Thursday 10th to Friday 11th April 2025.
Posted: 12/04/2025 15:54
Thursday 10th. An initial low overcast soon burnt off, with the first AT off runway 20 launching around 1030 hrs into a light to moderate SSE'ly, to be followed by 14 more. The sunny conditions tempted 5 private owners to rig and launch, but the blue conditions and low inversion precluded any soaring flights, what lift there was being weak and of little vertical extent. Consequently, there was only one flight of over 30 minutes, 54 minutes by Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct and that was entirely due to 2 extended engine burns. The next best was by James Shaw, who, off the last flight of the day, took the day's only First Flight pupil for 27 minutes in K21 JVZ off a 2,800' tow and also found some zero sink for a little while near Wass.
Friday 11th. The previous day's clear blue skies had been replaced by thin, high cover, but it was still sunny and warm with the wind light and mainly S'ly, with lift again hard to come by locally. Consequently, only one of the day's 15 launches off runway 20 that stayed local reached 30 minutes, that being by John Marsh in his DG303 on his second flight of the day. Most of the other launches, including the 4 for First Flight pupils, managed flights in the 20-28 minute range, the longer of these extended circuits being the result of 3,000' tows and/or weak thermal activity. However, whilst soaring conditions local to site were poor, Bob Calvert in his Discus 3ct and Pete Crawley in his ASH 31M used their engines to get to a convergence 9 km east of the Tontine TP where Bob climbed to 4,500' asl and Peter to around 5,000' asl before returning to site after 1:24 and 1:37 respectively.
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.