Tuesday 17th to Wednesday 18th September 2019
Posted: 19/09/2019 10:51
Tuesday 17th. The high pressure was still in charge but had shifted position, with a resulting moderate NNW'ly to start the day, this slowly veering into into the ENE, so operations were off runway 02 with some turbulent take offs. Cumulus blossomed late morning, encouraging 3 private owners to rig, and fly cross country, although John Ellis in his DG800 didn't get away until mid afternoon due to earlier tugging duties. Nevertheless, John flew 129 OLC kms when visiting the Tontine, Carlton Bank, Northallerton and Castle Howard, declaring the conditions better than expected. Rob Bailey in his ASG29t and Bill Payton and Stewart Heaton in their DG1000t both launched around 1300 hrs and flew some 150 km each, with Rob going to the SSE with TPs at Market Weighton and Pontefract, while Bill and Stewart went W to Pateley Bridge and to near Reeth. Rob's flight time of just under 4 hours was the longest of the day, while Bill and Stewart had exactly 3 hrs and John just over 2 hours. The > 1hr list was completed by Alan Beaumont who had 1:15 flying the DG500 solo locally. Course and club members, as well as 6 First Flight pupils ensured a busy launch point, with the last 2019 outing of the Tuesday evening group continuing flying until just before 1900 hrs, by which time 35 ATs had been flown. The period of soaring weather allowed Bruce Grain and course members Alan Woodfinder and Roy Webster to have 57 and 50 minutes respectively in K21 JVZ and the DG1000, with another 7 flights having between 30 and 60 minutes.
Wednesday 18th. The anticyclone remained in charge of the weather, but a warm front crossing Scotland spread a layer of medium level overcast over Northern England, resulting in a day of quiescent conditions as a light but essentially NW'ly blew. The smooth air was ideal for the 6 First Flight pupils of the day and the 4 course members, as the latter continued with their flying training, but the lack of any significant lift meant flight times were predominately in the 15 to 25 minute range, with only one flight, that of Bruce Grain and Paul Frost in the DG1000 managing to sneak over the 30 minutes, 31 minutes to be precise. Launches to 3,000' QFE led to some indications of weak wave over Sutton village but the lift was sufficiently transient and localised to only extend flight times to around 25 minutes. The day's AT total off runway 24 was 30, with the only single seat glider flying being by Andy Tyas in Astir HVK, his two flights both lasting 25 minutes.
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.