Tuesday 24th to Wednesday 25th June 2025
Posted: 26/06/2025 14:48
Tuesday 24th. A weak front brought low cloud and some light rain in the morning, so the start of flying was delayed until early afternoon, but, with the Tuesday evening group active and flying until just after 20:00 hrs, 12 winch launches were flown off runway 24 into a moderate WSW'ly. Pilots made use of hill and wave lift to give 6 flights of over 30 minutes with one over an hour, the latter, 3:40 by Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, including a climb to 10,000' asl just to the SE of Thirsk after having spent a little time hill soaring before contacting the wave close to site. Bob then flew near ,to Ripon and Knaresbrough before returning to site via Topcliffe. Toby Wilson with Josh Jackson and then Sarah Nolan, and Kelly Teagle with Ben Beecroft, all in one or other of the club K21's, had flight times of 46, 52 and 55 minutes respectively, Toby and Josh mainly hill soaring the home bowl at 1,000' to 1400' QFE. Toby and Sarah's later flight, as well as Kelly and Ben's, both indicated some wave enhancement, with Kelly/Ben soaring the W'ly ridge as far north as High Paradise Farm and slowly climbing to 2,900' QFE (3,800' asl) and Toby/Sarah climbing to 2,100' QFE while soaring the home bowl.
Wednesday 25th. A generally cloudy day with an initially light, but slowly increasing SW'ly wind, resulted in 29 ATs off runway 20, including 8 for First Flight pupils,the day providing 8 flights of over 30 minutes, of which 2 exceeded an hour. The 4 private owners who flew provided both > an hour flights and 2 of the > 30 minute flights, with Eileen and Steve Scothern having 58 and 45 minutes respectively local soaring their Discus t,, Eileen in thermal with some engine help, and Steve later in hill lift in the home bowl. Neil Paveley in his Nimbus 2 and Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct were the > an hour pilots, Neil having 2:27 and Bob 2:17 with mid and late afternoon take off times. Neil stayed local, using home bowl hill lift and moderate thermal, with a best altitude of 3,000' asl, while Bob climbed to 4,400' asl using thermal and weak wave as he explored areas around Leeming and Masham. Two of the remaining >30 minute flights were claimed by First Flight pupils, but Andreas Rieder/Duncan Pask in the DG500 had 39 minutes courtesy of 1 weak thermal, and Polly Whitehead had 51 minutes solo in K21 JVZ off the penultimate flight of the day, climbing to 3,900' asl in a late day thermal and then hill soaring the home bowl at around 1,000' 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.