Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th October 2024
Posted: 21/10/2024 17:39
Thursday 17th. Rain in the early hours had cleared away, leaving the site in a light to moderate SSW'ly that produced some useful wave conditions that were utilised by a number of pilots. Out of the 25 launches off runway 24, landings being on either 24 or 20, 10 exceeded 30 minutes, with 7 exceeding an hour. Wave was contacted straight off tow, mainly in the Felixkirk area with 4 pilots climbing to 10,000' asl or more and a further 5 climbing to between 5 and 10,000' asl. The 10,000' plus pilots generally progressed to the NW in a series of higher climbs, with Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct climbing to 10,300' asl and getting to the Aysgarth area, Dean Crosby in his LS10t, 11,300' asl near Selset Reservoir and Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct 11,900' asl in the same area. Sam Batchelor, on the other hand, flew the Discus up to 10,700' asl while remaining in the local area. After reaching their maximum altitudes, Bob returned to site via Rufforth, Dean via Leyburn, Harrogate N and Knaresborough, and Fred via Ripon and the Rufforth/York area, with OLC distances covered being 168km, 200 km and 139 km respectively, while Sam, conversely, visited Ripon. The other 5 wave soaring pilots included Chris O'Doyle in his Discus t who climbed to 9,500' asl locally, Chris Teagle in his LS8t-18 and Neil Paverley in his Nimbus 2 who both climbed to 8,300' asl Chris covering 174 OLC km as he visited Northallerton, Leyburn, Selset Reservoir and Ripon and Neil 111 OLC km visiting the Richmond area. Austin Hartland climbed to 5,200' asl in Astir DPO locally, while visitors Rick Feeney/Stuart Brooks in their K21 MI utilised wave to the east of Sutton to climb to 6,200' asl. Among all this wave flying, 3 First Flight pupils were flown and Neil Amos successfully flew his first solo in K21 KLW, so congratulations Neil.
Friday 18th. Early morning mist in the Vale of York soon cleared to a day of sunny intervals, as a light to moderate SSE'ly slowly veered into the S. There were, however, only 2 flights on the day, one by Rick Feeney/Stuart Brooks in their K21 MI and one in the Falke. Rick/Stuart's flight of 1:10 took them to the York area and back, during which flight they climbed to 9,000' asl in what I assume was wave but their trace was so bad this is difficult to verify.
Saturday 19th. An eastward travelling cold front brought morning rain and low cloud, this clearing to allow flying to commence in the early afternoon and conclude around 1630 hrs as the last of the day's 14 ATs landed on runway 20 having taken off from runway 24. The light to moderate W'ly did not produce much in the way of soaring opportunities with only 2 flights exceeding 30 minutes, these both being by Nimbus 2 pilots, visitor Steve Codd having 1:12 and YGC pilot Neil Paveley having 43 minutes. All but one of the other ATs were flown in either K21 KLW or K21 JVZ, the exception being the flight in Astir DPO. flight times being in the range from 15 to 29 minutes mainly off 2,500' tows.
Sunday 20th. The approach of the first named storm of the autumn/winter, Ashley. with its associated high winds, low cloud and rain/ meant a decision to scrub Sunday's flying was made on Saturday.
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.