York Gliding Centre

The hot weather this week was most welcome but it did make the launching operation hard work! A big thank you to our tug pilots in call signs 'Yellow tug', 'Black tug', 'Tigger' and 'Robin' as they became know during the week. Pictures courtesy of Richard Waddington

Competition Enterprise winner Chris Gill in the mighty eagle!

Lovely bunch at tonight's end of comp prize giving/party. I suspect photos from later on may be a bit less sedate😁!

We've had a fabulous week at YGC but this could not have happened without the hard work and help from so many of our club members. We would like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone involved : to those who helped to organise the event, to the tug pilots and members who played a vital role in launching the grid each day, to our hardworking chefs who helped to feed everyone and to those who worked hard on the various events during the week and the fantastic end of comp party! A special mention goes to our amazing office manager Claire Pears for somehow holding the fort amidst all the chaos!

And lastly we could not fail to give a huge shout out to the tour de force that is our Competition Director Simon Hawkin. Simon has done a simply incredible job and it is fair to say that without him this event would never have happened at YGC. Overall a fantastic team effort and a great week for the club!

What a fantastic week at the club! An outstanding Competition Enterprise with over 50,000km flown over 7 days by 34 competitors. Huge congratulations to Chris Gill for not only emerging as the overall winner, but for doing it in a vintage 1950s Eagle. Proof that talent shines through regardless - well done Chris! A shout out also to the two teams from YGC who finished in the top ten - well done all!

We were delighted to host a Yorkshire Television crew here yesterday to report on Competition Enterprise. They spent considerable time on the grid interviewing and filming the competitiors. Video below...

The venerable Eagle flown by Chris Gill is not the only vintage glider making an appearence this week. Justin Wills joined us today to take advantage of the excellent soaring conditions. Seen here in the fabulous 1930s Rhonbussard in a thermal just west of the airfield and photographed from the club K21.

We are in to the final two days of Competition Enterprise and the fabulous weather continues. Yesterday was a rest day and so the positions from Wednesday still hold good. Chris Gill leads the field though 2nd and 3rd place are close behind.

We have two YGC teams currently in the top 10 : Team Rufforth in KAX (Tom Pavis, Richard Waddington and Andy Carden) are in 6th place whilst Richard Kalin in the DG800 is in 8th place. All in all it promises to be an exciting finish! All this and an eclipse too!