Friday 16th to Saturday 17th August 2019
Posted: 18/08/2019 21:37
Friday 16th. Another deep Atlantic depression kept the site in cloud, with rain falling from 1200 hrs and continuing for the rest of the day, 19.8 mm being recorded. The wind, a light to moderate SEl'y veered into the SSE and increased to moderate to fresh as the day progressed.
Saturday 17th. The depression, now centred to the NW of Scotland, kept the site in a SW/WSW'ly that was initially light to moderate, but soon increased to moderate to fresh. Accordingly it was winching off runway 24 although there as a single AT duiring the day. The last day of YGC's Task Week saw the competitors given a tennis themed task, with pilots being asked to alternatively visit TPs on either side of a N/S line running through Sutton Bank. With this line representing a tennis net, the pilot crossing the line the most times recording the longest rally and earning a 50 point bonus to add to distance and speed from an OLC entry. Although the hill was working most pilots used the strong convection, this giving rise to some heavy morning shower,s or wave, although this was not clearly marked and proved tricky to find. However, a number of pilots did use the wave with Steve Thompson climbing to around 17,500' asl over Dishforth in his Discus and then going downwind to visit Saltburn on the east coast before returning to Sutton. Martyn Johnson in his DG600 climbed to around 12,500' asl with Darren Lodge in his LS8 geting to just over 11,000' asl. Some of the Task Week competitors also used the wave, Fred Brown getting to 16,500' asl in his Ventus, John Ellis getting to 11,500' asl in his DG800 and Andy Hatfield climbing to 7,000' asl in the club Discus. Other competitors used the strong thermals to embark on their tennis based task, but the strong sink also led to Toby Wilson in his Standard Cirrus and John Tayler and Naomi Kennard in the club DG1000 landing out in the Helmsley area. Only 2 of the day's flights failed to exceed 30 minutes while the majority, 16 in all, exceeded an hour, with 4 exceeding 5 hours. The >1hour flight times included Ron Beezer and Christina Griffiths with I:50 in K21 JVZ, the same glider being the mount for Andy Parish and Andy Hanson's flight of 1:03.
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.