Wednesday 11 to Thursday 12th January 2017
Posted: 12/01/2017 21:17
Wednesday 11th. A vigorous depression centred to the N of Scotland brought strong and gusty winds to North Yorkshire, a gust of 62 mph being registered at RAF Leeming and 90+ gusts over the Pennines. Although similar wind speeds were not a feature at site, the fresh W'ly was sufficiently gusty to prevent any flying, things only starting to calm down as the sun set.
Thursday 12th. A predominately cloudy day, although with low cloud only part of the time, was accompanied by a light to moderate WSW'ly wind, this decreasing and then, after the cessation of flying, veering into the N, the temperature dropping below freezing with this change. A brief interruption, due to the cloud lowering to around 800' QFE around lunch time, contributed to the launch total only reaching 8, all ATs off runway 24, although as the wind decreased the lack of any prospect of staying up was also a factor. The day's early ATs produced the best flying conditions with one flight of an hour, by Colin Troise solo in the DG500, and 4 others of > 30 minutes, the longest of these being by George Rowden and prospective member Rob Corner who had 57 minutes, also in the DG500. George and Rob initially found some weak wave and when that vanished found the ridge to be working . Paul Whitehead and Peter Guest took K21 KLW for an aerobatic session, with Peter initiating the manoevers and Paul taking over later in the flight, which, due to the availability of lift, extended to 44 minutes. Later Paul and Geoff Turner had 36 minutes in the same glider. With interest in flying declining with the wind speed, the opportunity was taken to rig K21 JVZ after its ARC, Ken Arkley having brought it up to site from North Yorkshire Sailplanes. The day ended with another splendid sunset and good view of CuNims over the Pennines, as the following photo shows.
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.