Sunday August 13th 2017:

Well yesterday was not the Glorious Twelfth for glider pilots but that description fits this day and the 13th was a lucky day for all. It was the stuff glider pilots dream about - a long day starting early with consistant conditions over a wide area, a very high cloud base, little wind and strong thermals. What a day to kick off the Northern Regionals.

Before the grid was launched the good early conditions allowed club members with big x/c aspirations to get off on their tasks. Many achieved significant distances in flight times ranging from around four to over six hours, some at eye watering speeds. Of those who recorded flights on the ladder David Latimer in his Ventus topped the list with 565km taking in Sheffield and Saltby with return legs to local TP's "up t'north". Close behind with just 5 km less than Dave was Derek Taylor in his ASW22 on a similar task but using an alternative Sheffield TP. The actual speed for both was 96kph. Both Darren Lodge in his LS8 and Jim Mclean in the ASW24 flew 300km yoyos without leaving Yorkshire.Tony Drury raced round the 100km clubs triangle at 86kph in the syndicate DG303. There were no other flights recorded on the ladder but we must assume that with flight times up to about 5 hours there must have been numerous flights of >200km. In fact there was a total of 18 flights in privately owned gliders. ( put them on the ladder please folks it does help the blogman and adds to the reputation of YGC )

In between all this the club 2-seaters were busy as usual and club gliders Astir DPO and DG303 KJH joined in the fun.

Meanwhile the Northerns competitors were set a distance handicap task of 394km reduced to a scoring distance of 356km for this type of task. The task required two forays into Lincolshire with a return to Kirkbymoorside in between. 21 competitors set off and 21 returned to SUT having completed the task thus emphasising the quality of soaring conditions on this day. Regrettably 2 competitors fell foul of the task rules and had their scores reduced accordingly. G Dale in the Duo Discus won the day with a scoring speed of 103kph with Team Yorkshire in the DG1000 second at 95kph. In third place was Steve Woolcock at 93kph with eleven others beating the 80 kph mark. Congrats to our own Kelly Teagle who achieved her furthest and fastest task ever - seems she quite likes her new toy! (Kestrel). Other YGC members to complete the task were Dick Cole in the club's Discus and Peter Goodchild in his PIC. This had been a great start to the Northerns Comp.

If anyone is interested in following progress of the comp during the week cut and paste the following url into your browser:

http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/northern-regional-gliding-championships-2017-yorkshire-2017/results                                                                                                                                                               PL