Wednesday 20th April 2022
Posted: 21/04/2022 19:29
Wednesday 20th. The light to moderate NNE wind slowly veered into the SE causing operations to switch from runway 02 to 20, while the majority of landings were on 20 with 06 also used. The day's launch total of 10, showed a large contrast in flight times, with the only 2 private owners to fly, Clive Swain in his Kestrel and Rob Bailey in his ASG29t, both having long flights, while club gliders posted flight times of 20 minutes or less. Clive had the longest flight of the day, 4:06, the majority of which was spent above the airfield using a seemingly inexhaustible supply of thermals from the valley fringing the eastern side of the site, although a couple of excursions to Thirsk were made. The best climbs in this portion of the flight were to around 4,200' asl but on venturing north, Clive found a 2.7 kt average climb under a convergence near Knayton that took him to his best altitude of 5,700' asl. A further excursion north to a point some 6 km NE of Northallerton was followed by a return to site. Rob in his ASG29t also used the convergence to the north of the site to climb to 5,200' asl and then crossed the blue Vale of York but found the thermals over the Pennines to be patchy. only allowing climbs to a maximum of around 3,200' asl. With little improvement in conditions Rob re-crossed the Vale of York to re-connect with the stronger lift and higher cloud base of the convergence from whence he returned to site having flown 109 km.
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.