Sunday 16th to Tuesday18th April 2023
Posted: 19/04/2023 19:15
Sunday 16th. A light to moderate SSE'ly blew all day, with broken cloud and thermals to start although the sky clouded over in the late afternoon. Operations were therefore off runway 20. Cloud base never exceeded the mid 3,000's and of the 9 flights to exceed 30 minutes flying time. of which 4 exceeded an hour, there was only a single cross country flight with the rest soaring locally. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t covered around 130 km by flying some 7 km E of Malton and 5 km SE of Market Weighton before returning to Sutton, having a best average climb rate of 3.3 kts although most of the day's thermals were somewhat weaker than this. Bob's 3:24 was the longest of the day, with James Prosser in his Ventus ct having 1:55, John Marsh in his DG303 having 1:32 and John Cox in his Silent 2E, part of a visiting group of pilots from Husbands Bosworth, having 1:12. Among the other private owners to rig, Kelly Teagle in her Kestrel 19 had 49 minutes, while Sarah Stubbs, flying the only club single seater flight of the day had 59 minutes in Astir DPO, with Bruce Grain/visitor Tim Murphy having 40 minutes in the DG1000. The day also saw 5 First Flight pupils flown and 2 sorties in the Falke.
Monday 17th. With high pressure centered over Scandinavia, the SSE'ly flow persisted, again light to moderate, with a medium level overcast only breaking up to clear skies in the late afternoon. The lack of soaring opportunities was reflected in flight times with only 4 flights of the 13 flown on the day exceeding 30 minutes, with only one of these over an hour. This was by John Cox in his Silent 2E who had just over an hour in the weak thermals. The 3 flights of between 30 and 60 minutes were all at the end of the flying day, with Clive Swain having 2 of them, 45 minutes with Andrew Bedford and 40 minutes with visitor Jim Chandler both in K21 JVZ, while Guy Hartland/Denya Eita had 33 minutes in K21 KLW. The best altitude reached was 3,400' asl by Guy/Denya as everybody stayed local.
Tuesday 18th. The light to moderate SSE'ly had become a moderate NNE'ly, so the day's 19 launches, including 4 for the first outing of the Tuesday evening group, were off runway 06. Cumulus started to blossom late morning, with the sky becoming progressively blue from the east as the afternoon wore on. The period from 1230 hrs to 1600 hrs was soarable, with all 10 of the launches during this period exceeding 30 minutes and 5 of these exceeding an hour. Cloud base rose to over 5,000' asl by mid afternoon with peak average climb rates of 3-4 kts, John Forrester in Astir DPO climbing to 5,200' asl in his flight of 2:18 and George Rowden, flying brother Geoff in K21 KLW, climbing to 5,100' in their 42 minute flight. The Husband Bosworth visitors made the most of the day, I Willows in his LS4 having 2:28, John Cox in his Silent 2E having 2:10 and S Wilks/N Walklett in the HB Duo Discus having 57 minutes. Most of the early soaring flights were conducted to the NE/ENE of the site, with John Cox getting 19 km up wind. YGC members also made use of the soaring window, with Guy Hartland/ Roger Taylor having 1:10 in K21 KLW and Clive Swain/ Paul Leake having 1:02 in K21 JVZ, while Bruce Grain/visitor T Murphy had 47 minutes in KLW. Views of site and Rievaulx Abbey are shown below.
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.