Monday 27th July 2026
Posted: 28/07/2026 16:12
Monday 27th. A moderate to moderate to fresh W'ly blew all day, providing a mix of hill, thermal and wave lift, the latter not that easy to contact, but the availability of lift meant that 17 of the day's launches, 11 via AT and 5 via the winch, led to flights of over 30 minutes with 10 of these over an hour. Peak altitudes for those using thermal lift was around 4,000' asl, with average peak climb rates around 3 kts, but 4 pilots contacted the wave and climbed to over 5,000' asl, with 2 of these climbing to over 10,000' asl. The > 10,000' asl pilots were Dean Crosby in his LS10t and Martyn Johnson in his DG600. Initially using hill and thermal lift, Dean contacted the wave just to the ESE of Thirsk, climbing there to 9,500' asl and then proceeded W from there to Ripon, reaching 11,900' asl between Masham and Leyburn and then going further W to the Kirkby Stephen area before returning to site via Pateley Bridge and Knaresborough, a distance of 209 OLC km. Martyn spent the first 2 hours of his flight below 3,500' in thermal, making his way to Ripon where he contacted the wave and climbed to 5,900' asl. Further climbs at Harrogate N and Knaresborough followed as he flew to the York area where he reached a peak of 11,600' asl before returning to site, covering 151 OLC km. Rob Bailey in his AS33E and Chris Teagle in his LS8-8=18t reached 7,700' asl and 7,900' asl respectively, but with very different flight profiles. Rob contacted the wave relatively easily just to the W of site and stayed local, his peak altitude coming between Knayton and Thirsk. landing back after 1:41. Chris, on the other hand, spent 2.5 hours soaring in thermal, including a spell scratching away at 650' asl near Bagby, before wave contact from a thermal near Thirsk and a climb to 7,600' asl near Felixkirk and then to his peak altitude just to the SW of site. From there Chris visited Ripon and Leyburn areas before going on to Burn and Northallerton, returning to site after of flight of 225 OLC km. All the other soaring pilots used a combination of hill, but mainly thermal lift, although Chris Handzlik in his DG300 found a little wave which took him to 4,800'asl, while the longest flights in club gliders were by Conrad Thwaites in the Discus, 1:26 and the 1:08 by James Shaw/Spencer Bailey in the DG1000.
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.