Cotswold Gliding Club soars to victory

The club is situated on the outskirts of Pocklington, a market town in East Yorkshire not far from York to the West and the North York Moors to the North.

The courses, known as tasks, are dependent on conditions and generally up to 300 km in length but can be further. Task areas can be over the North York Moors up into County Durham, South across the Humber into Lincolnshire and West in the Vale of York and towards the Yorkshire Dales.

The longest task this year was 292 km and included turning points at Sutton Bank, near Thirsk, in the North York Moors and South over the Humber to Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.

This year Mike Weston, Chief Flying Instructor at Cotswold Gliding Club and David Briggs, a fellow-member of the club were delighted to win 2024 competition in their 20-metre wingspan Arcus 2-seater glider.

Mike has previously won this competition with another syndicate in 2011 and came 2nd in 2015.

This year he had stiff competition from 36 other gliders ranging from modern gliders like the Arcus to older wooden gliders.

The gliders are handicapped to provide equal opportunities although this can be affected by the weather conditions.

The predominant feature this year was the wind - it was quite gusty all week which made the flying challenging; however, Mike and David were helped by some strong thermal updrafts and high cloud bases of over 5000 feet on a few days.

Mike said, “The Wolds Gliding Club has a great site with a modern clubhouse and put on a really enjoyable competition.

The club provides catering and there is entertainment on most evenings of the week.

The highlight for my syndicate partner, David, was a session by the local ukulele band.

Pilots and gliders come from all over the UK, stretching from Devon up to Scotland and have included entries from Belgium and Holland in the past few years.

Although the flying itself is competitive, the general atmosphere is very friendly with a lot of Yorkshire humour and is always a great week.