Sunday 17th to Monday 18th December 2023
Posted: 19/12/2023 17:29
Sunday 17th. The anticyclone was showing signs of retreating southwards, but a moderate to fresh WSW'ly continued to blow under generally cloudy skies, the wind slowly declining to moderate as the day progressed. 15 ATs off runway 24 resulted, plus a single Falke flight, with pilots using a combination of hill lift and wave to register 9 flights of over 30 minutes, including 6 of over an hour. 5 flights climbed to over 4,000' asl, with Steve Thompson and Steve Ogden reaching 11,000' asl just to the SW of Darlington after contacting the wave over Bagby and having an intermediate climb to 8,900' asl 7 km ENE of Masham in their flight of just under 3 hours. Taking off just before the two Steve's in the Discus, Bob Calvert contacted the wave straight off tow and did an O/R to the northern outskirts of York, climbing to 8,600' asl 2.5 km NW of Sutton on Forest, while Dean Crosby in Astir DPO climbed to 8,100' asl 9 km E of Masham having contacted the wave over Bagby. Dean then explored as far west as the Ripon area before returning to site. The area around Bagby was seemingly the best place to contact the wave, as Bruce Grain/Elizabeth Scothern in the DG500 and Clive Swain/Steve Scothern in K21 KLW both did off the last and penultimate flights of the day. Bruce/Elizabeth climbed to 8,100' asl in the Bagby area, while Clive/Steve climbed to 7,800' asl a little further to the north. Earlier, Clive/Steve, again in the DG 500, were the other flight to exceed 4,000' asl, reaching 4,200' asl over Carlton Husthwaite with all the other soaring flights utilising hill lift, sometimes wave enhanced, although Dave McKinney/A Gollejo found some weak wave just to the NE of Thirsk during their 37 minute flight in KLW. Andy Evans in Astir DSU was one of the pilots to soar solely via hill lift, maintaining 600-900' QFE in the Main Bowl during his flight of 56 minutes.
Monday 18th A low overcast persisted all day as the anticyclone continued to decline, the wind being a moderate to moderate to fresh and mild SSW/WSW'ly, the persistence and base height of the overcast being such as to rule out any chance of flying.
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.