Location for next meeting

Due to the lamented collapse of the Cleveland club, we have had to find a new venue for the late July meeting. Since only Rufforth was confident of having two tugs available, we'll be there again on July 25^th and 26^th.

Rufforth weekend May 23^rd- 25^th

One out of three.

Saturday looked possible with classic warm sector conditions with thinning high cloud giving the possibility of short tasks. Accordingly tasks were set, the grid formed, and the snifter reported useable thermals to 3000 ft. So we launched, the cloud thickened and everyone landed back.....

Sunday looked a lot better, with a small ridge, sun and blue sky. The weather runes, however, suggested less than excellence, with blue thermals to about 3500 ft. In the event the thermals were also broken up (possibly due to wave effect) and difficult to work.

Anticipating (wrongly) worse soaring conditions to the north, task setter Dick Brisbourne called Doncaster radar and arranged for opening of the Upton corridor, permitting the use of turning points in the Sheffield area. Tasks set were 218 Km for Pundits, 172 for intermediates, and 129 for Novices. We had one finisher each in Pundit (Nigel Howes, Camphill) and Intermediate (Mark Shuttleworth, Rufforth). In Novice, Pam Shuttleworth (Rufforth) and Richard Halliburton (Pocklington) both turned two of the three turning points and landed back at Rufforth; Pam's Cirrus had the lower handicap, so she got the bottle of wine.

Mark Boyle and Bob Jackson flying their DG505 as the Rufforth Pundit entry made (with ATC permission of course) the first glider landing at Robin Hood airport. If anyone's wondering, we scored them to the point of their authorised entry to controlled airspace.

Monday reverted to type. We hoped for short tasks between the thermals kicking off and the frontal cloud arriving, and got as far as the grid, but it never happened.

If you flew but haven't submitted your igc file yet- please get it in by Thursday night- or you won't be scored.

Pocklington- May Bank Holiday

......was a success!

Saturday was a real cracker. CFI John Norman set tasks for Pundits, Intermdiates and Novices of 244, 164 and 125 Km respectively. Cloudbase got up to 5000 ft plus with just enough spreadout to make it interesting without being threatening and we didn't have a single landout. Definitely the best Yorkshire ICL day for years.

Sunday was interesting. The day started very windy, and it looked at one stage if we might have to scrub for safety reasons. Fortunately it moderated enough to launch all three classes on tasks of 196, 152 and 98 Km. It was still pretty windy but with tasks set straight into wind, high cloudbase, strong thermals and streeting some good flights were done, with all three pundits and one novice finishing.

Provisional results are up (follow the links opposite)

Update- Spring 2009

2008- Looking back

Let's get this over quickly- it was a pretty crap year. Camphill made the most of it and won- and went to the final (they didn't win that). If you really want details it's all archived.

Looking forward to 2009

We've started to get ourselves organised. The bad news is that Sutton Bank and Dishforth won't be competing this year: neither feels able to get up a team. This leaves us with just four teams. Team captains are now:

Burn: Keith Springate
Camphill: John Klunder
Pocklington: Richard Halliburton
Rufforth: Tom Hollings

Other club officers are as last year, with one small change (no-one volunteered):

Chairman and webmaster: Dick Brisbourne
Secretary and Treasurer: Pam Shuttleworth
Scoring team: Dick Brisbourne and Richard Halliburton

We had our spring captain's meeting at the beginning of March. We unaniminously voted Gary Vaughan from Burn "best novice" of 2009, (re)-elected officers and agreed some dates. So this year's meetings will be as follows: