Friday 29th May 2026
Posted: 30/05/2026 14:43
Friday 29th. A moderate, and a times, moderate to fresh WSW/W'ly blew all day with the day's 27 launches split into 10 AT, 15 winch and 2 self launches, all off runway 24. The day provided thermal, hill and wave soaring, with 8 pilots climbing over 5,000' asl and 7 over 9,000' asl, all but one of the wave climbs being from ATs, with only Clive Swain achieving a >10,000' asl altitude from a winch launch. Clive spent some time soaring locally in thermal/hill lift before contacting wave off a thermal climb just to the south of Sutton. Getting to his peak altitude of 13,800' asl NW of Easingwold, Clive then visited or close to Knaresborough, Masham, Topcliffe, Pateley Bridge, Masham and Linton on Ouse, covering 168 OLC km before landing back after 5:25. The other wave soaring pilots mainly visited the Yorkshire Dales with Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct flying 184km with TPs at Brough and Knaresborough and climbing to 13,100' asl, Sam Batchelor in the Discus turning Ripon, Aysgarth and Tockwith, 140 km, with a peak climb to 9,900' asl, Dean Crosby in his LS10t, 302 OLC km with TPs at Ripon, Aysgarth, Burnhope Reservoir, Masham, Ripon and Garforth and a climb to 11,200' asl, Beau Basson in his ASW 20 with189 OLC km over the Dales, getting as far W as Kirkby Stephen Station and climbing to 11,000' asl and Pete Crawley in his ASGt, who also visited the Dales covering 114 OLC km and climbing to 12,100' asl. 3 pilots were happy to sample the local wave to over 9,000' asl, these being Andrew Wilmot in his ASW 19 who climbed to 11,900' asl, Ian Bullous in his DG800 with a climb to 12,500' asl and Steve Ogden in his Discus, who after a spell of thermal/hill soaring contacted the wave and climbed to 9,000' asl. The > 5,000' asl pilot was Steve Scothern in his Discus bt, who also remained local and climbed to 5,900' asl in a mixture of thermal, hill and wave. The pilots taking winch launches after the switch from ATs around midday, contented themselves with hill and thermal soaring, Adam Sayer in his ASW 19 providing the highest climb to 4,300' asl. 13 of the 15 winch launches exceeded 30 minutes with 7 over an hour, with the main and forward ridges flown, while the 12 AT/Self launching pilots generated 10 flights of over an hour, with the day's 2 First Flight pupils having just over 30 minutes each. Junior Sarah Nolan flying Astir DPO off an AT, didn't contact the wave but did achieve her 5 hours, so well done Sarah on a good soaring day at Sutton.
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.