Category: Expeditions

After a few days where we could not fly due to rain or low cloud on Tuesday afternoon we were finally rewarded with some great wave flights.

Chris managed 2 hrs 1 minute in the LS7 whilst Carol and I had two flights, one which had to be cut short to 29 minutes as the wave slot closed beneath us forcing us to descend quickly through a small hole.
Our second flight lasted over 1 1/2 hrs and enabled me to take some photos and to shoot some video.

The office staff at SB thought the police had really cordoned off his camper van but in fact it was only Chris mucking around again!

I was only there only to act as photographer honest officer!

Tomorrow looks like being a great ridge day with the possibility of wave……..more tomorrow.

Phil

And the forecast for the day….Not brilliant.

I turned up, Bob turned up, Trevor turned up and Alan Petite turned out collect his glider and take it to Sutton Bank.
We set up, cancelled a trial lesson booked for the afternoon and waited for the trial lesson to turn up at 11am.
By 11:15am the cloud base looked lower and the clag looked thicker but the couple who’d booked the TL arrived and we pushed the young lady into the Puchacz,
2 cables, one screamer, which I assure you I heard all the way to 1600 feet, more surprising as Bob was flying!
Bob landed with pin point precision, stopping for me to take one step forward, grab the wing tip and hook them back on to take the remaining cable. The young lady screamed but I couldn’t hear her after about 700 feet.
The flew around, landed and she exclaimed it was ‘brilliant!!’
They left and so did we after packing everything away.
Thanks to Alan for staying to help get the TL off the ground.

Well we are all now back from our week at Sutton Bank and I’m sure a great time was had by all.

We are always at the mercy of the weather, even more so on a club expedition but in the end we were able to fly on 6 out of the 7 days we were there. Indeed after the first few days we had flown ridge, wave and thermal flights.

Pete Ellison on tow.

                                                                                                                                                               Due to reasonable SW or WSW winds we had 3 days where the ridge was working well, the last day (Friday) was especially good with strong climbs to cloud base (which was only 1700 ft) meaning that we could ridge soar quite a distance from the site. Pushing forward from the ridge we all encountered good lift and by following the energy line were able to reach Thirsk which is 5k or so out.

Monday started off as a light ridge day but later on wave developed a short distance from the club and everyone started taking aerotows to try and contact it. Somehow Carol and I leapfrogged the queue (not our fault honest!) and launched before Pete and Chris in the Puchacz. We managed to contact wave after taking a 2,800 ft tow and climbed up to around 5,000 ft before the wave collapsed and we had to made a quick descent. Unfortunately the Puchacz missed out on getting into wave as they reached it just as it collapsed and ended up being dumped by the tug  at 2,000 ft (cloudbase) some way from the club. Luckily they managed to get back OK but I think it was marginal!

                                                                                                                                                                 On Tuesday Carol and I made use of some good climbs to fly out towards York. We had intended to fly with Chris towards Pocklington but a mix up in communications meant that we set off without him. Just south of York it all went blue and as other gliders were reporting challenging conditions ahead  we diverted to Rufforth (photo above) before moving unto Ripon. We did try to go on to Barnard Castle where Chris had headed but we started to get low so tip toed back to Dishforth in search of lift and after gaining enough height made a run back to Sutton bank. Meanwhile Rod and Paul had a cracking flight in the Puchacz having pulled off tow at 1,500 ft in strong lift and climbed off the clock to 5,000 ft! We eventually met up with them over Dishforth some 18 k out from Sutton Bank.

Finally Paul commented that he was only happy if he could see the Sutton Bank White Horse as that was the only landmark he knew………………………………………………..So we made him a special hat!

                                                                                                                                         ……………………………….now everywhere he looks he can see the white horse!

As usual we were made very welcome by the Yorkshire Gliding Club and can’t wait to go back up there again.

A short video of the week is available here:  http://youtu.be/A8dSfca_yX8

Phil

Well what can I say!

The reason for a lack of a report is simply down to the fact that we have been getting rather a lot of flying in since we got here. On Saturday the ridge was working and many had flights of over two hours.On Sunday some of us contacted wave and climbed to just 5000 ft before the wave collapsed and we had to make a speedy descent before we lost sight of the ground. Monday was thermic and mostly blue but we still managed over two hours of local soaring each.

Today fluffy white clouds appeared so Carol and I flew a small task of Sutton Bank, York, Ripon and back climbing to 5000 ft over Rufforth.

As I write Chris is still flying last heard of near Barnard Castle, we have warmed up the retrieve just in case!

More later…………………….oh is that my mobile?

Phil