Saturday 28th September 2019
Posted: 29/09/2019 09:00
Saturday 28th. Overnight rain was followed by a transient ridge of high pressure that was the basis for a good soaring day, the moderate W'ly wind providing hill, thermal and for some, wave lift. The soaring potential of the day can be judged by the fact that only 2 of the day's 26 winch launches failed to provide a flight in excess of 30 minutes, with 14 flights exceeding an hour. Indeed, the two flights that didn't exceed 30 minutes came at the very end of the flying day as the wind dropped to light and the hill stopped working. Most people made use of the hill and thermal lift, non more so than Bill Payton and Paul Bulmer who did an O/R to Guisborough SW and also visited Northallerton in Bill's DG1000t, while Conrad Thwaites visited the Tontine and Carlton in the Discus, the latter recently returned from a trip to Denby with Malcolm Morgan. The Tontine was also visited by Nick Gaunt in the DG500, Nick making use of the wave to climb to around 4,000' asl, this altitude also being achieved by George Rowden in his LS8-18 via a luke warm hot spot to the south of Bagby airfield. Transitioning from the hill lift into thermal was commonplace, with some good climb rates to be had, but transitioning from thermal into the wave was significantly more difficult. Indeed, only 2 major wave climbs were achieved, these being by visitors Graig Lowrie in his DG800 and Graham Morris in his ASW27, with Graham getting to just over 10,000' asl and Graig just over 8,000' asl, both of whom launched late morning. Graham found his hot spot just to the NE of Thirsk and also visited Northallerton and Catterick. Graham had the longest flight of the day, 5:31, while Graig had 4:24 and Ian Bullous in his DG800 had 4:35. Those having between 3 and 4 hours were Chris Booker in his LS1, and the aforementioned Bill/Paul and George. Ground based activities during the day included the return of members and gliders from the YGC's annual expedition to the Borders GC at Millfield, complete with tales of a successful wave soaring week.
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.