Wednesday 8th July 2026
Posted: 09/07/2026 15:36
Wednesday 8th. A sunny, hot day with a maximum of 30.7C locally, produced good soaring conditions after a slow start, cloud base rising to around 6,000' asl and average peak climb rates up to 5 kts, although the day eventually went blue . Accordingly, only 6 of the day's 29 ATs and 1 self launch failed to exceed 30 minutes, with 2 of these being from 1,100' tows. 22 flights made it over an hour and 11 XCs were flown, ranging, from Bruce Grain/Neil Meakin's 64 OLC km in the DG1000, including an O/R to just SE of Northallerton, to Dean Crosby's 502 km task around Bardney, Sutton Start W and Newark. Rob Bailey in his ASG29 flew 345 km, with TPs at Horncastle and Grantham, with Sutton control point N being his start/finish point. Rob survived a < 1,000' asl low point near Kirton in Lindsey, while Pete Crawley in his ASh31M flew 492 OLC km, visiting Bourne before returning N to Northallerton and Tontine and then doing a spot of local soaring in his 7:59 flight. Peter Dixon in his Std Jantar did a 2 phase O/R to Darlston, landing out there and then getting an AT and flying back to Sutton to cover a combined 224 km, with Thomas Robinson in his Ka6 cr having a similar experience on an O/R to Burn that was interrupted by a land out at Rufforth, later taking an AT and flying back to Sutton. Richard/Alyson Maskell in their Duo Discus XT flew 260 OLC km, with TPs at Sheffield East and the Humber Bridge, while a number pilots flew around 100 km, Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct and Jeremy Bodian in his Vega 15 both completing the local Pocklington/Rufforth triangle, John Marsh in his DG303 covering 108 OLC km visiting Northallerton, Ripon and Sutton on Forest, although it took him a few goes to get to Northallerton, and Bruce Grain/Ryan Parker flying 108 OLC km in the DG1000 getting close to Sutton on Forest and Rufforth with an intermediate return to Sutton. The rest of the > an hour pilots all stayed local, while Andrew Bedford took the Falke on an 133 OLC O/R to near Thorne.
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.