Friday 12th to Saturday 13th May 2023.
Posted: 14/05/2023 12:07
Friday 12th. A low overcast and drizzle/light rain at times brought in off the North Sea by a moderate N/NNE'ly wind kept the gliders in the hangars.
Saturday 13th. The low overcast persisted overnight and into the morning, with Paul Whitehead in the Falke, taking First Flight pupils for a fly around, reporting cloud base at around 8-900' QFE. The overcast started to break up around lunch time, with with the first glider flight taking off at around 1330 hrs off runway 02 into a light N'ly wind. The overcast continued to break up, but operations were soon switched to runway 20 as the wind, still remaining light, backed into the ESE. 23 ATs were flown, with 7 Private Owners rigging and flying, all finding thermal activity weak, with the base of the shallow Cumulus typically around 2.5-3,000' asl at best. In spite of the weak soaring conditions, all but one of the Private Owners managed an hour or more flying, times ranging from Nigel Burke's 1:08 in his DG800 to Clive Swain's 3:30 in his Kestrel 19. Low points of down to 1,000' asl were relatively common and operating heights were typically 1,800-2,400' asl as all pilots stayed local. None of the flights in club gliders exceeded an hour and only one exceeded 30 minutes, this being Jesper Mjel's 32 minutes with one of the day's First Flight pupils in the DG1000. Flying came to an end just after 1800 hrs, to the accompaniment of virtually cloudless skies and warm sunshine.
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.