Friday 1st to Tuesday 5th August 2025.
Posted: 05/08/2025 19:35
Friday 1st. A light to moderate NNW/N'ly that slowly increased to moderate brought a mixed day of ATing and winching off runway 02, with the Falke having 3 flights. Soaring flights were hard to come by under the cloudy skies, but John Marsh/Sue Ahearn had 41 minutes soaring in weak thermals in K21 KLW, climbing to 3,400' asl and only coming down to allow others to fly. The 2 other flights over 30 minutes were both from 2,500' launches and for First Flight pupils the AT total for the day being 9, while the winch launch total was 11. All but one of the winch launched flights were back on the ground after 2-4 minutes, the exception being a flight in K21 JVZ which contacted a thermal off the top of the launch enabling the pilots to climb to 2,900' asl and extend their flight time to 16 minutes.
Saturday 2nd. A light NW'ly soon backed into the W and increased to light to moderate, the day's strong thermals, average peak climbs of 5-6 kts, and high cloud base, 5-5,500' asl, resulting in 18 private owner launches out of the 33 on the day off runway 24. 28 of the day's flights exceeded 30 minutes with 18 of these over an hour and 12 XC flown. The longest of these was by Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt, whose attempted 506 km task around Carsington Water near Belper, Castle Howard and Southwell Minister came to an end with an engine burn 13 km short of Sutton under a dead sky. Derek Taylor in his ASW22, Paul Whitehead in his Ventus 2cxt and Andy Wright in his Nimbus 3t all did 300 + km flights, Derek 328 OLC km with TPs south of Gainsborough Power Station, Northallerton and Burn, Paul 337 OLC km with an O/R to Saltby and Andy a 304 km O/R to Belvoir Castle. Those flying 200 OLC km or more included Rob Bailey in his ASG 29t, 241 km around Tontine and Brigg, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct with 221 km from an O/R to Gainsborough, Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, 200 km over the Dales and Martin Newbery in his Ventus 2ct also with 200 km with TPs at Market Weighton, Garforth and Northallerton. Those flying over 100 km included Adam Sayer in his ASW19, 177 km with TPs at Pocklington, Catterick and Boroughbridge, Nigel Burke who flew 114 km before having to resort to his engine just S of Lincoln SW before returning home, while Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 and Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 mainly stayed local but each had a foray to the environs of Stamford Bridge to cover in all 156km and 126 km respectively. James Prosser, taking off in his Ventus 2ct in mid afternoon, also combined local soaring with a trip to Ripon and Northallerton to cover 106 km. The longest of the flights in club gliders were by Sanjay Nath in DPO with 1:41 and Sarah Stubbs/Erin Wray with 1:05 in K21 KLW while the 2 seaters were also kept busy with 9 First Flight pupils.
Sunday 3rd. A forecast of rain and low cloud in the morning and moderate/strong NW'ly winds in the afternoon following the passage of the front led to the day being scrubbed.
Monday 4th. The only things flying today were leaves, twigs and general debris as storm Floris tracked NE'wards just to the north of the Scottish mainland with local rain of around 8 mm during the morning hours and gusty winds of over 40 kts.
Tuesday 5th. Storm Floris tracked away towards Norway leaving the northern half of the UK in a strong W/WNW'ly flow with showers, heavy at times but isolated in North Yorkshire. With average wind speeds moderate to fresh and gusting up to 30 kts Tuesday was another non-flying day but with the prospect of good hill soaring and perhaps wave conditions later in the week.
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.