Sunday 29th to Monday 30th May 2022
Posted: 30/05/2022 21:11
Sunday 29th. The N'ly flow continued, but slowly declined in strength from moderate to light, and at the same time, the extensive cloud broke up to give some mid to late afternoon thermal soaring. No private owners launched and the 15 ATs off runways 02 or 06 were all in one of the 3 club K21's. Operations were delayed by low cloud with flying getting underway around 1130 hrs , while only one of the frequent showers visible from site caused an interruption to flying, with an hour lost around midday. The first flight of over 30 minutes was by Mike Collins, flying KLW solo and taking off just before 1600hrs. Mike took a tow to 2,500' QFE and managed to climb 100' more in his flight of 59 minutes. Stuart Haigh, a visitor from the Cambridge GC, then flew JVZ solo for 48 minutes, releasing off tow at 1600' QFE and climbing to a peak height of 2,700' QFE. Finally, Clive Swain/Frank Maczka had 1:24 in FYF, releasing at 1900' QFE and climbing to 3,100' QFE as the cloud base rose.
Monday 30th. The initially light and mainly SW'ly wind settled into the SSW and became light to moderate, leading to take offs on runway 24 and landings on 20. A generally cloudy day with the occasional sunny spell also produced large showers, these mainly missing the site and not causing any disruptions, mainly due to the fact that only 5 ATs were flown, with all but one for First Flight pupils. The exception was the flight by Dave McKinney/Stuart Haigh in K21 KLW, which, using weak thermal, lasted 43 minutes. The 4 First Flight pupils were tutored by George Rowden and Dave, and again using the weak thermals were given an average of 25 minutes flight time. Cloud base of the Cumulus was initially 1500' QFE but rose to 2,000' QFE later, but pilots used the areas devoid of Cumulus to tow to 2,500' QFE.
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.