Wednesday 28th to Saturday 31st August 2024
Posted: 01/09/2024 15:29
Wednesday 28th. A cloudy, light to moderate SSE'ly blew all day, giving some weak lift on the southern ridge that was used to extend flight times for most of the 26 ATs off ruway 20, 3 of which were for First Flight pupils and 6 for Slingsby Week pilots. Bruce Grain/Steve Morgan had the longest flight of the day, 38 minutes in K21 KLW, with Clive Swain and his guest Rachael Newton having 33 minutes in the DG1000 and Konrad Kawalec having 31 minutes in Astir DPO, having had 29 minutes in the same glider earlier in the day. All the above flights found weak lift between the White Horse and Wass to diminish their sink rates, while Bob Calvert, flying one of the day's First Flight pupils in JVZ even managed to climb 100' after release at the start of their 29 minute flight.
Thursday 29th. Initially cloudy skies soon cleared to sunny periods with Cumulus, as a light to moderate WSW'ly blew, resulting in a mixture of 27 winch and 6 ATs off runway 24. Two cross countries and 2 wave based height claims were posted on the ladder with a further 5 cross countries and another good wave climb flown. The Ladder XC's were by Dean Crosby in his LS10t and Toby Wilson in his Std Cirrus, Dean completing an 304 km O/R to Belvoir Castle and Toby landing out at Rufforth SE due to overcast skies, as he returned from Gainsborough, covering 171 km in the process. The wave climbing pilots were Martyn Johnson in his DG600 who climbed to 12,300' asl, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, 10,300' asl and Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, 8,500' asl, with Bob using his engine to aid contact, all 3 pilots operating in the Ripon, Pateley Bridge, Masham, Leeming area. The other XC pilot's flights were all based on thermals, with cloud base rising to around 4-4,500' asl and peak average thermal strengths around 5 kts. The tendency to overconvect led to a number of abandoned legs, with Rob Bailey in his ASG29t having to use his engine at Pocklington on the way back from Horncastle having first visited Tontine and a similar fate befell Bill Payton/Paul Bulmer in Bill's DG1000t who resorted to their engine near York, but carried on to the Kirbymoorside area before returning to site. Eileen Scothern was another engine using pilot, a brief use shortly after launch being followed by some hill soaring at 6-700' QFE and a visit to Northallerton and some 15 km to the SSE of site. The conditions did, however, result in many of the pilots attending Slingsby week enjoying soaring flights, usually via a mixture of thermal and hill lift, with those flying club gliders also benefitting from the conditionsl Clive Swain/Amelia Forrester for example having 1:26 in the DG1000 using a mixture of thermal and hill lift and Bruce Grain/Steve Kirk having 59 minutes hill soaring the main W'ly ridge up to High Paradise Farm at 6-1100' QFE.
Friday 30th A sunny day with scattered Cumulus and a light SE'ly produced a busy launch point with 41 launches, 23 flights over 30 minutes, of which 16 were over an hour and 11 XC's, of which 5 were posted on the BGA ladder. Two of the XC's were over 300 km, Rob Bailey flying the club 318 km task around Horncastle and Sheffield S in his ASG29t and Paul Whitehead flying a 305 km O/R to Grantham at 105 kph in his Ventus 2ctx , the same task being flown by Bill Payton in his DG1000t. All XC flights were aided by a cloudbase of up to 6,000' asl and peak average climb rates of over 5 kts. Toby Wilson in his Std Cirrus went hunting a forecast sea breeze front and found it during his 154 km flight with TPs at Pickering, Goole N and Helmsley and would have been joined by Adam Sayer in his ASW19 except that a microphone failure led to Adam loosing contact with Toby and eventually flying a 106 km task around Pickering, Sutton Control Point S, Sutton on Forest and Thirsk. Other XC flights included a 205 km OLC venture by Jesper Mjels in his DG400 with TPs at or near Castle Howard, Malton, East Yorks 2, Pickering, Tontine and Boroughbridge, 150 OLC km by Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 with TPs at or near Guisborough W, Castle Howard, Helmsley, and Rufforth, 196 OLC km by Neil Paveley in the Discus with TPs at Doncaster and Carlton, 135 OLC km by Junior Tomer Altman in Astir DPO with TPs at Goole N and Burn and 104 OLC km by Les Rayment in his DG808 with TPs at or near York and Helmsley. Most other > an hr pilots stayed local with Charles Frenchville having 3:15 in Astir FSH and Martyn Johnson having 2:13 in his DG600, but visitor Ken Reid and Junior James Horton visited Tontine and Helmsley while having 1:09 in the DG1000. Among all this activity a Grob 109B landed after a flight from Aboyne.
Saturday 31st. With the further establishment of an anticyclone over the UK, the wind had become a light to moderate ESE/E'ly, so operations were off runway 20, albeit with a significant cross wind, leading to some landings on runway 06. Blue skies with Cumulus promised but did not deliver a good soaring day, as although cloud base was around 3,500' asl, peak average thermal strengths were only around 2 kts. Consequently, the day's 17 ATs, including 5 for First Flight pupils, only yielded 7 flights of over 30 minutes, with only 2 of these over an hour. 2 of the 4 private owners who flew claimed the > an hr flights with Bill Payton having 1:30 in his DG1000 and Rob Bailey 1:22 in his ASG29t, Bill doing an O/R to the vicinity of Churchouses and Rob confining his XC to a visit to just beyond Helmsley while mainly soaring locally. Dave McKinney/Daniel McClean led the >30<60 minute flight list with 57 minutes in K21 JVZ followed by Roger Burghall with 51 minutes in his ASW20, both flying locally. The latter did not apply to the previous day's arrival, the Grob 109B from Aboyne, who departed to Leicester.
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.