Tuesday 6th to Friday 9th September 2022
Posted: 10/09/2022 10:58
Tuesday 6th. After getting two K21s to the launch point in anticipation of flying, the weather closed in with low cloud and rain and the gliders were returned to the hangar. They remained there for most of the day, but brightening conditions led to the Tuesday evening group being able to undertake their last session for the year with the shortening of daylight hours. Operating off runway 20 as a light to moderate SSE'ly blew, Dan McLean was first off at around 1700 hrs in Astir DPO, having 32 minutes with the aid of weak thermals. This proved to be the longest flight of the day as thermal activity ceased, and all subsequent flights, 2 more in the Astir and 7 in the K21s, were all of a gentle descent from release height, with the next best time being Julian Gerritsen's 24 minutes in the Astir off a 3,000' tow. while 2 of the two seater flights, Toby Wilson/Stuart Wallace and Fred Brown/Phoebe Gerritsen had 22 minutes each.
Wednesday 7th. After a bright start with a light to moderate SSE'ly blowing, low cloud developed before breaking again, allowing flying to get underway off runway 20 around 1240 hrs. Thereafter, a period of around 2.5 hours provided soaring conditions, with 11 flights of over 30 minutes and 6 > an hour. All the flights of > an hour were by private owners, with the visitors from the Stratford gliding club contributing 5 of these, while the 5 flights of between 30 and 60 minutes were by YGC members, predominately by those flying 2 seaters. Cloud base eventually rose above 4,500' asl, with average climb rates being 1.5-2 kts, with the best climb rate the 3.8 kts achieved by visitor Sharon Kerby in her ASW 27 during her 2:05 flight. Most of the soaring was done locally, but Andy Balkwill in his LS8-18 flew around 145 km visiting Burn and Pickering, Barry Kerby/Barry Monslow flew to 1.5 km west of Pickering in Barry's Duo Discus, with Ed Syson in his LS6 getting 2/3rds of the way to Castle Howard. Chris Jones/Tony Kirkby had 46 minutes in K21 JVZ, while Andy Tyas had 40 minutes flying K21 FYF solo.
Thursday 8th. The depression that had sat to the SW of the UK all week, started to drift slowly eastwards with the result that one of its bands of low cloud and rain covered the site for most of the day, preventing any flying as the wind became a light N to NE'ly.
Friday 9th. The depression had drifted further out into the North Sea and although the airmass was still unstable, the heavy showers that developed during the day were all to the SE or NW of the site and there were no weather related interruptions. Cumulus formed early, but cloud base was low, around 1200' QFE and only rose to around 1800' QFE over the course of the day as a light to moderate N'ly blew. With the visitors from Stratford preparing to leave and a paucity of YGC members on site, the day's launch total was 7, with 5 of these for First Flight pupils. The 2 other flights saw Peter Challans have a 18 minute flight in his LS4 and Guy Hartland do an instructor revalidation flight with George Rowden in K21 FYF. Nobody exceeded 30 minutes flight time, with Nigel Burke and one of the day's First Flight pupils having the day's longest at 26 minutes.
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.