Thursday 27th to Friday 28th March 2025.
Posted: 29/03/2025 21:39
Thursday 27th. A moderate and at times moderate to fresh SW'ly provided hill. thermal and wave lift with some impressive distances flown and altitudes gained, although as ever, the ease of contacting the wave varied throughout the day. A mixture of 8 winch and 8 ATs off runway 24 resulted in 16 flights of 30 minutes or more with 8 of these over an hour. 6 pilots climbed to over 10,000' asl, while Paul Whitehead/Stuart Mair got to 9,700' asl in K21 JVZ near Northallerton having contacted the wave straight off their 3,000' tow. The area around Northallerton was a popular place for high climbs, Dean Crosby in his LS10t climbing to 11,100' asl there after spending time at around 3,000' asl between Sutton and Thirsk and Neil Paveley in his Nimbus 2 getting to 11,400' asl in this area after some smaller climbs further S. A number of pilots contacted the wave in the area around Knayton, Jim McLane getting to 12,000' asl before returning to Sutton, while, Sam Batchelor in the Discus climbed to 12,500' asl and Neil Paveley in his Nimbus 2 contacted the wave there but went elsewhere to find higher climbs as noted above. Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct and Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct both used their engines to contact the wave, Fred after spending 90 minutes hill soaring and then climbing to 9,500' asl just to the NW of Boltby. Bob bucked the trend of contacting the wave to the NW and NNW of site by initially contacting just to the S of site and then taking a couple of moderate climbs to the SW and overhead Topcliffe before a major climb to 10,200' asl just to the NW of this airfield. The majority of the above pilots then set off on wave cross countries, with Neil doing 335 km after climbing to 11,400' asl in the Northallerton area and then proceeding via RAF Leeming to a TP just to the east of Carlisle and climbing to 17,800' asl at this point before returning to site via Wetherby. Bob also visited a TP to the east of Carlisle before returning to site, a distance of around 280 km, having reached 10,400' asl. Bob reported strong winds at altitude and provided the following photo.
Fred journeyed around Ripon, Masham, Catterick, Richmond, Leyburn and then back to Masham and Ripon before returning to site having reached 10,400' asl, while Sam visited Masham, Aysgarth, Leyburn, Ripon, Pateley Bridge and Garforth areas before returning to site via Knaresborough having reached 12,900' asl, covering some 240 km. Sam had earlier had a 54 minute flight in the Discus hill soaring the main W'ly ridge as far N as High Paradise Farm, while Paul/Polly Whitehead had 1:03 in K21 JVZ utilising hill, thermal and wave lift to get to 4,000' asl and Dave McKinney/Sue Aherne had 45 minutes in K21 KLW in a slow climb locally that took them to 3,500' asl.
Friday 28th. A fresh W'ly that slowly declined to moderate over the day and brought in a few isolated showers meant a winching day, with 20 launches off runway 24. Soaring flights of over 30 minutes were somewhat surprisingly limited to 7, with only 2 of over an hour, these being by the 2 private owners who flew. Darren Lodge's 3:05 in his LS8-18 was spent locally soaring in a mixture of hill and thermal lift and operating generally between 2,000 to 2,800' asl with a peak altitude of 3,300' asl. Dean Crosby's 4:41, on the other hand, was spent doing an hill/thermal and maybe a touch of wave O/R to Guisborough W where Dean climbed to his maximum altitude of 4,500', the flight taking him along the W and N facing escarpments of the North Yorkshire Moors, covering around 115 km in the process. Bruce Grain/Conrad Thwaites in K21 KLW had 52 minutes in which, after some early hill soaring, they climbed to 3,400' asl just ot the N of Gormire before proceeding to Black Hambleton and then returning to site via the Forward Ridge. Fred Brown/Tor Taverner in K21 JVZ in their 1:01 flight, had a slow climb from their launch height to 4,400' asl just to the east of Topcliffe before returning to site without losing any height.
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.