Monday 25th to Tuesday 26th May 2026.
Posted: 27/05/2026 21:07
Monday 25th. Monday dawned blue and became hot, with a maximum local temperature of 31C, the anticyclonic conditions also giving rise to a light to moderate SSE'ly that slowly veered into the SSW. The day's 17 ATs off runway 20 led mainly to extended circuits with 6 flights of 30 minutes or more of which 2 were over an hour. The day also saw a visit by an RF5 from Pocklington via Kirton in Lindsey, Maplethorpe and Spurn Point, the motor glider returning to Pocklington later in the day. The first of the >an hour flights was by Paul Smith in his Ka6e who took off at around 1430 and had 1:34 of local thermal soaring, climbing to his peak altitude of 4,000' asl with a peak average climb of 2.8kts. Later in the day, Martin Newbery had 2:06 in his Ventus ct, climbing to 5,300' asl with a similar peak average climb rate to Paul, but venturing some 12 km to the N, 14 km to the S and 9 km E of site. Burn GC's ASK18 was flown by a number of YGC pilots with Toby Wilson doing an O/R to Thirsk as the 3 day Interclub League competition came to an end, with Saturday being the only day with suitable weather for competition. With YGC's Chris Booker winning the Pundit Class and his fellow team member Sam Batchelor winning the intermediate class, YGC were the competition winners with 8 points, followed by Burn GC with 4 points, whose pilots Paul Jackson won the Novice class, Derby and Lancs GC with 3 points and Wolds GC with 1 point. A separate "pre SPL" class competition was won by YGC's 15 year old Sarah Nolan. Thanks are due to Adam Sayer and helpers for organising the weekend's flying.
Tuesday 26th. Another blue, but not as hot day, with limited useable lift as a light and variable wind became NE/ENE'ly and gusty, causing the initial operations off runway 20 to change to launches off runway 02 with either 02 or 06 used for landing. The day's 20 ATs included 2 for First Flight pupils and one by a Private Owner, Peter Goodchild having 40 minutes of scratching in broken thermals over the gulley to the east of the airfield in his Discus bt. 40 minutes was also the duration of Andreas Rieder/Fynn Cuthell's flight in K21 JVZ,, this time in weak thermal just upwind of the gulley, while Austin Hartland had 1:18, climbing to 4,200' asl, again over the gulley.
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.