Monday 10th to Thursday 13th June 2024
Posted: 14/06/2024 12:52
Monday 10th A moderate N'ly brought morning rain and afternoon showers, the wind declining to light over the day with a brighter spell of weather in the afternoon, being too brief to allow any flying to take place.
Tuesday11th. The light to moderate N'ly continued to blow, bringing in generally cloudy skies and a few bits an pieces of drizzle at times that did not interfere with flying, most of which was for a number of groups of young people sponsored by the Air League, 15 in all, with 12 additional ATs off runway 02 for club members, including 4 by private owners. Martin/Albert Newbery were the first private owners to fly having 2 hrs as they used thermal and hill lift to do an O/R to Guisborough W via Tontine and Carlton Bank, having a max altitude of 3,200' asl but having to resort to their engine on the way back to Sutton. Visitor Steve Whalley in his ASW19 and Tony Drury in his DG303 both had 2 flights, but found lift hard to come by, while Guy Hartland/David Sculfor in K21 JVZ managed to use the few weak thermals around to extend their flight to 32 minutes, the Tuesday evening group keeping flying going until around 20:30.
Wednesday 12th. Early morning rain cleared before the start of flying around 1030 hrs, as the light N'ly backed into the WSW and increased to light to moderate. The day's 17 ATs were off runway 20, 13 of which were for another group of Air League sponsored young people. Another generally cloud day resulted in only 4 flights in excess of 30 minutes, with 2 of these being an hour or more. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t had 2:59, taking a cloud climb to 7,600' and using his altitude to visit Slingsby to the east of site and the Northallerton area to the north, although a couple of engine burns were required to recover from low points. Clive Swain/David Sculfor in K21 JVZ had exactly an hour off the last flight of the day as conditions brightened, climbing to 3,100' asl at one point and recovering from a low point of 700' asl some 3km SSE of Sutton as they made their way back to site towards the end of their flight. Clive and David also had one of the 2 flights to have 35 minutes, while the other was by Paul and Polly Whitehead in K21 JVZ, both the result of weak thermals.
Thursday 13th. Multiple advancing occluded fronts brought extensive cloud, a lowering base and rain from 1800 hrs, but not before 23 ATs were flown off runway 20 into a slowly increasing SSE'ly wind with some thermal activity. Another group of Air League sponsored young people accounted for 12 of the day's flights with the thermal conditions resulting in 9 flights over 30 minutes, of which 4 were over an hour. All the > an hour flights were by private owners with Ritchie Toon's 47 minutes in his LS7 being one of the 5 pilots to have between 30 and 60 minutes, the other 4 being Steve Ogden in Astir DPO, 47 minutes, Paul Whitehead/Steve Amos in K21 JVZ, 54 minutes, John Forrester in DPO, 30 minutes and Dave McKinney/ David Sculfor in k21 KLW, 46 minutes. The pilots with > an hour found conditions to be somewhat tricky with Chris Handzlik in his DG300 landing out near Nether Silton after visiting Tontine. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct and John Ellis in his DG800 all flew south with Bob and John having to use their engines to remain airborne, and Fred surviving a sticky patch near Sutton on the Forest before returning home. Bob flew to within 4.5 km of York, having to use his engine on the return journey, while John, resorted to his engine at Rufforth and again after visiting Pocklington while some 7.5 km from site. Cloud base during the flying period was around 3,000' to 3,500' asl with best average thermal strengths in the range 2.5 to 3 kts.
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.