Monday 23rd to Tuesday 24th February 2026
Posted: 25/02/2026 12:15
Monday 23rd. A W'ly blew all day, declining from moderate/fresh to light, but with increasing cloud as a front slowly advanced from the W. 18 winch launches were flown from runway 24, with wave augmented hill lift and some weak wave resulting in 10 flights of over 30 minutes, of which 5 were over an hour. Maximum altitudes were 3,400' asl, achieved by Chris Handzlik in his DG300 and Clive Swain in the Discus during their 2:37 and 1:56 flights, with Chris spending the early part of his flight at 700' to 1,300' QFE flying the main W'l ridge with an excursion to the forward ridge after his best climb over Gormire repeating the climb on his return. Clive, on the other hand, spent most of his time upwind of the home ridge, but also had a foray to the forward ridge. The other > an hour pilots were Martin Newbery in Astir DSU, with 1:06, Dave McKinney/Sanjay Nath in K21 JVZ, 1:01 and Neil Paveley in the Discus, 1:12. Martin and Dave/Sanjay flew the main W'ly ridge but Neil flew to the Thimbleby ridge some 14 km N of site via the forward ridge. The lighter winds during the later part of the day resulted in soaring being restricted to the home bowl with maximum heights of 650-750' QFE.
Tuesday 24th. The wind had become a moderate SSW/S'ly that slowly declined to light to moderate, the tropical maritime air mass and some sunshine bringing the warmest day of the year so far, with a local maximum of 14C. Operations were off runway 20, with 12 ATs followed by 16 winch launches, the former resulting in 8 flights of over 30 minutes with 3 over an hour, these including 2 cross countries, the first to be posted on the BGA ladder this year. Conversely, the 16 winch launches were short duration affairs, although James Shaw/Konrad Kawalec had 16 minutes off their winch launch with the help of some lift on the home bowl. The soaring flights from AT included 5 that climbed to over 5,000' asl, including Bob Beck/Andy Evans in the Falke. Those flying pure gliders included John Carter/David Watson in the DG1000, 6,500' asl over RAF Topcliffe in their 55 minute flight, Paul/Polly Whitehead in K21 KLW, 5,700' asl just to the W of site, their 55 minute flight including a trip to Cowesby, Sam Batchelor in the Discus, 10,000' asl in his 3:55 flight and Steve Thompson, 10,300' asl in Astir DPO in his 3:00 flight. Sam and Steve both flew wave XC's, with Sam completing an undeclared 229.8 km around Alston and Pateley Bridge and Steve an 80.7 km O/R to Middleton Tyas to the SW of Darlington. Sam provided a number of photos from his flight of which this is one.
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.