Friday 10th to Monday 13th June
Posted: 13/06/2016 19:27
Friday 10th. The Atlantic low centred to the west of the UK, produced a day of overcast skies, poor visibility, light winds that backed from the S to ESE and occasional light rain at Sutton, the rain amounting to 1.5 mm over the day. As a consequence, there was no flying during the day, while the Friday evening flying also fell foul of the weather, but, on a more positive note, the club welcomed competitors arriving for the Northerns, due to start on Saturday 11th..
Saturday 11th. The synoptic situation had changed very little from Friday, with again a low overcast and occasional light rain in a light W'ly that produced 1.4 mm of rain over the day, the light wind eventually veering through 180 degrees to blow from the east. Although there was no flying for the competitors in the Northerns, they did have the pleasure of attending a welcome party in the clubhouse in the evening, while a 99.1 km virtual task was set on the simulator, with a start point at Sutton W, TPs at Wetherby South, Ripon and Sutton S and the finish at Sutton.
Sunday 12th. Sunday was not quite a repeat of Saturday, although it started out that way with a low overcast and a light wind, this time from the east. However, a brief brightening in the early afternoon, while not good enough for setting a task for the Northern's competitors, did allow club member Mark Newburn to have 2 ATs in the DG1000 with John Carter, the first from a 1,000' tow yielding a 5 minute flight and the second from a 2,500' tow giving 24 minutes. The opportunity to fly was also taken with the Falke, one of its 2 sorties being to take a pilot to Pocklington to collect the Wold club's Pawnee so as to add to the tug resource at Sutton for the Northerns. Conditions deteriorated significantly later in the afternoon, when a slow moving storm deposited 23 mm of rain over 2 hours on the airfield, a funnel cloud associated with the storm being observed to the south of the site over Easingwold. The limited amount of real flying was accompanied by further virtual flying as the number of pilots taking part in the simulator based task continued to grow.
Monday 13th. With the synoptic situation changing very little and the whole of the UK covered by low pressure, the combination of a low overcast and occasional bits and pieces of rain meant it was again a non flying day, although the wind was now a light to moderate N'ly, the wind direction from which better conditions were predicted to eventually arrive. Competitors continued to attempt the virtual task on the simulator with the current leader, as of the time of pulling together the information for this Blog, being Chris Bowden with a task speed of 111 kph. Mike Brown, who had set the task on the simulator, remained confident he would complete the task in the fastest time given his knowledge of the system and software, so I for one look forward to the result of his particular 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.