Wednesday 1st to Thursday 2nd November 2023.
Posted: 03/11/2023 11:59
Wednesday 1st. An initially light to moderate S'ly wind increased to moderate to fresh and veered into the SW as Storm Ciaran approached from the Atlantic. Early fog and rain soon cleared and the broken cloud's base was high enough not to interfere with flying and with the airfield sufficiently dried out, flying got under way off runway 20 just after midday. Paul and Polly Whitehead took the first flight in K21 KLW, finding some weak wave and hill lift on the S'ly ridge to enable them to extend their flight to 41 minutes. They were followed by 2 more flights in KLW, the first for the day's only First Flight pupil who had 46 minutes soaring the S'ly ridge as far as Ampleforth College with Paul, before Guy Hartland/Andy Evans had 40 minutes doing much the same, but utilising some weak thermal in addition to weak wave and hill lift. The final flight of the day was by Chris Handzlik who had 1:22 in his DG300, mainly soaring the Main W'ly bowl at 900-1500' QFE as the wind veered into the SW and strengthened, but also having a couple of 3-400' climbs to around 2,500' and 2,800' asl in weak wave over Gormire. Chris survived a couple of low points of 300' QFE during his flight probably due to wave interference, his flight ending with a landing on runway 24.
Thursday 2nd. Storm Ciaran did not bring the very strong winds that affected the Channel Islands and the South Coast of England to North Yorkshire, the wind being light to moderate from the NE before slowly backing into the NNE. It did, however, bring a low overcast and light rain that meant there was no flying.
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.