Monday 16th to Tuesday 17th June 2025
Posted: 18/06/2025 15:33
Monday 16th. The moderate WSW'ly continued to blow, bringing another day of hill, thermal and wave lift, the day's 18 ATs, including 4 for First Flight pupils, resulting in 16 flights over 30 minutes of which 9 exceeded an hour, 3 of the latter being in club aircraft. 6 flights contacted wave, with peak altitudes ranging from Steve Ogden's 5,400' asl in his Discus t to Neil Paverley's 12,400' asl in his Nimbus 2. Neil flew an estimated 242km with TPs at or near Leeming , Garsdale Head, Harrogate N, Wetherby and Tontine after thermalling locally, with Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct flying an estimated 331 km with TPs at or near Carlisle, Warcop, back to Carlisle and Tockwith with a peak altitude of 10,100' asl. Dean Crosby in his LS10t and Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 also had good climbs, Dean getting to 9,500' asl as he initially thermalled his way around or near Goole N, Harrogate N, Pateley Bridge and Ripon from where he contacted the wave and continued on to Aysgarth, back to Pateley Bridge and home via Knaresborough. Clive contacted the wave near Thirsk, climbed to 8,300' asl and then flew within a triangle defined by Sutton, Masham and Ripon to cover 109 kms. Bruce Grain/Pete Thewall, flying the DG1000 climbed to 7,000' asl while on a NNW/SSE beat just windward of the forward ridge in their flight of 1:15 before visiting Northallerton, while Bruce/James Horton had a touch of wave in their mainly thermal based flight in the DG1000, but also recovered from a low of 1,000' asl near Bagby. The day's flying also included Jim McLean/Polly Whitehead's 50 minute flight in the Falke.
Tuesday 17th. The moderate continued to blow as the Azores high became established over the UK so the day's mixture of 19 ATs and 6 winch launches produced 15 flights of over 30 minutes including 7 over an hour. The two private owners who flew both had good wave flights, with Chris Teagle in his LS8t-18 flying 253 km around Pateley Bridge, Barnard Castle, Wetherby S, Tontine, Sutton on Forest and back to Sutton at a handicapped speed of 118 kph, reaching a peak altitude of 9,500' asl. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct went for altitude, reaching 17,000' asl 5 km to the S of Topcliffe, after an initial 30 minutes of hill soaring came to an end with an engine burn. From his peak altitude Fred then visited Ripon and Rufforth. Some flights also contacted wave with contact straight of AT, these being Austin Harland in Astir DSU, eventually climbing to 9,100' asl, Guy Harland/Martin Jones in K21 KLW, 7,300' asl and Andreas Rieder/Steve Kirk with 5,300' asl. Sam Batchelor's climb to 8,300' asl in the Discus over Ripon, in contrast, followed over an hours hill soaring the main bowl at 500-1100' QFE, including a couple of low points at 100' QFE. A similar low point was included in Bruce Grain/John Dore's 59 minutes hill soaring flight in K21 JVZ which utilised the whole of the main W'ly ridge as the Tuesday evening group enjoyed some reliable hill soaring.
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.