Saturday 5th July 2025
Posted: 06/07/2025 12:58
Saturday 5th. A moderate, and at times fresh WSW'ly on a generally cloudy day ushered in another hill, thermal and wave lift at Sutton, with 15 of the day's 24 winch launches off runway 24 resulting in flights of over 30 minutes, with 7 of these over an hour . All 6 private owners who flew had > an hour flights, with Toby Wilson/Dexter Lombaelt joining in with 1:04 in K21 JVZ, their operating height being between 800' and 2,000' QFE via a mixture of thermal and hill lift. John Marsh's 1:16 in his DG303 was also thermal/hill soaring based, but his syndicate partner, Tony Drury, flying later, was one of 5 pilots to contact wave, Tony's initial contact being over site, followed by a climb to 7,300' some 10 km SSE of the site after 45 minutes of local thermal/hill soaring. Most of the other wave soaring pilots also had lengthy periods of local soaring before contacting the wave, with most contact points being in the area around Thirsk, Kelly Teagle in her LS8t-18 using her engine to get there. Kelly climbed to her maximum altitude of 10,300' asl S of Boroughbridge before making a rapid descent at the wave slot she was in closed up. Adam Sayer in his ASW19 initially climbed to 10,700' asl between site and Wass before getting to 12,000' asl near Ripon, while Clive Swain in his Kestrel 19 initially climbed to 13,800' asl over Thirsk before climbing to 17,000' asl near Masham and then to 19, 200' asl near Leeming before returning to site. Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, contented himself with a maximum altitude of 10,000' asl as he covered around 375 km with TPs at or near Thirsk, Leeming, Tockwith, Boroughbridge, Grains, Wetherby S, Masham, Garforth and Northallerton, landing back after 6:30, the longest flight of another interesting soaring day at Sutton..
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.