Monday 27th to Tuesday 28th April 2026.
Posted: 01/05/2026 17:23
Monday 27th. A sunny start to the day as a moderate NNE'ly blew soon produced some good looking Cumulus before the day clouded over and the wind backed into the N, the cloud dissipating by late afternoon. The early conditions provided all the day's soaring flights, with all 7 flights over 30 minutes taking place before 1230 hrs, with the day's > an hour's flights all launching before 1130 hrs. The early conditions also encouraged some XC's, while the day's 13 ATs were later complemented by 15 winch launches to typically 1,000' QFE, all launches being off runway 02. The XC flights were all by visitors, with Martin Hardy in his Discus154 OLC km with TPs at Sutton on Forest, Sutton Bank, and North Duffield, while Ian Russel in his ASW20L did a 70 OLC km O/R to near Sutton on Forest and Colin Beer in his Shark 304S did an 116 OLC km O/R to North Duffield. During the soaring period of the day, cloud base reached around 4,500' asl with peak average climbs around 4 kts. All the other soaring pilots stayed local with Geoffrey Brooks in his Libelle Standard having 58 minutes, Michael Worthington in his Libelle, 49 minutes and Andreas Rieder/Lee Makings having 44 minutes. Nigel Bloomford in Discus CS had the last soaring flight of the day, 35 minutes, as the overcast formed with the later winch launches typically providing 4 minute flights.
Tuesday 28th. Overcast skies greeted the start of flying, the cloud slowly breaking up from around midday to give a clear evening. 19 ATs were flown off runway 02 into the moderate NNE/N'ly wind. The day's 3 flights with durations equal to or in excess of 30 minutes, all made use of some weak wave, with one of them off a high tow for the day's only First Flight pupil, who was taken to a peak altitude of 5,100' asl between site and Boltby in K21 KLW by James Shaw. Toby Wilson/Simon Langley in K21 JVZ also found some weak wave in the lee of Whitestone Cliff that maintained their altitude for a while, extending their flight time to 30 minutes, while James Shaw/Steve Ogden had the longest flight of the day, 1:11, as the utilised first a weak thermal before transitioning into wave that took them to 4,200' asl in the lee of Black Hambleton.
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.