Thursday 13th August 2026
Posted: 14/08/2026 13:45
Thursday 13th. Another sunny and even hotter day with the local temperature reaching 34.6C, the highest of the year so far. It was essentially a blue day but with Cumulus over the higher ground, which is not surprising given that the relative humidity fell to 24% at 1600 hrs with a peak altitude of 7,700' asl reached and average peak climb rates around 4 kts. The day's 20 ATs off runway 20 into a moderate/moderate to fresh SSE'ly yielded 10 flights of over 30 minutes, with 7 of these over an hour, 6 private owners electing to fly and 5 First Flight pupils being flown. The majority of soaring pilots remained local, but there were a few XC attempts by Dean Crosby in his LS10t, Martin Newbery in his Ventus ct, Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 and Chris Handzlik in his DG 300, although nobody went further than 150 OLC km. Dean did some local soaring but then set off S but, after passing Burn, turned back some 10 km SSE of the TP and returned home, covering 148 OLC km. Martin had a similar flight, turning back some 8 km S of Rufforth to cover 143 OLC km, with his trace suggesting engine use at this point when down to just under 1,000' asl, while Clive mainly soared locally, but did fly just to the SE of Boroughbridge and just to the SW of Churchhouses, where he climbed to 7,700' asl, clocking up 108 OLC km overall. Chris's flight was like Clive's, mainly local, but he did have a foray to 5 km NW of Boroughbridge and climbed to 7,000' asl, while Tony Drury, flying locally in his DG303 climbed to 7,400' asl.. No club single seaters were flown on the day, but Mike/Alex Fox had the longest flight in a club glider, 1:32 of local soaring in K21 KLW.
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.