Saturday 1st to Sunday 2nd July 2023
Posted: 03/07/2023 17:12
Saturday 1st. A moderate and at times moderate to fresh W'ly provided another good soaring day at Sutton, with 15 of the day's 24 winch launches off runway 24 exceeding 30 minutes with 9 of these exceeding an hour and 3 flights exceeding 6 hrs. In addition to hill and thermal lift, some pilots contacted wave, with Fred Brown being the first of these in his Ventus ct, eventually climbing to 10,400' asl over Cowesby and finding wave as far north as Carlton Bank as well as over the site. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct had a slow climb to around 6,000' in the main bowl before, like Fred, using the wave over Cowesby to climb to 11,700' asl before getting to his maximum altitude of 12,500' asl just west of the Topcliffe MATS. From there Bob flew west to Appleby before returning via Hawes and Harrogate N and providing the following photo.
Bill Payton'/Dean Crosby in Bill's DG1000t had a more involved wave flight with the first 2 1/2 hrs of their 6:15 flight using hill and thermal to visit Guisborough via Tontine and then return to fly locally before again visiting the Tontine. Here they contacted the wave climbing to 11,100' asl and then went east via Danby to the coast, continuing east over the sea some 4 km off Runswick Bay, Turning south, they continued for 15 km over the sea, making landfall just east of Whitby before again going some 8.5 km out to sea east of Robin Hood's Bay at an altitude of around 10,000' asl. From there they returned to site via Helmsley. No one else made a significant wave climb, although Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 climbed to 5,700' asl during his 4 hr local flight and and Clive Swain in his Kestrel gained to 5,500' asl as he flew locally with forays to near Northallerton, Boroughbridge and Tontine. Dave McKinney/Adam Sayer took the last launch of the day and used late afternoon thermal and hill lift to have just over an hour in K21 JVZ during which they flew north to the Thimbleby ridge, climbing to 5,200' asl in the process.
Sunday 2nd. The continuing W'ly wind had moderated a little compared to Saturday, but it was again a winching day, with 18 launches, including 2 by private owners. 8 of the day's flights lasted 30 minutes or more, with 3 extending over an hour. Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 had the longest flight of the day, 3:53, during which his found some wave lift that took him to 5,800' asl over Kepwick, having soared locally using thermal and hill lift and got to within 2 km of Tontine. Martyn Johnson in his DG600 got even closer to Tontine in his 2:51 flight, again using hill and thermal lift, but his wave contact over Cowesby was less productive, only taking him to 3,800' asl. Steve Thompson with visitor Palmm in K21 JVZ completed the list of >an hour flights with 1:09 off the last flight of the day during which they soared the ridges as far north at Thimbleby using ridge and thermal lift, as did Steve/Steve Morgan in JVZ in their 52 minute flight earlier in the day. Sarah Stubbs in Astir DPO had 52 minutes soaring the main ridge while Steve/Dean Crosby in JVZ visited Cowesby Bowl during their 47 minute flight, while Steve and visitor G Holoway spent some time in Cowesby Bowl at 1000' QFE during their 48 minute flight in JVZ.
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.