Friday 3rd February to Sunday 5th February 2023
Posted: 09/02/2023 21:45
Friday 3rd. A moderate and at times moderate to fresh W'ly blew all day, with 24 winch launches off and landings on runway 24 with the occasional landing on 20. The majority of launches were for familiarisation with short flight times, but 1 flight exceeded an hour and 5 were between 30 and 60 minutes. The main ridge was working well with operating heights around 1,000' QFE and a number of the longer flights visited the northern end of the main W'ly ridge at High Paradise Farm and there was some weak wave around. This helped John Carter/Paul Bulmer in the DG1000 to climb to 2,900' asl in their flight of 46 minutes and Steve Thompson/Stuart Heaton in the DG500 climb to 3,700' asl. Other pilots to have between 30 and 60 minutes included John Carter/Konrad Kawalec with 38 minutes in the DG1000, Bruce Grain/Paul Leake with 42 minutes also in the DG1000, Steve Thompson/Duncan Pask with 37 minutes in the DG500 and John Carter/Nigel Burke with 35 minutes in the DG1000. The >1 hour pilot was Dave Campbell who had 1:23 in Astir DSU.
Saturday 4th. A light to moderate WSW'ly blew all day, the overcast skies not interfering with flying and 13 ATs being flown, resulting in 1 flight of over an hour and 9 of between 30 and 60 minutes. Konrad Kawalec was the greater than an hour pilot with 1:05 in Astir DSU, spending most of his time soaring the main bowl with a couple of excursions round the Gormire corner to the next bowl. Other Astir pilots to soar these areas were Steve and Chris Ogden, having 37 and 31 minutes respectively, while Andy Tyas flew DSU for 49 minutes, going north on the ridge as far as Boltby village on 2 occasions. High Paradise Farm was visited by Paul Whitehead/Konrad Kawalec in the DG500 in their flight of 33 minutes, by Paul again, this time with Dan McLean in their flight of 36 minutes and by Toby Wilson, first with Sam Dawson and then with Ivan Maczka with flight times of 23 and 37 minutes respectively.
Sunday 5th. An intense anticyclone covered the UK, giving sunny skies and light winds, mainly from the SSW. !6 ATs were flown off runway 20 with flight times mainly dependent on launch height. Only 3 flights exceeded or equalled 30 minutes, all being the result of high tows. Steve Thompson with visitor B Toon, had 32 minutes in the DG500, before having a repeat flight of 30 minutes later in the day, with Clive Swain giving another Toon visitor, this time Emily, 31 minutes in K21 JVZ. The rest of the flights were between 17 and 26 minutes on a pleasant if unexciting day of extended circuits at Sutton. Amid all this domestic flying, the Falke from Millfield visited, before returning home later in the day.
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.