Tuesday 11th April 2023
Posted: 12/04/2023 15:38
Tuesday 11th. A moderate W'ly initiallly brought sunny skies with Cumulus, but the skies slowly clouded in as the wind backed into the south, with rain from around 1700 hrs. Flying commenced just after 1000 hrs with a combination of 7 ATs and 9 winch launches leading to 8 flights of over 30 minutes, of which 2 were over an hour. The only 2 private owners to launch had the >1 hour flights, with Tony Drury having 2:09 in his DG303 off an winch launch and Andrew Wilmot in his ASW 20 having 1:20 off an AT. Both pilots stayed local, with Tony alternating periods of thermal and hill soaring and Andrew mainly hill soaring. Thermal soaring saw peak altitudes of around 4,000' asl reached, while hill soaring was mainly undertaken between 5-900' QFE, although some flights were down at times to 300' QFE, with the main bowl being the most popular area, although High Paradise Farm and/or Boltby were visited on more than one occasion. Winch launching proved to be more conducive to soaring than ATing, mainly due to it taking place from around 1000 and early afternoon before the wind backed into the south, with 6 of the >30 minute flights coming from winch launches. Of these, Guy Hartland/Simon Altman had 52 minutes in the DG500 and Graham Cooksey/Tony Kirby had 44 minutes in K21 JVZ while Simon Altman's 31 minute flight with one of the day's 3 First Flight pupils in JVZ was one of the only 2 >30 minute flights from an AT.
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.