Sunday 17th to Monday 18th August 2025
Posted: 19/08/2025 14:53
Sunday 17th. The light to moderate ENE'ly continued to blow, but the cloud coming in from the North Sea although initially low and restricted launch heights, broke up in the early afternoon, enabling five of the day's 21 ATs off runway 02 to exceed 30 minutes, with 2 of these being over an hour. The first flight over the 30 minute mark was by Paul Whitehead/Kevin Kylie in K21 JVZ, their 40 minutes being the result of maintaining 2,400-2,800' asl in a series of weak thermals close to site, this signalling a period of soaring that lasted for 2 hours from early to late afternoon. Those soaring during this period were Malcom Guard in his Vega 15 with 2:04, Tomer Altman in the Discus, 34 minutes, Kelly Teagle in her LS8t-18, 45 minutes, and Fred Brown/Sara Nolan, 1:03, in the DG1000. Thermals were weak with average peak climb rates around 1 kt and peak altitudes around 3,100' asl with all flights staying local. Towards the end of the flying day, visitor Thomas Edwards had 2 flights in his Olympia 463 and another visitor. Peter Whitehead, had a flight in his Olympia 463, as people arrived for the start to Slingsby week. Two First Flight pupils were flown in club 2 seaters while 3 others had flights in the Falke with Ian McFarlane due to the relatively low cloud base at the time, while Jamie Quartermaine had a solo flight in the Falke visiting areas around Pickering, Guisborough and Tontine.
Monday 18th. The wind had become a NNE'ly while remaining light to moderate, but cloud cover was again persistent and low, restricting launch heights, with only 4 glider flights and 3 in the Falke, all flown off runway 02. Three of the glider flights were by Andreas Rieder/David Sculfor in K21 JVZ, the last being a simulated launch failure at 500' QFE followed by a downwind landing on runway 20. The final glider flight was by visitor Scott Kennedy in his LS6. while of the 3 Falke flights, 2 were for First Flight pupils.
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.