The Milk Run with NE wind, with Tom Blakely
- cumbriasoaringclub
- Feb 18
- 1 min read
Cumbria Soaring Club Northern Sites Officer - Tom Blakely - talks about flying the milk run with a NE / NNE wind from Wolf Crags.
The "milk run" is a local nickname given to XC flights down the Helvellyn ridge. In this flight from May 2025, Tom flew down the East side of the ridge to Grasmere and then ultimately to Coniston village.
More normally the milk run is flown with a W or NW wind, starting at Clough Head. For example here is Keith "Bud" Paterson on a more normal version of this ridge run, from 2024: • TRACKLOGS: Keith "Bud" Paterson on flying ...
The milk run is the most popular XC flight attempted in the Lake District and has been flown in all sorts of wind directions.
These tracklog videos of the milk run are intended to be briefing notes for pilots attending the Lakes Charity Classic / X-Lakes competitions, which take place in June every year. For pilots flying in the 2-day X-Lakes, following the route of the Bob Graham, you will almost certainly be trying to come home down the Helvellyn ridge to Grasmere! So, hopefully it is useful to see all the different ways that this ridge has been flown.v
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