Thursday 30th March 2023
Posted: 31/03/2023 16:06
Thursday 30th. A moderate WSW'ly that backed into the W provided good soaring conditions for a while via hill and wave lift, although contact with the latter required persistence and ICE assistance, while afternoon showers affected flying leading to a launch total of 8, one of which was by AT, the rest by winch. Clive Swain/Paul Leake in K21 KLW set the ball rolling with the first of 4 >1 hr flights, spending just over an hour soaring the main bowl at 7-1,000' QFE. They were followed by Bob Calvert in his Discus 2t and Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2t, Bob having 2:05 and Steve 1:20. While both spent most of the times soaring the main bowl at above 600' QFE, Bob climbed to 2,500' asl and Steve to 3,000' asl in weak wave in front of the main bowl, while Bob's last 20 minutes was at 500' QFE in the main bowl. Chris Collingham/Paul Bulmer then had some winch launch training, John Carter/Dave McKinney had 25 minutes in K21 JVZ and Guy Hartland took an AT with the only First Flight pupil of the day before Bob Calvert took a second winch launch of the day in his Discus 2t. After soaring the main bowl for around an hour at 6-1,000' QFE, the t of his Discus 2t was used twice to contact wave 3 km north of Boltby, climbing to 7,700' asl while tracking NW to a point halfway between Northallerton and Tontine. A further wave climb between Northallerton and Catterick got Bob to his maximum altitude of 8,300' asl where the photos below were taken.
Apart from a brief climb some 7.5 km NW of Masham, it was a 56 km descent from this point all the way back to site, passing to the W of Masham and Ripon and turning back to site some 5,5 km SW of Boroughbridge after of flight of just under 4 hours.
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.