Sunday 23rd August 2026
Posted: 24/08/2026 13:00
Sunday 23rd. A very good thermal soaring day at Sutton, with a light to light to moderate SSW'ly slowly backing into the SSE, resulted in14 XCs > 100 km of which 3 > 500 km, 1 > 400 km, 3 > 300 km, 4 > 200 km and 4 > 100 km. The 3 >500 km XCs were by visitor Charlie Tagg in his Ventus 3M and Dean Crosby in his LS10t, who both did O/Rs into East Anglia, Charlie flying 528 km and Dean 533 km, and Neil Paveley in his Nimbus 2, whose 514 km was flown via Horncastle, York and Belvoir Castle. Dean had 4 low points below 1,500' asl going S and both he and Charlie were affected by sea air off the Wash, but found higher cloudbases, up to 5,300' asl, south of this. Peter Crawley in his ASH 31M flew 432 OLC km with TPs at Peterborough and Tontine, while the 300 + km pilots were Rob Bailey in his AS33E, Chris Teagle in his LS8t-18 and Beau Basson in his ASW20. Rob flew 382 km with TPs at Tontine, Horncastle and Chesterfield, Chris 320 km via an O/R to Saltby, while Beau flew 359 OLC km with TPs at Tontine and Horncastle. Toby Wilson in his Std Cirrus, Darren Lodge in his LS6-18, Martin Johnson in his DG600 and Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct flew > 200 km XCs, with Toby turning Goole NE, Tontine and York for 221 km, Darren flying 236 km via Goole NE, Thirsk and Burn, Martin's 205 km being via Pocklington, Helmsley and Pontefract, and Fred's 224 OLC km involving visits to Pocklington, Tontine, Rufforth and finally a point 20 k N of Sutton. The pilots flying between 100 and 200 km were Bas Sonneveld in his LS$ with150 OLC km with TPs at Pocklington and Harrogate N, Les Rayment in his DG808, 176 OLC km with TPs at Tontine and Goole N, visitors Clive Thomas/Bob Johnson in their DG1000t, 152 OLC km with TPs at or near Pocklington, Burn, and Wetherby, and Nigel Dickenson in his Libelle Club with 149 OLC km via an O/R to Market Weighton. The rest of the 25 flights having over an hour all flew locally, with the longest flights in club gliders being by Joshua Jackson in Astir DPO, 2:31, Matthew Hill in Astir DSU, 2:20, and the 2:21 by Spencer Bailey flying the DG1000 solo. The longest flight in a club 2 seater saw Fred Brown/John Ellis have 1:23 in the DG1000, during which they flew to 6 km NW of York and 5 km S of Tontine to clock up 96 OLC km, also climbing to 5,800' asl. A great soaring day at Sutton, therefore, with the day's 43 ATs, 3 self launches and 2 Falke flights leading to 36 flights > 30 minutes of which 25 were over an hour, the launch total including 6 for First Flight pupils, while at the end of the day an Astir from Burn landed.
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.