Saturday 18th to Sunday 19th April 2026
Posted: 21/04/2026 11:42
Saturday 18th. A moderate W'ly blew all day so operations were principally off runway 24 via 12 winch launches, but 7 ATs were also flown, with 5 of these for First Flight pupils. A combination of hill and thermal soaring led to 12 flights of over 30 minutes, with 3 over an hour, the latter all flown by the 3 private owners who launched. Dean Crosby in is LS10t and Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt both flew out to Ripon, Dean with some engine assistance and Steve surviving a 600' asl low point at Ripon before they both returned to the vicinity of Sutton and then flew to Guisborough W via Tontine and/or Carlton Bank and returning via the same route to Sutton using thermal and hill lift. Fred Brown, in his Ventus 2ct, spent his 3:13 thermal soaring either to the NW or SW of site , climbing to 4,500' asl with a peak average climb rate of 2.8 kts. Those soaring in club gliders mainly used hill lift with the main W'ly ridge used, Paul Whitehead/Vivienne Dutton having 58 minutes in K21 JVZ and Sarah Stubbs having 55 minutes with Ryan Parker in 21 KLW and then 52 minutes with George Scott in the same glider.
Sunday 19th. A cold, light to moderate NNW'ly airstream, as high pressure started to establish itself over the UK, provided the conditions for a good soaring day, with cloud base reaching over 5,500' asl and peak average thermal strengths of around 5. 5kts. The day took a little while to get going, with early starters having to deal with weak, blue conditions and later, areas of spreadout which led to some abandoned tasks and landouts. The day's XC's included one over 400 km, 5 over 300 km, 2 over 200 km and 3 over 100 km with Dean Crosby in his LS10t abandoning a longer task to fly 401 km via an O/R to Husbands Bosworth E. Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt was another pilot to abandon his declared task due to spreadout, but still flew 312 km via Casington Water (20 km NW of Derby), Castle Howard and York, while Kelly Teagle in her LS8-18t and Rob Bailey in his ASG29t both did an O/R to Saltby, with Kelly doing 317 km and Rob 327 km virtue of Kelly's start and finish at Sutton and Rob's start and finish at Sutton Control Point N. The other > 300 km pilots were Fred Brown in his Ventus ct, 301 km via Kirton in Lindsey, Helmsley and Goole N and Derek Smith in his DG808 with 389 OLC km with TP's at Saltby and the Northallerton area. Pete Crawley in his ASH31M flew 292 OLC km, visiting Northallerton, Richmond Brough, back to Northallerton and then south to between Burn and Goole N, before returning to site, while Yuri Kozheurov flew 280 OLC km in his PIK 20D while attempting a 300km O/R to Belvoir Castle but landing out at Burn on the return leg. Other pilots to land out included Beau Basson in his ASW20 who did so at RAF Topcliffe shortly after taking off from Sutton, and Johnathon Thorpe landed his Astir at Sutton after taking off from Pocklington before having an AT retrieve back home. The 100 km + pilots were Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 with a 108 O/R to Burn, Sanjay Nath, who had an eventful 106 km XC in his Standard Cirrus ,having a few low saves near Easingwold on his Northallerton, York area XC and Chris O'Doyle in his Discus t who flew 199 OLC km with an O/R to just E of Conisborough Castle. In all, the day's 38 ATs and 2 self launches generated 25 flights of over 30 minutes with 16 of these over an hour, while 5 First Flight pupils were introduced to soaring flight.
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.