Sunday 1st to Tuesday 3rd March 2026
Posted: 04/03/2026 15:31
Sunday 1st. A low overcast which produced spells of light rain and drizzle as a moderate S'ly blew meant there was no flying.
Monday 2nd. A bright start to the day was followed by a sunny afternoon, the initially light to moderate SSE'ly veering to become SSW'ly. Operations were off runway 20 with the day's 9 ATs leading to 3 flights over 30 minutes and 1 over an hour. Most of the day's flights found some lift on the S'ly ridge, with the area between the White Horse and Wass mainly favoured and typical operating heights around 1,100' QFE. Guy Hartland/Tony Kirkby in K21 JVZ had 37 minutes off the first flight of the day, having an initial climb of 400' from their release point while exploring the S'ly ridge as far E as Ampleforth and posted the highest altitude of the day, 2,600' asl. Guy, flying later with Roger Taylor in JVZ, had 58 minutes maintaining 1,600' QFE in the White Horse/Wass area while Chris Handzlik in his DG300 had 1:14 soaring the S'ly ridge as far E as Oswaldkirk, some 10 km from site, also maintaining around 1,600' QFE.
Tuesday 3rd. A light to moderate NNW'ly soon backed into the ESE, causing a change of runway from 02 to 20 after 9 ATS, as a developing area of high pressure over the UK provided sunny skies and blue thermals up to 4,000' asl, with peak average thermal strengths of around 1.5-2 kts. The conditions resulted in a couple of short XC's from the 2 private owners who flew. Thermal activity was also the means by which 12 flights exceeded 30 minutes duration out of the 19 ATs flown on the day, with 5 of these flights being over an hour. Amid all this activity, the Flake had 3 flights. The XC pilots were Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt who visited the control points to the N and S of site, as well as Helmsley, to cover 54 OLC kms in his 1:49 flight, and Neil Paveley in his Nimbus 2, who visited Carlton Bank and a point 9 km to the south of site to cover 74 OLC kms in his 2:08 flight. The other soaring flights > an hour all remained local, these including Dave Campbell/Duncan Pask in K21 KLW, 1:07. John Forrester in Astir FSH, 1:28, and Andreas Rieder/Ian Miskin in JVZ, 1:05.
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.