Friday 13th to Sunday 15th June 2025
Posted: 17/06/2025 22:01
Friday 13th. A moderate SSW'ly slowly declined to light to moderate on a sunny day with isolated medium cloud and a thin high cover, the temperature in Topcliffe peaking at 25C. Soaring via hill, thermal and blue wave resulted in 19 of the day's 25 ATs off runway 20 exceeding 30 minutes with 13 over an hour, while 5 of the day's 6 First Flight sorties accounted for the flights under 30 minutes. Those thermal soaring did so with average peak climbs of 3-4 kts, with cloud base rising to around 5,000' asl and a number of thermal tasks flown. Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt spent 2 hours searching for wave but eventually flew 153 km around Hawes and Knaresborough, while Paul Whitehead in his ASW24 flew 148 km with TPs at Burn and Tontine, Drax power station providing a welcome thermal allowing Paul to avoid a landout. Steve Scothern and wife Eileen separately flew an O/R to Rufforth in their Discus t as did Bruce Grain/Colin Troise in the DG1000, while Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct flew around 135 km as he too searched unsuccessfully for wave in the Thirsk, Boroughbridge, Masham area. A few pilots did contact wave with Dean Crosby reaching 9,500' asl during his 212 km flight to or near Ripon, Pateley Bridge, Harrogate North, Pickering, Churchouses, Masham and home, while Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct covered an estimated 278 km with TPs at or near Masham, Sedbergh, Pateley Bridge, Garforth, back to Pateley Bridge and then home, reaching a peak altitude of 10.000' asl. The other wave soaring pilot was Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 who reached 7,400' asl near Thirsk but restricted his XC flying to an excursion to the northern outskirts of York.
Saturday 14th. The WSW'ly started light but increased to moderate as the mainly cloudy day progressed. The day's flying was limited to 8 ATs off runway 20 with Kelly Teagle/Sue Ahern having the longest flight of the day, 1:06 in K21 JVZ and the next longest flight being the 46 minutes flown by Adam Sayer/Adam Brown in the DG500 off the last flight of the day.
Sunday 15th. A moderate to moderate to fresh WSW'ly blew on a generally cloudy day but with hill, thermal and wave soaring opportunities although spreadout affected some thermal based flights resulting in one landout All but one of the 21 winch launches resulted in flights of over 30 minutes, the exception being Ian McFarland/Eileen Scothern's 9 minute winch check flight in K21 KLW. 14 of the day's flights were over an hour, with 6 over 3 hours. Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt flew a 306 km flight in thermal with TPs at Gainsborough, Pickering and Burn, but while the initial journey S was trouble free, the second one from Pickering to Burn and back to Sutton was under spreadout. Sam Batchelor had a similar problem while flying the Discus on an 160 km task with TPs at Scunthorpe and Burn. Turning back just short of Scunthorpe Sam made it back to within 15 km of Sutton before landing in a field near Easingwold. Those pilots contacting wave included Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 who reached 6,000' asl locally and Dean Crosby in his LS10t who, after rounding Doncaster NW while on a thermal flight, contacted wave near Knaresborough, eventually climbed to 6,600' asl and visited Thirsk and Rufforth S before returning to Sutton for some local hill and thermal soaring, having covered an estimated 252 km. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, contacted wave near Masham, climbed to 7,400' asl before flying to Selset Reservoir but on the way back had to resort to his engine near Bedale. Fred then flew to Ripon before returning to Sutton. Adam Sayer, Bob Calvert and Clive Swain were also wave pilots, Adam climbing to 7,700 asl, Bob to 9.800' asl and Clive to 7,600' asl, Adam and Clive generally stayed within 30 km of Sutton but Bob flew to or near Ripon, Pateley Bridge, Aysgarth, Garsdale Head, Wetherby, Pateley Bridge, Barnard Castle and Garforth, an estimated distance of 384 km. Towards the end of the day, soaring was confined to hill soaring with the main W'ly ridge flown to its northern most point with operating heights in the 800-1300' QFE.
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.