April

7/4/2025   Semer Water

Mobile phone broken! Imminent birth and a line to change. It was quite light, forecast SSE but as it seemed more east I opted for Semer and a short day.

On arrival  I found Gary Stenhouse there and few minutes later two other NE lads turned up.

It seemed on the hill, light with thermal gusts coming through, but otherwise OK. The two NE lads carried on to the top whilst Gary and I opted for the shoulder ... where I spent the next 20 minutes  changing a brakeline in the top cascade. Meanwhile Gary gave it a shot  and scraped back onto the shoulder. After 10 minutes he was off again.

Shortly after I launched into good, lifting air and was surprised to see ... not a soul. Minutes before they had been level with the ridge top. It took a while to spot two gliders at about 3600' .... not easy in a totally blue sky. Gary had gone, or at least I never saw him.

The next hour and half was superb, light wind thermaling to 4500' and I was able to explore well to the south of Wether Fell and out front.  It was tempting to set off on xc, but with no phone and a need to be back I resisted. This turned out a decent decision as those who left the hill found nothing ... odd, as the thermals in the vicinity of Semer seemed strong, well formed and regular. The wind speed very rarely showed much more than single figures (kph).

After a good hour and a half Gary turned up again, soared for a short while, but the wind had gone NE and the thermals had died away. We both landed together. 

Went for coffee and saw a couple of glider soaring Whernside on the way back

A few photos  LINK

8/4/2025  Semer Water (again)

Very similar to the previous day. Totally blue ...lighter wind, but the cycles started about 12.30 and got stronger. The first flights were a bit of a struggle in disorganised thermals - no ridge lift, just thermals so timing take off was always critical. Still no phone so completely in the dark about what others were doing or where.

About four flights that ended up on the shoulder, which was OK to get up from. The hill started working much better after 2.30pm, but best height was only 3,600'.  Almost zero drift from the east. On my final take off from the shoulder I was almost down in the bottom field  until a miracle thermal hoisted me to over 3000' .. I then had about an hour and a quarter.

I had the hill to myself until as I was leaving about 4pm Josh (from nearby Hardraw) turned up. Went for an ice cream. 

LINK

10/4/2025  Wether Fell

Lovely spring day, but very inverted with light winds. Drove over to Hawes expecting little. Passing Dodd a few gliders were showing light-wind groundhandling - but no flying, however a mile later Wether came into view with three gliders doing OK. So ... that settled it.

It seemed OK at the roadhead - parked up, walked in a few hundred yards and took off.  A nice enough hour, but no real, organised thermals and not going very high. Landed for a chat.

Second flight began as the first ... however, it then sprung a surprise. What seemed very localised, light wave(?) appeared ... super smooth and only about 0.5 to 1m/s. That took a few of us to around 3500' before petering out. (The photos are Tom's) ...I never had my gopro for once ... a pity.

Landed by the car .... whivh was quite rough for a spell, so I moved off to the side, waited and came in again to find smoother air.  Packed and headed off for an icecream.

LINK (all photos are courtesey of Tom S)

12/4/2025  Grey Scars

John H and  l went for a 'run out' just before 11. The aim being to check out Cotterside ..or maybe a coffee at the Moorcock (highly recommended with a licenced bar and coffee room). We thought it was likely to be too windy, so opted to walk part way up minus the sacks as John hadn't been here before.  In fact the higher we got, the better it got and we regretted leaving the gliders behind. So ...back down and took the lazy option of settling into the cafe for an hour.

Back home in time for a football match. By halftime we were comfortably in front and outside it seemed to have settled down so l opted to go out ...just for a look. Within 5 mins drive l have Grey Scars ... it seemed quite light on the walk up,  but OK on take off. I launched expecting a scratch and down session, but it was surprisingly lifty .... everywhere. Once l'd discovered how extensive the lift was l headed east to Clapham ..never that high, but not going down. I contemplated carrying on to Robin Proctor scar ... and maybe Moughton. I calculated the walk back, the effort and the reward. I turned back, had to fly well out to get down and landed in a light SSW. 

The things you get when you least expect it.