Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th March 26
Posted: 12/03/2026 15:29
Monday 9th. The low overcast brought in on a light to moderate SE'ly meant there was no flying.
Tuesday 10th. The wind had become a moderate/moderate to fresh SSW'ly with a tendency to back into the S and, with mainly cloudy skies, flying began around 1100 hrs and continued until 1440 hrs, by which time 16 ATs and 2 Falke flights had taken place off runway 20. Hill and some wave soaring generated 7 flights of over 30 minutes, with 3 of these over an hour, the latter all flown by the 3 of the 5 private owners who launched. Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt had the longest flight, 2:43. After maintaining 3,000' asl near Felixkirk, Steve progressed westwards but finding no lift had to resort to his engine near West Tanfield, but then found some weak wave near RAF Leeming that took him to 5,500' asl, before returning to site after another wave climb near Northallerton. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, like Steve found some lift near Felixkirk that provided a climb to 5,200' asl, and, also like Steve, had to resort to his engine after flying W. Returning eastwards, Fred found a wave climb near Topcliffe that peaked at 6,600' asl before landing after just over 2 hrs. Dean Crosby's 1:15 in his LS10t, was spent soaring the White Horse ridge at 7-900' QFE, and hill soaring the home bowl between Gormire and the A170 was the means by which Bruce Grain/Polly Whitehead in K21 JVZ had their 45 minutes and Andreas Rieder/Ian Miskin in K21 KLW had 47 minutes.
Wednesday 11th. The wind was now a moderate/moderate to fresh WSW/W and so it was a winching day off runway 24 with 17 launches, 3 by private owners. 15 of the day's launches led to flights of 30 minutes or more, with 6 of these exceeding an hour. Hill and thermal soaring was the norm, with gains to around 4,000' and the main W'ly, Forward, Kepwick, and more N'ly ridges were flown all the way to the NW corner of the North York Moors near Tontine. Chris Handzlik in his DG300, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt and Andreas Rieder/Ian Miskin in K21 JVZ, all had over 2 hours flying. Chris' 2:26 and Fred's 2:56 were flown locally in thermals, while Steve's 2:33 included a foray to near Ripon followed by recourse to his engine S of Topcliffe on the way back to site, where he arrived at hill top height. Climbing in hill lift, Steve then flew an O/R to near the Tontine TP via the W'ly facing ridges. Andreas/Ian's flight was mainly in local thermal with a best climb to 3,700' asl. Ian McFarlane was P1 in the DG1000 on both the other flights >an hour, first with Martin Joyce, 1:26, and then with Andy Evans, 1:05. with both flights mainly via hill lift, which included trips to the forward ridge and Boltby.
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.