Tuesday 4th to Wednesday 5th March 2025
Posted: 06/03/2025 21:16
Tuesday 4th. The light to moderate WSW'ly continued to blow, accompanied by high thin cover with some lower cloudiness at times, the conditions again producing hill and wave lift, the latter sparsely indicated by cloud to the east of the Pennines. A mixture of ATs and winch launches, 10 of the former and 19 of the latter, kept the launch point busy, with the day producing 19 flights of 30 minutes or more, with 9 of these an hour or more. Simulated winch launch failures at both low and intermediate level were a feature of the day, with some of these flown by an applicant for a summer instructor position. The 5 private owners who flew all contacted and climbed in wave, although some had to resort to their engines to do so after spending time hill soaring. Neil Caverley in his Nimbus 2 and Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct both took ATs, with Neil going on to fly to Alston and back, covering 216 km after contacting the wave some 7 km SSW of Thirsk and eventually, via a series of wave climbs, reaching a maximum altitude of 10,000' asl at Alston. He then returned via Barnard Castle, Catterick and Ripon. Bob flew as far west as Shap and Cross Fell, also reaching 10,000' asl and getting good views of the Isle of Man, Snowdonia and Scotland as a result of the excellent visibility. Bob's initial wave contact was just to the NE of Thirsk, his outward journey taking in Masham, Hawes and Kirkby Stephen areas and overflying Harrogate on his return after covering an estimated 222 km. Bob also provided the following photo.
Fred Brown in his Ventus 2ct, Dean Crosby in his LS10t and Steve Thompson in his Ventus 2bt all took winch launches, as did Steve and Eileen Scothern in their Discus t, Fred and Steve spent some time hill soaring before contacting the wave near Thirsk, Dean contacting in the same area shortly after launch. They all then progressed west with Steve attempting the club 200km wave task but giving up due to time constraints after visiting Masham, Barnard Castle, Pateley Bridge and Leyburn covering 187km and climbing to 11, 234' asl. Steve has provided the following photo which shows Morecombe Bay glistening in the distance.
Fred covered an estimated 135 km visiting areas around Ripon, Leyburn and Aysgarth reaching 8,500' asl, while Dean also visited the Masham, Leyburn, Asysgarth and Pately Bridge areas before returning to site via Harrogate North after covering 135 km and climbing to 7,700' asl. Pilots who had an hour or more hill soaring between 6-1300' QFE included Sam Batchelor in Astir DPO, Les Rayment/Duncan Pask in the DG500, George Rowden in Astir DSU, Eleen Scothern in her Discus t, and Austin Hartland in DPO, Austin having at one point descended to hill top height on the Foward Ridge after running into heavy sink attempting to get to Thirsk.
Wednesday 5th. Another hill and wave soaring day with the wind now a moderate SW'ly, the 28 winch launches off runway 24 leading to 18 flights of 30 minutes or more, with 10 of these over an hour. Bob Calvert, Fred Brown, Steve Thompson and Dean Crosby were again the long duration, wave soaring, cross country pilots, although Bruce Grain/Andrew Bedford in the DG500 did get to 4,200' asl just the north of Boltby in their 1 hour flight. The 4 private owners did somewhat better, with Bob getting to 10,100', Fred 12,522', Steve 11,700' and Dean 11,900', all asl. Steve flew a 139 km task from Thirsk around Masham, Leyburn, Hawes and Harrogate N before returning to Sutton in the blue wave conditions, with Bob and Fred flying in the same areas of the Yorkshire Dales and covering estimated distances of 165 and 149 km respectively. Dean extended his flight a little further to an estimated 206 km taking in Hawes and Selset Reservoir before returning to site via Pateley Bridge and Knaresborough. The pilots utilising hill lift to fly for more than an hour included Ritchie Toon in his LS7 who had 2 flights of 1:15 and 1: 52 duration, Yuri Koznekov in Astir DSU, John Forrester in Astir DPO and Konrad Kawalec in DSU, the main bowl being the most popular location for lift but with excursions along the W'ly ridge as far north as High Paradise Farm. Most flights had maximum heights of around 1100' QFE, but Ritchie and Yuri found some stronger lift that took them up to around 1,500' QFE.
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.