Friday 19th June 2026
Posted: 20/06/2026 09:29
Friday 19th. A moderate SSW'ly blew for most of the flying day, only veering into the WSW as a weak cold front made slow progress across the UK bringing increased cloudiness from mid afternoon. The soaring flight was via a mixture of thermal and wave,, with the latter affecting the former, creating tricky conditions for those flying XC, while wave climbs to > 5,000' asl were limited. The day got off to a promising start when from the 3rd AT of the day, Clive Swain/Steve Thompson in K21 KLW found some weak wave just to the W of site and were able to maintain around 4,000' asl for a while before finding some stronger lift and climb to 6,400' asl over Felixkirk in their 1:03 flight. Dean Crosby in his LS10t, one of the 9 Private Owners to fly on a day of 25 ATs and 1 self launch, contacted the wave off tow and climbed to 8,200' asl over Boltby before setting off W. climbing to his peak altitude of 10,300' asl near Ripon and then visiting at or near Masham, Leyburn and Harrogate N before returning to site having covered 157 OLC km. Peter Crawley in his ASH 31M was the other pilot to have a significant wave flight, reaching 10,400' asl near Kirbymoorside, but not before a thermal based venture to the W of site led to the need to resort to his engine S of Topcliffe leading to an easterly return and wave contact near site. The other pilot to fly XC was Chris Teagle in his LS8-18t who after a brief wave encounter just to the NW of Topcliffe that took him to 5,000' asl, visited Ripon but then struggled to get a climb over Kirk Hammerton before eventually making it back to site. The day's tricky conditions were also illustrated by Beau Basson's flight in his ASW 20 which resulted in an early outlanding at Bagby followed later by an AT retrieve. Martyn Johnson in his DG600, Tony Drury in his DG303 nd Steve Ogden in his Discus were the other > an hour pilots, all soaring locally in thermal while unsuccessfully searching for wave.
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.