Thursday 20th to Saturday 22nd February 2025
Posted: 25/02/2025 21:53
Thursday 20th. Multiple fronts brought low cloud, rain and a moderate SSE'ly that veered into the SW and increased to moderate to fresh as a clearance arrived too late to allow any flying but raised the temperature to a balmy 14C.
Friday 21st. The clearance had departed overnight as continuing low pressure brought a day of overcast skies, light rain and drizzle and a fresh S'ly that slowly decreased to moderate, so there was no flying.
Saturday 22nd. A day of increasingly broken cloud with a light to moderate WSW'ly brought good soaring conditions and a busy launch point, with 14 ATs in the morning and 13 winch launches in the afternoon as the wind speed increased. 18 of the day's 27 launches resulted in flights of over 30 minutes, with 6 of these over an hour, soaring being possible via hill, thermal and wave lift. Most of those soaring for more than an hour contacted wave and while those flying club gliders mainly stayed local, Clive Swain/Duncan Pask in K21 JVZ visited Thirsk and Knayton in their 51 minute flight. An exception to all this wave flying was James Weston, whose 1:02 in Astir DPO was all in hill lift. Bob Calvert in DSU, Dean Crosby in DSU and Sam Batchelor in DPO also were > an hour wave pilots but I don't have any maximum altitude info on their flights. This caveat also extended to Neil Paveley, one of 4 private owners to launch and contact the wave, but his trace showed he flew his Nimbus 2 to Northallerton, NW of Barnard Castle and Knaresborough. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct and Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt both posted their wave flights in the BGA ladder, with Fred flying 244 km around Kirby Stephen Station, Wetherby S and Northallerton, with a start and finish at Sutton and reaching a max altitude of 13,100' asl. Steve flew a similar distance, 252 km, with a start and finish at Thirsk and TPs at Eastgate, Wetherby S and Masham with a peak altitude of 15,000' asl. As is often the case, working out the wave pattern low down wasn't easy but from aloft it became obvious, as this photo from Steve shows.
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.