Tuesday 20th August 2024
Posted: 21/08/2024 13:12
Tuesday 20th. A moderate WSW'ly brought a day of hill, thermal and wave lift with the 36 winch launches off runway 24 giving 32 flights of 30 minutes or more with 18 of these over an hour. A 30 kt wind at flying height limited XC kms, but 8 XCs were flown and 4 high climbs made in wave. The wave climbing pilots were Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, Dean Crosby in his LS10t, Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct and Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19. All these pilots spent from 2-4 hours in hill, but mainly thermal lift before contacting the wave, with contact being made in various areas including Boltby, 5 km west of Topcliffe and just to the SW of site, with some pilots having a few false dawns before getting fully established. Maximum altitudes were 12,300' by Fred, 9,300' by Dean, 10.500' by Bob and 12,500' by Clive. all asl. Once established in the wave Fred visited the Leyburn/Richmond area, Dean visited Tontine and Wetherby, Bob Leyburn/ Catterick area and Tontine and Clive the Boroughbridge/ Ripon area with Fred covering 182 km, Dean 183 km, Bob 145 km and Clive 105 km as calculated by OLC. A few isolated showers did not affect flying but did allow Bob to take this photo during his flight.
Other XC pilots mainly using thermals on their XCs included Bill Payton/Dave McKinney in Bill's DG1000t, who had TPs at or near Ripon, York, Wetherby and Pateley Bridge, covering 187 OLC km in total, Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt, who mainly remained local but had one trip west to between Masham and Ripon with Ripon being also the location for visits by Sam Batchelor in the Discus and Tomer Altman in Astir DPO. Tomer later had a flight to Black Hambleton and the Thimbleby ridge in Astir FSH, while visitors Clive Thomas/Martin Hollowell had a couple of trips to near Northallerton in their DG1000t. The only flight in a club glider to have a taste of the wave was by John Carter/Andy Evans who started a gradual and continuous climb shortly after the start of their flight which eventually took them to 5,700' asl. At the end of the flying day, with the thermals dying, Toby Wilson/Josh Johnson used hill lift to do multiple trips to High Paradise Farm at 800-1,100' QFE in their 57 minute flight in K21 KLW to round off another good soaring day at Sutton,
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.