Tuesday 6th to Wednesday 7th August 2024
Posted: 08/08/2024 12:28
Tuesday 6th. Early hours rain from a weakening cold front that departed to the SE left the site in an unstable and cooler air mass as a light to moderate WSW'ly blew. Good thermal conditions locally led to 2 XC flights posted on the ladder with a further 4 XCs flown, with the day's 36 launches off runway 24 resulting in 23 flights over 30 minutes with 14 of these over an hour. The 2 flights posted on the BGA Ladder were by Dean Crosby in his LS10t and Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, Dean flying a 301 km yoyo with TPs at Worksop, Burn and Retford, being slowed down south of Doncaster as he caught up with overcast skies associated with the cold front which had crossed North Yorkshire overnight. Fred stayed in the better air north of the Humber and the front, flying the club 203 km task around Northallerton, Garforth and Beverley at 83.6 kph. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct was another XC pilot, using thermals to get to the Ripon area before contacting wave near Masham, climbing to 10,200' asl in the Aysgarth/Leyburn area before returning to site via Knaresborough. Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 also contacted wave during his 5:38 flight, climbing to 6,200' asl near Ripon and indulging in a couple of spells of hill soaring the main bowl at 8-1,000' QFE, while Albert/Martin Newbery flew their DG1000t on an O/R to just south of Sandtoft airfield, covering 196 OLC km. The other XC pilot was Steve Thompson who ran into some poor soaring conditions some 14 km to the south of Burn and then returned to site after completing 153 OLC km in his Ventus 2bt. All the other > an hr pilots stayed local using thermal and/or hill lift including Konrad Kawalec in Astir DPO with 2:55, Malcolm Morgan in the Discus with 1:32, Derek Smith flying the DG500 solo, 1:07 and Bob Beck/Chris Knapp who hill soared as far north as the Kepwick ridge in K21 JVZ during their 53 minute flight.
Wednesday 7th. A light to moderate SSW'ly blew initially, with 4 ATs off runway 24, including 2 for First Flight pupils, before the wind increased to moderate and veered into the WSW resulting in a change to winching, with 15 launches completed, including 1 for another First Flight pupil. The generally cloudy skies limited thermal activity but wave enhanced hill lift meant 12 of the day's flights exceeded 30 minutes with 4 exceeding an hour. The 2 private owners who launched both has > an hr flights and while Andrew Wilmott in his ASW 19 stayed local for his 2:10 with a maximum altitude of 3,900' asl, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct initially did some local soaring but then contacted wave over Sutton village and eventually reached 14,100' asl just to the south of RAF Topcliffe. Fred then flew out to the Masham area before returning via Tontine in his 3:12 flight. The 2 other flights of over an hour utilised enhanced hill lift/weak wave, with operating heights of typically 1,200' to over 2,000' QFE and the ridges to the north as far as Black Hambleton and the forward ridge visited. These were by John Forrester in the Discus, 1:50 and Tomer Altman in Astir DPO, 2;00, who visited Black Hambleton and climbed there to 4,200' asl, while Clive Swain/Tony Kirby in K21 JVZ soared the main W'ly ridge for 53 minutes to post the longest 2 seater flight.
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.