Tuesday 17th to Wednesday 18th March 2026
Posted: 20/03/2026 15:30
Tuesday 17th. With high pressure in charge, it was a sunny, warm day with a moderate/moderate to fresh SSW'ly, so operations were off runway 24, with landings on 20. 10 ATs were initially flown, with the last 4 launches via the winch, and a combination of wave and hill soaring produced 6 flights of over 30 minutes with 5 of these over an hour.. The > an hour flights were by Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, Dean Crosby in his LS10t, Sam Batchelor in the Discus and Austin Harland in Astir DSU. Steve, Fred, Dean and Sam all contacted wave, reaching altitudes of 6,300', 8,900', 7,100' and 7,600' all asl respectively, with the area to the NW of Topcliffe being the initial contact point for all but Sam, who had an initial climb just to the S of site before proceeding to the NW of Topcliffe. I don't have a decipherable trace for Steve or Austin, but Fred and Dean both flew west into the Yorkshire Dales covering around 120 km each while visiting or near to Masham, Leyburn and Aysgarth. Fred also visited Ripon on the way home while Dean returned via Boroughbridge. Sam, on returning to site soared the White Horse ridge at 1,000' QFE for a while, and off the last flight of the day, Chris O'Boyle also soared the same ridge at 1,100'-1,500' QFE for 34 minutes while flying K21 KLW solo.
Wednesday 18th. The centre of the high pressure had moved over the UK, so the wind had become a light SE'ly, the skies remaining clear and sunny. 21 ATs and 7 winch launches were flown from runway 20, but with limited lift opportunities, soaring flights of over 30 minutes were limited to 4, with only 1 over an hour. This was flown by Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19, with Rob Bailey in his ASG29t having 56 minutes, John Marsh/Steve Scothern in the DG1000 having 38 minutes and Andreas Rieder/Ian Miskin also in the DG1000 having 35 minutes. My source of detailed flight information, the Flarm traces retrieved from OGN's flighbook, were not at all comprehensive or usable, but other information sources show that maximum altitudes reached were in excess of 4,000' asl via blue thermals. The Falke also flew twice with Chris Collingham as P1, first having an hour with Les Rayment and then 30 minutes with Peter Crawley.
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.