Friday 7th August 2026
Posted: 08/08/2026 09:37
Friday 7th. A day of high cloudbases and strong thermals was tempered by areas of Stratocumulus that lead to the abandonment of some XC tasks and engine use. Nevertheless, the 28 ATs and 1 self launch off runway 24 into a moderate WSW'ly found plenty of soaring opportunities from thermal and hill lift, with 23 flights exceeding 30 minutes, of which 13 exceeded an hour. 8 First Flight pupils and 11 private owner launched, with 6 pilots flying >100 km XC. Neil Paveley in his Nimbus 2 declared a 511 km task with TPs Saxby Church(just E of Melton Mowbray), Burn and Bottesford but abandoned the task at Burn, returning to site after 322 km, while Steve Thompson in his Ventus bt abandoned an original O/R to Corby to fly a 315 km task with TPs at Knaresborough and Belvoir Castle, surviving 4 low points at or below 1,500' asl but climbing to 7,000' asl and finding a average peak climb of 6.7 kts. Dean Crosby in his LS10t and Chris Handzlik in his DG300 also had to abandon their tasks due to spreadout, Dean's 521 km task to Saltby, Burn and Saltby NW turned into a 320 km O/R to Saltby, while Chris abandoned his task at Worksop E, returning to Sutton under gloomy skies that did, however, provide lift on the latter stages of his 208 km flight in his DG300. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct and Peter Crawley in his ASH31M were both engine users, Fred just 5 minutes after release before going on to fly locally, and Peter near Boroughbridge, after covering 133 km visiting areas around Harrogate N, Pateley Bridge, Boroughbridge and Masham, Steve Ogden in his Discus was the other >100 km XC pilot, visiting Tontine and Boroughbridge and using a mixture of thermal and hill lift in his 105 km/2:31 flight, while Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 had just over 5 hours of local soaring. Charles Frenchville in Astir DSU with 3:03, and Andreas Rieder/Naomi Kennard with 1:30 in K21 JVZ had the longest flights in club gliders, with 4 Falke flights adding to the activity on another busy 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.