Sunday 9th to Monday 10th August 2026
Posted: 11/08/2026 15:46
Sunday 9th. A sunny start to the day didn't last long, as a weak cold front slowly tracked SE'wards bringing cloudy skies but no rain, the wind remaining moderate from the WSW. Soaring wise, it was a case of the early bird catches the worm, as the first 2 launches contacted wave, Sam Batchelor in the Discus flying an undeclared 231 km with TPs at Hawes, Harrogate N and Barnard Castle and climbing to a peak altitude of 10,200' asl just to the SW of Aysgarth during his 4:21 flight. Matthew Hill was the other wave soaring pilot, climbing to 6,600' asl locally, after contacting wave straight off tow like Sam, and then flying for 1:05 in Astir DSU, mainly between 5,500' and 6,500' asl. Thereafter, the day's only other > an hour flight was also by Matthew who had another 1:09 in DSU, this time using hill lift on the main W'ly ridge to operate between 700'to 1,400' QFE. The day also saw 5 other flights over 30 minutes, all using a mixture of hill and thermal lift, with Les Rayment taking a guest for 54 minutes in the DG500 and Toby Wilson/James McCathey having 48 minutes, also in the DG500, while each of the day's 3 First Flight pupils also had over 30 minutes and the Falke had 3 flights.
Monday 10th. The departed cold front left a good unstable air mass and a light to moderate NW'ly that slowly backed into the WNW. The excellent thermal conditions, cloud base over 6,000' asl locally and average peak climb rates up to 6 kts, produced a crop of XC's ranging from Dean Crosby's 560 OLC km to Steve Ogden's 114 OLC km. This was from the 17 ATs and 2 self launches from runway 24 on the day, which also saw 10 private owner launches, 6 First Flight pupils flown and 14 flights over 30 minutes, of which 10 were over an hour. Dean's 560 OLC km in his LS10t was flown via Horncastle, Sutton Start S and Grantham, with Steve Thompson joining the > 500 km list by flying a declared 509 km in his Ventus bt, with TPs at Bottesford, Sutton on Forest and Hawes, finding conditions mainly blue but good. Peter Crawley in his ASH31M, flew 420 OLC km, with TPs at or near Wragby, Northallerton, Boroughbridge and Grassington, while Rob Bailey in his ASG29t, Martyn Johnson in his DG600, and Paul Whitehead in his Ventus 2cxt all flew 300's. Rob described the conditions as superb as he turned Horncastle, and Hawes, although he briefly ran into some thin high overcast in the Hawes area before successfully completing his declared 387 km task. Paul flew an undeclared 324 OLC km via an O/R to Saltby, while Martyn flew 310 declared km with TPs at Goole N, Staindrop and Garforth, arriving back at site just before a sea breeze arrived from the east. Les Rayment in his DG808 flew a declared 200 km with TPs at Northallerton, Garforth and Beverley. Sanjay Nath in his Std Cirrus, Steve Ogden in his Discus and Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct flew a declared 120 km, 114 OLC km and 119 OLC km respectively, Sanjay rounding Pickering, Northallerton and Masham and being refused permission to enter the Leeming ATZ, Steve turning at or near Carlton Bank, Northallerton and Sutton on Forest, and Fred an O/R to North Duffield. The good soaring conditions continued late into the day, the sea breeze front enabling Clive Swain/Rob Cruickshank in K21 JVZ and Paul Whitehead/Lee Wiggins in the DG500 to climb to 6,300' asl from the penultimate and final flights of the day, Paul/Lee landing at 1750 hrs. At Rufforth on day 3 of Competition Enterprise, Pete Goodchild in his Discus flew a 243 km task, using the sea breeze front on the Pickering/Humber Bridge leg of the task, before turning Helmsley and N Duffield.
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.