Thursday 14th August 2025
Posted: 15/08/2025 15:40
Thursday 14th. A good soaring forecast, although with possible areas of spreadout, as a light to moderate W/WSW'ly blew, meant a busy day at Sutton, with 36 launches off runway 24, with a few landing back on 20. The day's launches included 10 for First Flight pupils, but still resulted in 25 flights of over 30 minutes with 21 of these over an hour, as cloud base rose to over 5,000' asl and average peak climb rates to 4-5 kts. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct climbed to 6,400' asl during his 7:16 flight within the confines of a triangle with corners at Thimbleby, W of Pateley Bridge and Easingwold and Martyn Johnson in his DG600, spent most of his 4:24 shuttling between site and Ripon . A number of pilots abandoned declared tasks due to spreadout but still posted undeclared tasks on the ladder, including Chris Teagle in his LS8t-18 who flew 257 km with TPs at Pocklington, Masham, Pickering and Masham and visitor Gareth Francis in his LS6 with 173 km, turning Snainton, Masham, Ripon and Tontine. Other abandonments included Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct who abandoned his task near North Duffield and than flew to Ripon via Sutton and back to cover 155 OLC km. Derek Taylor in his ASW 22 coped admirably with spreadout on his 313 OLC km task, completed at 84 kph, via Horncastle and Tontine., while Martin Newbery in his Ventus 2ct flew 118 OLC km with TPs at Masham, Thirsk and NE of Carlton Bank. More modest XCs were flown by Steve Ogden in his Discus who combined 2:04 of local soaring with an O/R to Masham, Clive Swain/Sue Ahern who flew an O/R to NNW of Ripon in the DG500 and Fred Brown/Sarah Nolan in the DG1000 who forayed out to the W of Topcliffe. Eileen Scothern in her Discus t, on her way back to Sutton from the SE, had to resort to her engine while some 5 km short, while husband Steve, on his second flight of the day in the family glider, did an O/R to the north of Tontine. Steve's flight was one of the last 4 of the day that had over an hour's soaring, the other 3 flights all being in club 2 seaters as thermal activity persisted into the early evening.
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.