Friday 31st July 2026.
Posted: 01/08/2026 10:11
Friday 31st. Light showers from 0600-0900 hrs cleared to leave a day of variable soaring conditions with patches of Stratocumulus as a moderate WSW'ly blew. At best, cloud base reached 6,000' asl with average peak climb rates around 4 kts, an optimistic soaring forecast resulting in Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt declaring a 750 km task and Toby Wilson in his Std Cirrus a 500 km one. In the event neither task was completed, with Steve surviving a couple of low points during the first leg of his task to Corby and abandoning the task at Uppingham, returning from there to complete a 398 km O/R. Toby's planned 500 km task was steadily downgraded and, after flying around in the Tontine, Boroughbridge, Masham area, he returned to site and flew the local 100 km Pocklington, Rufforth triangle, his whole flight covering 207 OLC km. The day's 36 ATs and 1 self launch off runway 24, which included 15 for private owners and 5 for First Flight pupils, generated 25 flights of 30 minutes or more, with 15 of these over an hour, but apart from the two XC's mentioned above, most of the other soaring flights stayed local. The exceptions were Chris Handzlik in his DG300 who flew 104 OLC km, visiting Wetherby S before struggling to get a climb near York but then finding a good one and returning to site after 109 OLC km, and Peter Crawley in his ASH 31M who extended his self launch to climb to around 7,500' asl between Masham and Ripon and then flew to the Pateley Bridge, Malton and Pickering areas before returning to the Ripon area and then back to site, covering 140 OLC km post engine use. John Marsh in his 2nd flight in his DG303, following a brief 1st one, visited Helmsley, Thirsk and Northallerton, with all the other soaring pilots staying within 20 km of site. The longest flights in club gliders were the 1:30 by David Trouse in Astir DPO and the 1:14 by Guy Hartland/ Sam Stimpson in the DG1000, with a single flight in the Falke completing a busy day at Sutton.
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