Sunday 20th to Monday 21st January 2019
Posted: 21/01/2019 17:15
Sunday 20th. The continuing ESE'ly wind had decreased to light and died away althogether at times, while the snow cover slowly thawed. However, the low cloudbase, below hill top height at times, was the major reason for it being a non-flying day.
Monday 21st. Patchy medium level cloud and large blue areas of sky accompanied those travelling to site for the 0930 hr briefing, but it was not too long before the clouds increased to cover the sky. With K21 KLW still in Poland awaiting some replacement bits and pieces and K21 JVZ out of hours and down at NYSailplanes for its ARC, the DG500 was readied for action alongside some shuffling of vehicles due to the reluctance of some to start. The first flight of the day saw Albert Newbury and George Rowden take off from runway 24 in the Falke, the wind being a light SSW'ly. The climb out soon encountered stratus at around 300' QFE and a right hand circuit gave a clear view of stratus forming on the southerly facing parts of the ridge. A go around and a second circuit revealed that the stratus was increasing in extent so a landing was planned on runway 24 but this option was quickly replaced by an approach to runway 20 due to the increasing cloud. Not long after landing, the cloud base lowered below hill top height, so the Falke was returned to its hangar, the DG500 unreadied for action and the ground equipment put back under cover. The skies did eventually clear around mid afternoon, but by then there was nobody around to fly.
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.