Tuesday 24th to Wednesday 25th May 2022
Posted: 26/05/2022 12:30
Tuesday 24th. An initially light to moderate WNW'ly led to some lively ATs from runway 24, while heavy showers led to some disruption of the day's flying as well as some good thermal climbs. Later, the wind backed into the W giving the Tuesday evening group the opportunity to winch off the same runway and hill soar. The day's total of 20 launches comprised 12 via AT and 8 via the winch. with 7 flights exceeding and hour and a further 10 between 30 and 60 minutes. The visitors from Stratford GC were again to the fore, contributing 4 of the >an hour flights and the highest altitudes. Andy Balkwill in his LS8-18 had two flights of over an hour, both from AT. The first of 1:17, saw Andy visit Ripon, Harrogate North and go south of Knaresborough before returning to site, having climbed to 6,100' asl, while on his second flight of 2:35 he remained relatively local climbing to 5,100' asl. Andy's fellow Stratford visitors, Neil Croxford in his LS4 and Ed Syson in his LS6 had 1:46 and 2:27 respectively with Ed flying out to the A1. The other > 1 hr flight from AT saw Clive Swain give Day Course member Ian Weatherston 1:04 in K21 KLW on Ian's second flight of the day. A break of some 2 hours occurred between the last AT and the first winch launch, with the last flight of the day landing at 2100 hrs. Two of the winch launched flights exceeded an hour, these being by Bruce Grain/Julian Gerretson in K21 FYF, 1:22, and Toby Wilson/Dan McLean in KLW with 1:15. Boltby and the forward ridge were the extent of the hill soaring with operating heights of around 5-600' QFE.
Wednesday 25th. A cloudy WSW'ly delayed the start of flying until the early afternoon, when the sky cleared as the wind became a moderate to fresh W'ly. 13 winch launches were subsequently flown off runway 24 with hill, thermal and wave lift available and consequently most of the flights were in excess of 30 minutes. Hill soaring extended to Black Hambledon and the Forward Ridge, with typical operating heights of around 1,000' QFE, while the wave proved difficult to contact, but once contacted gave good climb rates and peak altitudes. The difficulty of contacting the wave can be judged by the fact that it took Martyn Johnson 2 hours to get established, with first contact just to the north of Easingwold. Martyn then climbed to 17,100' asl, the best of the day, being joined by Barry Kerby/Steve Brown in Barry's Duo Discus who climbed to 16, 600' asl. Barry and Steve then flew rapidly downwind to Snainton, before slowly returning to site, losing some 10,000' in the process. Martyn and Barry/Steve both had flights of over 3 hours, with visitor Ed Syson having 2:14 in his LS6 without contacting the wave. Visitor Andy Balkwill had 1:41 in his LS8-18 as he struggled to get into the wave south of Easingwold, having to be content with a climb to 4,500' asl. The longest of the flights in a club glider saw Fred Brown/Adrian Flower have 52 minutes in K21 KLW, closely followed by Guy Hartland/Konrad Kawalec in K21 FYF with 49 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.