Wednesday 13th September 2023
Posted: 15/09/2023 15:09
Wednesday 13th. A transient ridge of high pressure resulted in a good day's thermal soaring, the day's 28 ATs producing 22 flights of over 30 minutes with 8 of these over an hour. 6 private owners rigged and flew, with 4 flying cross countries, in which endeavour they were joined by the club Discus. The initially light N'ly led to operations off runway 02, but the wind soon veered into the SSE while remaining light, resulting in a runway change to 20. Cumulus soon blossomed over the North Yorks Moors and later over lower ground, with cloud base rising to over 5,000' asl and peak average climbs of around 4 knots. Chris Teagle in his Kestrel 19 flew the local 100km triangle around Pocklington and Rufforth before adding on an O/R to Tontine, while Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt flew 216 km with TPs at Humber Bridge, Tockwith and Pocklington. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct went wave hunting visiting areas around Helmsley, Pocklington, Burn, Grassington, Pickering, Churchhouses, Guisborough West and Tontine and, while not finding any wave, did utilise a feature which he described as a double sea breeze front near Churchhouses which took him to 6,400' asl. Bob also supplied the following photo.
The other XC pilots were Gregg Corbett in his Kestrel who visited Thirsk and Kirby Moorside and Adam Sayer who did an O/R to Rufforth in the Discus and, on returning, flew locally to extend his flight time to 2:21. Clive Swain/Mark James in K21 KLW and Guy Hartland/Steve Kirk in K21 JVZ were top of the list of soaring flights lasting between 30 and 60 minutes, with 55 and 51 minutes respectively. Clive also gave Day Course member N Tait two 30-35 minute flights in KLW, while George Rowden flew 4 of the day's First Flight pupils with Bruce Grain flying the 5th.
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.