Thursday 3rd September 2026
Posted: 03/09/2026 21:18
Thursday 3rd.. A moderate WSW'ly blew all day under generally cloudy skies, providing good hill lift, some thermal activity and wave for some, with a few isolated light showers first thing. The day's 17 winch launches off runway 24, including 7 for private owners, led to 15 flights of 30 minutes or more, with 10 of these over an hour. Although hill soaring with thermal assistance was the day's norm, a few pilots contacted wave, with 3 climbing to over 9,000' asl of which 1 climbed to over010,300', all these climbs being in the Tontine area. The wave soaring pilots were Dean Crosby in his LS10t, 10,300' asl, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, 9,700' asl and Chris Teagle in his LS8t-18 with 9,400; asl. Dean and Fred quickly descended from their peak altitudes to return to site, having spent at least an hour local hill/thermal soaring before contacting the wave, while Chris spent some time close to his peak altitude as he flew S down the line of the A19 after contacting the wave over the Forward Ridge. Dean's first contact point was just S of Thimbleby, while Fred hill/thermal soared to the Tontine ridge before contacting the wave. Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 and Chris Handzlik in his DG300 both had brief encounters with wave during their 3:27 and 2:11 flights, but mainly relied on hill and thermal lift as they operated between 600' and 2,900' QFE, with Clive exploring the ridges as far N as Thimbleby. Most of the other soaring pilots operated between 700' and 2,000' QFE with some confining their soaring to the home bowl and others the main W'ly ridge as far N as High Paradise Farm. John Forrester had the longest flight in a club glider with 1:44 in Astir DSU, while Andreas Rieder/Henry Applegarth in K21 KLW and Paul Whitehead/Jacob Gray in the DG500 shared the longest flight in a club 2 seater of 1:05.
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.