Tuesday 4th to Thursday 6th October 2022
Posted: 07/10/2022 17:35
Tuesday 4th. A mild, moderate to fresh SSW'ly was accompanied by a low overcast that eventually brought rain late afternoon, so there was no flying.
Wednesday 5th. Tuesday's rain continued into Wednesday, lasting until around 1600 hrs to be followed by an abrupt change to sunny skies as the clearly defined back edge of the frontal cloud crossed the area. The light to moderate NW'ly backed into the SW as the front cleared increasing to moderate but the clearance came too late for any flying.
Thursday 6th. Early low cloud and drizzle delayed the start of flying until 1245 hrs when the first of the day's 11 winch launches departed from runway 24. Lift was available from the hill and wave, the generally cloudy skies not tempting pilots to stray too far from site, with most wave climbs being modest in nature. Those relying on hill lift progressed as far north as High Paradise Farm as well as jumping upwind to the forward ridge, while those contacting the wave found some weak stuff just to the west of Thirsk, but the best climbs in the Easingwold area. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2 ct, after initially using the wave near Thirsk to get to around 6,000' asl, climbed to 10,500 asl 4-5 km south of Easingwold, before going further south to Haxby and then returning to site. Jesper Mjels had a similar flight path but, after finding it difficult to get much above 2,500' asl near Thirsk, used his engine to climb to 4,500' asl SE of Thirsk before climbing to 7,600' asl 4 km NNW of Easingwold. Those without engines had to be content with altitudes of 2,500-3,000' asl, with all the day's flights being 30 minutes or more and 5, all by private owners, being over an hour and 5 being over 2 hrs. Visitor Mr Crump in his DG200 made multiple forays west from the site in his flight of 3:10, but never became established in the wave, his arrivals back in the hill lift in the main bowl being usually between 300' and 600' QFE, while the ridge from the main bowl to High Paradise Farm worked typically up to around 8-900' QFE. Visitor Noble in his DG300 had 3 launches, amassing over 3 hours flying time, with his last landing at 1628 hrs being one of 5 to land between 1620 hrs and 1628 hrs.
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.