Tuesday 14th to Wednesday 15th July 2026
Posted: 16/07/2026 15:10
Tuesday 14th. The wind had become a moderate NE/ENE'ly with morning low level lenticulars initially visible until they disappeared later in the day, apart from some wisps, as the air dried out on another sunny day as the following photos from John Carter show.
A number of flights contacted the wave, mainly to the N and E of site, with climbs to between 4,000' and 5,600' asl. All the contacts were from ATs, of which there were 12 as well as 12 winch launches, all from runway 02. James Walters in Astir DPO was the first to have a significant wave climb, his peak altitude of 5,400' asl coming during his 1:15 flight as he slowly climbed up from his release height of 2,300' QFE on a bar aligned N/S from Gormire to High Paradise Farm. He was followed by Derek Smith/Rob Cruickshank in K21 KLW who soared to 4,600' asl in the same area as James, Paul Whitehead/Paul Gilliland, 5,000' asl, in K21 JVZ, who progressed eastwards via 3 wave bars and soared the latter between Helmsley and Easingwold. Andreas Rieder/Ian Luddington's flight in the DG1000, initially took them 7 km NE of site but after climbing to 4,600' asl, they flew W to Thirsk, passing through a region of lift 4 km downwind of site before landing, while Andreas, this time with Neil Amos in KLW, spent 55 minutes soaring at 3,700/3,900' asl 12 km to the NE of site. Finally, Derek Smith/Al Stacey in the DG1000 had an hour, mainly between 3,600' and 3,900' asl, initially 9 km N of site and then over Cold Kirby, before Andreas/John Carter completed the longer wave soaring flights with just over an hour, soaring between 2,800' to 3,600' asl starting and finishing over Cold Kirby but in between times finding lift some 3-4 km to the S and SE of site. In all,10 of the day's launches exceeded 30 minutes with 5 of these exceeding an hour.
Wednesday 15th. Low cloud, brought in overnight on an initial light but slowly strengthening N/NE'ly, retreated to the coast by midday leaving another sunny afternoon. In spite of the similarities in conditions to Tuesday, nobody contacted wave, and apart from some weak and broken lift over the gulley just to the E of site, it was an extended circuit day, with none of the 14 ATs off runway 02 exceeding 30 minutes. The day's 4 First Flight pupils had flights averaging 20 minutes, but the longest flight of the day was by Dave McKinney/John Carter in K21 JVZ, their 28 minutes resulting from a spell maintaining 1,100'/1,300' QFE over the gulley. Having an engine was the only way of staying up with the Falke having 3 flights of 0:44, 1:21 and 0:48 minutes.
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.