Sunday 28th to Monday 29th June 2026
Posted: 30/06/2026 12:08
Sunday 28th. A moderate to fresh WSW'ly brought a good soaring day with hill, thermal and wave lift, resulting in 14 of the day's 16 launches, 10 AT and 6 winch, being over 30 minutes, with 9 of these over an hour. 7 flights climbed to over 5,000' asl, of which 4 climbed to over 10,000' and 3 to over 15,000' asl. The highest climbing pilots were Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct with 16,246' asl over Leeming, Martyn Johnson with 16,292' asl over Bedale in his DG600 and Dean Crosby 15,134' asl 10km N of Hawes in his LS10t. Dean contacted the wave soon after release near Thirsk and abandoned his declared thermal based flight, but both Fred and Martyn spent around 2 hrs locally in thermal and hill lift before contacting the wave, Fred just S of Thirsk and Martyn near Leeming. Fred then went W into the Dales before retuning to site via Catterick and Wetherby, covering 180 OLC kms. while Martyn spent most of his flight in the Leeming/Bedale area. Dean flew the longest XC, 469 km with TPs at Ripon, Croglin (20 k E of Carlisle), Pateley Bridge, Alston, Garforth and Ripon.. The > 10,000' asl pilot was Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt who like Dean abandoned his thermal based task after early wave contact and subsequently climbed to 11,808' asl 10 km W of Masham as he flew the newly revised 210 km club wave task of Ripon, Barnard Castle, Wetherby. Leyburn and Ripon at 115.4 kph. the > 5,000' asl pilots were Beau Basson i n his ASW 20, 5,200' asl, and Chris Collingham/Rob Cruickshank, 5,700' asl in the DG1000, both staying local.
Monday 29th. The now moderate WSW'ly continued to blow and generate hill, thermal and wave lift with 25 of the day's 26 ATs and a self launch from runway 24 resulting in 25 flights of over 30minutes of which 17 were over an hour, 4 of the shorter flights being for the day's First Flight pupils. There were 3 wave climbs to over 10,000' asl. with 11 climbs to between 5 - 10,000' asl with 8 pilots flying XCs. The pilots climbing to over 10,000' asl were Martyn Johnson in his DG600, 11,890' asl over Hawes as he flew a 129 km triangular task with TPs at Hawes and Aysgarth, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, with 12,119' asl as he flew around the Dales, going as far W as Warcop and Kirkby Stephen, covering 252 OLC km in the process and Dean Crosby in his LS10t, with 10,400' asl, travelling 200 OLC km as he also visited the Dales getting as far west as Settle. The other >5,000' asl climbs were by Pete Crawley in his ASH 31M with 9,900' asl, Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt, 9,600' asl, 9,300' asl by Chris Teagle in his LS8-18t, 8,700' asl by Martin Newbery in his Ventus 2ct, 8,500 asl by both Beau Basson in his ASW20 and Guy Hartland/Tony Kirkby in K21 JVZ, 7,900' asl by James Horton in Astir DPO during his 5:04 flight, 7,300' asl by Andreas Rieder/Rob Cruickshank in K21 KLW, 7,200' asl by Sam Batchelor in the Discus, 6,600' asl by Steve Ogden in his Discus and 5,900' asl by Eileen Scothern in her Discus t. Most of these flights stayed local, but a number flew XC, mainly into the Dales, with Chris Teagle flying 290 OLC km visiting Selset Reservoir and Garsdale Head, Pete Crawley 184 OLC km, Martin Newberry 192 OLC km including a visit to Barnard Castle, Steve Thompson 146 OLC km and Beau Basson 139 km, going south from the Dales to Garforth and then dropping out of the wave and concluding his flight in thermal.
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.