finding a thermal, while Toby Wilson/Tommy Gep had 43 minutes in which they used 2 thermals and climbed to 3,400' asl, the best of the day, finding a best average climb rate of 1.5 kts. Guy Hartland/Tony Kirby had 40 minutes in K21 KLW using 3 thermals while never getting above release height, while Laurie Clark/Fred Vaux had 29 minutes in JVZ climbing to 3,300' asl and joining the small number of flights to climb back to or above release height on 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.