Sunday 27th June to Thursday 1st July 2021
Posted: 05/07/2021 21:03
Sunday 27th. An occluded front to the South of the site meant a cloudy day with a light ENE'ly wind. With no lift available, the 10 ATs off runway 06 were all circuits in either K21 JVZ or KLW, landings being on runway 02 and flight times in the range 8-13 minutes.
Monday 28th. A depression to the south meant another cloudy start to the day as a light N'ly blew, this veering into the SSE late in the day. Operations were off runway 02, with the occasional take off and landing on either 06 or 20. The cloud became more broken over the middle part of the day before clouding in again and the sunnier period provided some thermal activity that was utilised by 3 flights. Clive Swain and Wayne Beales made the most of the conditions with 53 minutes in K21 KLW, while Alan Beaumont, flying the DG500 solo had 43 minutes. A little later in the afternoon, Nigel Burke gave his First Flight pupil 35 minutes in K21 JVZ, with only one other flight having more than 20 minutes, Dave Thompson having 25 minutes solo in the DG500.
Tuesday 29th. A moderate N/NNE'ly blew on a day of sunny intervals, but in spite of the partially sunny skies, finding lift proved to be a tricky affair. Seven private owners rigged but only 5 launched and of these only John Ellis in his DG800 managed a flight of over an hour, 1:07 to be precise, and even he didn't venture beyond Over Silton and Rievaulx. No one else had a flight time of over 30 minutes, while only 8 of the day's 34 flights exceeded 20 minutes. Nigel Burke in his DG800 topped this particular list with 29 minutes, Colin Troise having 26 minutes solo in K21 KLW and during the day's evening flying, Kelly Teagle and Julian Gerrestsen had the same time in the same glider as they contacted some wave. Following a busy day for club flying the evening flying continued with Chris Collingham taking over driving Pawnee Tango Mike. Chris was kept very busy launching on runway 02 as the wind gradually increased and low cloud started to build over the moors. Notable flights included Adam Sayers conversion to the Astir following a check flight in the DG500, so congratulations to Adam and Kelly and Julian's wave flight. Any possibility of some more wave flying disappeared when the temperature dropped and the low cloud arrived at the airfield boundary.
Wednesday 30th. The moderate flow from the North continued, but this time bringing in a low overcast from the North Sea so that there was no flying.
Thursday 1st July. A light to moderate wind varying between NNW and NNE was accompanied by sunny skies and Cumulus, the latter resulting in a number of soaring flights, although the conditions only tempted one private owner, Paul Bulmer, to fly. Most of the day's 17 launches were off runway 06, but late in the day, as the wind backed into the W, launches were off runway 24 with the majority of landings on runway 02. 8 of the launches resulted in flights of over 30 minutes, with 5 of over an hour. Heading the list was Dave Thompson with 2:35 in the Discus, with Clive Swain and John Dore having 1:21 in K21 JVZ, James Prosser having 1:10 in the Discus, Laurie Clarke having 1:05 solo in the DG500 and Ben Dawson having 1:03 solo in the same glider. One of the Discus pilots visited Helmsley, Gilling and Black Hambledon while the Falke had 3 flights one trip visiting Carlton Bank. another Pocklington and Knaresborough and the third Market Weighton, Wetherby and Boroughbridge but not necessarily in this order.
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.