Saturday 4th July 2026
Posted: 05/07/2026 12:37
Saturday 4th. A moderate to moderate to fresh WSW'ly soon veered into the W, so it was a winching day off runway 24, with15 flown. Hill, thermal and elusive wave lift were available, with the result that there were 10 flights in excess of 30 minute,s with 8 of these over an hour. Most of the > an hour pilots made use of local hill and thermal lift, with cloud base around 3,000' asl, but 2 climbed above 5,000' in wave, Dean Crosby in his LS10t getting to 7,300' asl and Martyn Johnson in his DG600, 11,155'asl, both pilots contacting in the Tontine area having flown there using thermal and hill lift. Martyn climbed to his peak altitude 13 km to the SSW of Sutton and then continued S to turn Wetherby S before returning to Sutton, covering 145 OLC km. Both pilots spent some 1.5 hrs of local soaring before contacting the wave, while Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct spent the whole of his 4:29 local flight searching for, but never contacting the wave, his peak altitude being 3,300' asl, while Darren Lodge in his LS8-18 had a brief encounter with wave over Felixkirk climbing to 4,600' asl. Hill soaring operating heights were generally around 1,100'/1,500' QFE, with the ridges flown all the way N to Tontine, while average peak thermal strengths were typically 2-3 kts. The 8 private owners who flew all had over an hour, with Neil Shead having 3:43 in his Std Cirrus, Yurii Kozheurov, 3:05 in his PIK20D, Bas Sonneveld 2:52 in his LS4 and 1:47 for Keith Hardcastle in his Mosquito. The longest flight in a club glider was the 50 minutes by Simon Altman/Chris Reacroft in K21 JVZ.
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.