Wednesday 14th to Friday 16th August 2024
Posted: 17/08/2024 16:52
Wednesday 14th. A light to moderate, initially N'ly, soon settled into the SSW and with sunny skies, albeit with some high cover at times, Cumulus soon developed leading to a reasonable soaring day with cloud base around 4,500 - 5,000'asl and best average climb rates around 3 kts. 12 of the day's 19 launches off runway 20 lasted for over 30 minutes with 50% of these over an hour. 1 flight was posted on the BGA ladder with a further 2 XCs flown, while Konrad Kawalec in Astir DPO flew his 5 hours locally. mainly operating between 3,600' and 4,800' asl, and surviving a low point towards the end of his flight, so well done Konrad. The day's Ladder flight was by Rob Bailey in his ASG29t, 263 km, starting and ending at Sutton Control point S, with TPs near Carlton Bank (self selected), Kirkby Stephen Station, Harrogate N and Aysgarth. Toby Wilson in his Std Cirrus abandoned his 175 task due to high cover and flew around Guisborough West, Tontine and Thirsk, covering 75 km and having a struggle NE of Tontine on returning from Guisborough W. Derek Smith in his DG800 flew 173 km OLC, going off to Churchhouses and then soaring a sea breeze front for a couple of beats between Guisborough W and Kirbymoorside before returning to site via Northallerton and the Ripon area. All 6 private owners who flew had > an hour flights, with Bill Payton, solo in his DG1000t, having just over 4 hours, although a poor trace means I have no details of his flight. Steve and Eileen Scothern had 1:12 and 1:20 respectively in their Discus t flying locally, with Steve recovering from a low point of 850' QFE, while Guy Harland/Paul Steer had 1:10 in K21 JVZ during which they flew out to the A1 between Leeming and Dishforth, some 20 km from site.
Thursday 15th. A slow moving and weakening cold front kept the site in low cloud with some rain in the afternoon before bright skies returned in the evening, too late for any flying.
Friday 16th. The passage of the cold front left the site in an unstable air mass as a light to moderate WSW'ly blew with a good soaring day resulting, providing hill, thermal and wave lift, although a tendency to overconvect made staying up a little tricky at times. Cloud base rose to around 4,500' asl with best thermal climb rates averaging over 4kts, although Toby Wilson found an average 5.4 kt thermal. 5 pilots posted on the BGA Ladder with a further 7 XC's flown and 4 significant wave climbs were recorded. The latter 4 were by Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 and Darren Lodge in his LS8-18. Darren first flew the 100 km Sutton, Pocklington, Rufforth. Sutton triangle in thermal, surviving a low point at Rufforth and on returning to site contacted the wave just to the north of Thirsk climbing there to his peak altitude of 7,600' asl. Bob, Fred and Clive all spent 2-3 hours thermal soaring before contacting the wave, Bob contacting between Ripon and Masham, Fred some 11km NNW of site and Clive over Topcliffe, their peak altitudes being 9.500', 10,200' and 11,900' respectively. Bob's 8:19 flight took in Grasmere, the Langdales and Keswick in the Lake District plus Gretna Green before returning to site vla Boroughbridge, 354 km OLC. Fred visited Masham, Aysgarth, Pateley Bridge and Harrogate N, 192 km OLC and Clive journeyed around the Boroughbridge/Ripon area before contacting the wave and thereafter visited areas around Leeming/Masham, Aysgarth and Northallerton to cover 160 km OLC. The other XC pilots used thermal energy instead, with Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt being slowed down by areas of overcast and abandoning his declared 507 km task some 50 km short of his last TP at Clay Cross Reservoir and returned to site after flying 408 km with TPs at Matlock and Kirbymoorshide. Andy Wright in his Nimbus 3 and Dean Crosby in his LS10t both flew a 304 km O/R to Belvoir Castle, while Peter Goodchild flew a 194km O/R to Kirton in Lindsey in his PIK 20e, surviving a low point when arriving there. Rob Bailey in his ASG29t flew 147 km OLC to the Tontine and some 11 km south of York, while Toby Wilson visited Beverley and Langtoft before landing out at Pocklington (flight distance 119 km) from where he had an AT back to site. Not to be outdone by all this private owner XC and wave flying, Bruce Grain with visitor Ian Bateman from the East Sussex GC flew K21 JVZ out to the A1 between Leeming and Dishforth in their1:03 flight while Chris O'Doyle/Duncan Pask in the DG1000, found the wave and climbed to 5,000' asl as they flew a 8 km long beat aligned NNW/SSE to the NE of Thirsk in their 59 minute flight. The hard luck story of the day belongs to Daniel McClean who flew 4:12 of his 5 hour attempt in Astir DPO. The other > an hour pilots included Bill Payton solo in his DG1000, 6:38, Pete Crawley in his ASH 31M, 4:39, neither of whom left an useable trace, Robin Hutchinson in the Discus, 1:34 and Andrew Bedford in his LS7, 1:24, who spent approximately 50 % of his flight hill soaring at 9-1,500' QFE.
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.