Wednesday 23rd to Thursday 24th September 2026
Posted: 24/09/2026 21:34
Wednesday 23rd. Although the day was otherwise suitable for flying, the moderate NW'ly, which creates turbulent conditions over the airfield affecting launches and landings, meant there was no flying.
Thursday 24th. A day of sunny skies and patchy cloud with the wind a moderate SSE'ly, resulted in launches off runway 20, these being a mixture of 14 ATs and 14 via the winch. Lift was present in the form of weak wave and the occasional thermal, with 5 flights of over 30 minutes, of which 2 were over an hour, as 5 private owners launched and 3 First Flight pupils were flown. The weak wave, mainly encountered some 6-9 km to the SE of site was first utilised by Graham Morris in his Ventus 2cxt, his 1:28 flight including a slow descent over Husthwaite some 6 km SSE of site, following his release, followed by a retreat to the nearby S'ly and White Horse ridges where his slow descent was continued before landing back. Martin Newbery in his Ventus ct had 2:13, first maintaining 3,000-3,200' asl for around 35 minutes in a similar area to Graham, and then using his engine to climb to around 5,000' asl. From there Martin flew a little further S, descending to 3,900' asl before contacting wave some 9 km S of site and climbing to 4,900' asl before his return to site. Andy/Katharine Balkwill in their Janus C had 58 minutes, during which they were able to maintain 3,600' to 4,000' asl for a while before retreating to the S'ly ridge and finding bits and pieces of lift before landing. Chris Milnes' 29 minutes in Astir DPO and James Shaw/Neil Paveley's 26 minutes in the DG500 both made use of an area of reduced sink between the White Horse and S'ly ridges, while Sarah Stubbs' 26 minutes with one of the day's 3 First Flight pupils in K21 KLW was the result of a 500' climb in a thermal.
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.