Tuesday 6th to Friday 9th July 2021
Posted: 10/07/2021 20:08
Tuesday 6th. After a day of low cloud and rain as a depression crossed the UK, skies cleared around 1700 hrs, allowing the Tuesday evening group to start ATing off runway 24 into a light to moderate wind varying between NNW'ly and WSW'ly. 4 flights resulted, 3 in the DG500 and 1 in the Discus with soft hill lift and weak wave extending flight times. Graham Evison and Dave Murgatroyd had the longest flight, 40 minutes, closely followed by the 38 minutes achieved by Ron Beezer in the Discus who went as far as Paradise Farm and south of Thirsk searching for stronger wave.
Wednesday 7th. Another light wind day from the WNW/WSW with operations getting underway on runway 24 around 1015 hrs. The day's 6 ATs all elected to land on 20 with convective conditions providing limited local soaring with only Chris Knapp in the Discus having a flight of > 1 hour, 1:06 to be precise, with nobody else breaking 30 minutes.
Thursday 8th. A light and variable wind, mainly from the W was accompanied by Cumulus filled skies that tempted 10 private owners to rig and launch although conditions were tricky at times. Steve Thompson in his Ventus flew 200 km with TPs at Beverley, Sutton on Forest and Market Weighton, while Chris Handzlik in his DG300 abandoned his original task of an O/R to Burn due to large blue areas and flew around the local 100km Rufforth/Pocklington triangle. Bill Payton with Oscar Odel, on his second launch of the day visited Guisborough West and Drax, while Ron Beezer in his Nimbus 2 went to Rufforth, and back. Roger Burghall in his ASW20 flew to Kirbymoorside, Market Weighton and Strensall, while Duncan Pask in his LS10 went to Malton and Sutton on Forest. Peak altitudes were around 4,500' asl. During the afternoon Justin Wills with his co=pilot in their Arcus landed after taking off from somewhere in Wales, enroute to Aboyne. The day's 25 launches produced 8 flights of between 30 and 59 minutes with a further 9 of over an hour. Those staying local also took advantage of the soarable conditions with Colin Troise having 1:56 flying the DG1000 solo, while Nigel Burke and Mark Watson had 1:07 in K21 KLW.
Friday 9th. A light S'ly saw operations off runway 20 with 16 ATs completed including the launch of Justin Will's Arcus as he and his copilot set off for their next stop at Millfield, arriving there later in the day. The soaring conditions didn't tempt many YGC pilots to depart on cross countries, with only Steve Thompson in his Ventus completing a 149 km task with TPs at Market Weighton, Castle Howard and Pocklingon, Steve also having a visit to Thirsk. Steve noted that the conditions were inferior to those on Thursday, (which weren't particularly brilliant), cloudbase being around 3,500' asl. The other 2 private owners to fly, Tony Drury and Paul Bulmer both stayed local, but were on the list of the 3 flights that had flight times of over an hour. In addition to the 3 fights to exceed an hour, there were also 3 in excess of 30 minutes, these including 50 minutes by Tomacz in the Astir and 37 minutes by Dave Thompson in the Discus.
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