Tuesday 9th to Wednesday 10th September 2025
Posted: 11/09/2025 20:47
Tuesday 9th. A good thermal day with a number of pilots climbing to around 6,000' asl and best climbs around 5 kts as a moderate SSE'ly blew. The day's launch total was 38, helped the Tuesday group's evening flying which came to an end around 1930 hrs and there were 22 flights of over 30 minutes with 16 of these over an hour. Visitor Charlie Tagg in his Ventus 2cxt FES flew a 332 OLC km O/R task to Saltby, surviving 3 low points of between 1,000' and 1,300' asl, while Bob Calvert flew to areas near Stocks Reservoir SW, Settle, Pateley Bridge, Wetherby and Sherburn in Elmet to register 273 OLC kms and Clive Swain took his Kestrel 19 225 OLC km to or near Tockwith, Pocklington, Burn, Sutton, Castle Howard and Carlton Bank. Fred Brown was another >200 OLC km pilot with a 220 km flight to the Humber Bridge and Tontine Inn and provided this photo of his first TP.
Pilots who flew between 100 and 200 km included Barry/Sharon Kerby in their Duo Discus t with 198 OLC km via areas around Burn, Sutton and Pickering followed by some local soaring and Andy/Katerine Balkwill in their Janus who flew 193 OLC km to or near Pocklington, Rufforth, Sutton and Danby and may have reached Whitby as their trace had a missing section after Danby. Ed Syson in his LS6 did a similar flight to Andy/Katherine, also visiting Pocklington and Rufforth before returning to Sutton for some local soaring and then going to the Churchhouse area to log 171 OLC km, while Paul Whitehead in his ASW 24 flew 176 OLC km also starting off with TPs at Pocklington and Rufforth and then visiting Tontine Inn. Peter Goodchild in his PIK 20D set off on a 190 km task with TPs at Pocklington and Kirton in Lindsey but ran into a big blue hole at Kirton and had to resort to his engine having completed 96 km of his task. Bob Beck was the only pilot to have over an hour while flying club gliders, having 1:47 with Laurance Brown in K21 JVZ and later 1:22 with Steve Morgan in the DG500.
Wednesday 10th. The SSE'ly continued to blow, but had increased in strength to moderate to fresh, bringing in some showers after a bright start to the day. Flying was limited to 4 flights, all in K21 JVZ with CFI James Shaw as PI. Some lift in front of the White Horse ridge enabled James' flight with Peter Reid to extend to 32 minutes, the result of an initial 400' climb and then a slow descent, with the next best being 21 minutes with Stephen Kelleher as P2.
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.