Tuesday 28th to Thursday 30th January 2025
Posted: 31/01/2025 17:23
Tuesday 28th. A weak front brought low cloud and some morning rain as a light to moderate NNW'ly blew, this slowly backing into the WNW as the day progressed, so there was no flying.
Wednesday 29th. The light WNW'ly was accompanied by generally cloudy skies, but with their base high enough to allow flying to take place. 11 ATs were flown off runway 24 with landings on 02 and flight times generally related to release height with Derek Smith's 29 minutes in Astir DSU and his earlier 3 minute check flight with Bruce Grain in K21 KLW off an 1,100' tow illustrating the point. The exception was Steve Thompson, who took a 3,200' tow in Astir DPO and found a patch of weak wave that while not providing a climb allowed him to maintain his altitude at 3-4,000' asl for most of his 1:24 flight. Paul Whitehead and Dave Campbell had a similar duration via 2 flights in the Falke, one of which was an O/R to Fishburn while an RF-6 visited from Pocklington.
Thursday 30th. Clear, sunny skies were the order of the morning, with some Cumulus development later in the day and excellent visibility all day, as the initially initially light W backed into the WSW and increased to light to moderate. Flight times slowly improved over the day with Chris Collingham/George Rowden in K21 JVZ having 22 minutes late morning, Tony Drury having 23 solo minutes in K21 KLW around midday, Nigel Burke/Les Rayment in JVZ having 26 minutes early afternoon before Les took Nigel for a 34 minute flight in the same glider a little later, with John Carter having 48 minutes solo in KLW off the last flight of the day. Early soaring was via a weak but limited area of lift over Gormire with later flights using more of the main bowl. The only other flight of over 20 minutes was by Konrad Kawalec who had 25 minutes in Astir DSU in the early afternoon. In addition to the day's 14 ATs off runway 24, Paul Whitehead/Clive Swain flew numerous touch and goes during their 2 flights in the Falke with John Carter having an earlier flight in the motorglider.
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.