Tuesday 9th to Tuesday 16th June 2020.
Posted: 16/06/2020 21:44
Tuesday 9th. A sunny morning preceeded the development of cumulus which tended to overconvect, leading to a predominately cloudy afternoon. However, soaring was possible over the period from 1100- 1400 hrs, with only the last flight of the day, which took off at around 1400 hrs, failing to exceed 30 minutes flying time. The light to moderate S'ly meant operations were off runway 20 and the day's 10 ATs saw Alan Beaumont in the DG500, Graham Evison in his Nimbus 2 and Nick Gaunt in his LS7 all have flight times of an hour of more, with Alan having 1:09. Graham having exactly an hour and Nick, 2:30. Everybody remained relatively local with Nick visiting Castle Howard and Coneythorpe as the cloud base slowly increased from around 3,000 to 4,000' asl.
Wednesday 10th. A depression forming in the North Sea brought a day of light to moderate SE'ly winds, low cloud and periods of light rain which lasted on and off all day, so there was no flying.
Thursday 11th. The depression had transferred to the Bay of Biscay, leaving the site in a cloudy and damp, moderate to fresh N'ly, which gusted into the upper 20 kts from midday. Rain during the early morning and later in the day amounted to 4 mm, but even during the dry part of the day, the low cloud and gusty wind ruled out any hope of flying.
Friday 12th. A front from the depression, still centred in the Bay of Biscay, was over the north of England for most of the day, with the result that another 5.6 mm of rain fell as the initially moderate N'ly slowly decreased in strength to become light to moderate. Accordingly there was no flying.
Saturday 13th. Rain overnight stopped around 0800 hrs but a legacy of low cloud that did not start to break up until late afternoon meant it was another non-flying day as the depression started to fill and move north, the light to moderate NW'ly flow slowly veering into the E.
Sunday 14th. Low cloud off the North Sea delayed the start of flying until the early afternoon as a light to moderate NNW'ly blew, operations being off runway 02. 10 ATs were flown with 4 private owners rigging and flying, but only Steve Thompson in his Discus, with 1:57 and Greg Corbetts in his Kestrel with 1:08 managed flights of over an hour. Steve visited Helmsley and Black Hambleton in his flight. Jamie Quartermaine's 33 minutes in his ASW 27 was the next best in terms of duration, with all the other flights being circuits. A number of other private owners rigged but were not tempted by the conditions and didn't fly, but there were 2 flights in the Falke.
Monday 15th. A slack pressure gradient covered the UK with the east coast again affected by low cloud brought in on a light SE/SSE'ly. The cloud started to retreat to the coast around lunch time allowing flying to get underway off runway 20 in the early afternoon. 7 ATs were flown, with the majority of flights taking 1000' ATs so flight times were low. Only Colin Troise, taking the first launch of the day to 2,000' QFE in K21 JVZ, managed a flight time of over 20 minutes. with Fred Brown, Steve Ogden, Malcolm Winter and John Carter keeping their hands in off low launch heights.
Tuesday 16th. A repeat of Monday's weather with low cloud slowly breaking up by early afternoon as a light SSE/SE'ly blew, the day then becoming warm with hazy sunshine. Albert Newbery, taking a flight in the Falke, reported moderate visibilty and isolated Cu at 1200' QFE under high cover, the latter producing a nice corona. A line of Cumulus Congestus developed to the NW of the site, but the conditions did not tempt anybody else to fly.
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.