Thursday 30th May to Saturday 1st June 2024
Posted: 01/06/2024 22:46
Thursday 30th. A moderate to fresh N'ly brought in low cloud and rain at times so there was no flying.
Friday 31st. The moderate to fresh N'ly continued to blow, albeit with no showers, but with low cloud at times that meant there was again no flying.
Saturday 1st June. The N'ly had declined to moderate and with sunnier skies and a higher cloud base, flying got under way around 1015 hrs and continued until the last of the day's 25 flights landed at around 1730 hrs, all ATs from runway 02. The day produced 8 flights of over 30 minutes with 4 over an hour, the latter by the 4 private owners who flew, with 2 using thermal, one using hill lift and one using wave. The thermal soarers, Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt and John Ellis in his DG800 found the thermals to be weak with a cloudbase around 3,000'asl and while John remained local and used his engine to climb to 5,500' asl, Steve journeyed to Leeming via Thirsk before going south to York and then north to Northallerton before returning to site. With Steve and John generally operating between 1,800' and 3,000' asl and a low point of 1300' asl to the east of Boroughbridge for Steve, it could not be classed as an easy day, but Steve had 2:42 and John 3:14. Bill Payton/Peter Crawley in Bill's DG1000t mainly dispensed with the thermals and instead went north to hill soar the north face of the North York Moors between Carlton Bank and the east end of Ingleby bowl while operating between 1,500' and 2,200' asl in a flight lasting 1:43. Fred Brown in his Ventus ct was one wave pilot, initially climbing to around 5,000' asl 5 km north of Sutton and remaining around that altitude for quite a while before finding better lift 3 km south of site and climbing to 6,700' asl. Setting off to the east, Fred climbed to his maximum altitude of 8,500' asl while beating between Kirkbymoorside and Pickering before visiting Scarborough and then returning to site after 3:25. The longest flights in club and visiting gliders saw John Carter and returning member Pete Thelwall have 1:07 minutes in the DG1000, contacting the wave and providing the following photo with Sutton Bank under the starboard wing. Peter was flying after a decade away from flying and we look forward to seeing more of him and his Std Cirrus.
Earlier in the flying day, visitors Geoff Purcell/Chris Leggett had 38 minutes, thermal soaring in their Surrey Hills GC Twin Astir.
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.