Top 20 XC Soaring Sites in the US

[V1[_4_]]

Looking for cross-country soaring sites to visit on vacation? Places to retire with top-notch soaring?

I’ve done an analysis based on three years of US OLC (Online Contest) flight data covering 270+ sites, more than 40,000 flights, and in excess of 5 million miles flown. YMMV.

Map is at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F_ob2obJlgXFcdwrcOt1JiGjVPQ&usp=sharing

For more details about the analysis, see the Soaring Club of Houston web page: https://sites.google.com/site/soaringclubofhouston/about-soaring/cross-country/top-20-us-soaring-sites

To our European and international pilots (hint, hint) - would be great if someone would create a similar map for Europe, or global. Great publicity for your club or location - within a day of posting this to US SSA’s Facebook page (reposted to many club’s pages), the Google map had over 2000 views.

Frank Allen, SCOH

[[email protected]]

Neat. But isn't total OLC miles flown at a site more a proxy measure of population density, wealth and leisure time than an indicator of being a great soaring site?

[Dan Marotta]

There aren't that many active glider pilots at Moriarty, but we do fly a
lot as well as year round! We also get a lot of visiting pilots and
host many get togethers. I'm sure those last two factors are included
in the results.

On 12/27/2016 9:56 AM, wrote:
> Neat. But isn't total OLC miles flown at a site more a proxy measure of population density, wealth and leisure time than an indicator of being a great soaring site?

--
Dan, 5J

[Richard[_9_]]

On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 8:22:34 AM UTC-8, V1 wrote:
> Looking for cross-country soaring sites to visit on vacation? Places to retire with top-notch soaring?
>
> I’ve done an analysis based on three years of US OLC (Online Contest) flight data covering 270+ sites, more than 40,000 flights, and in excess of 5 million miles flown. YMMV.
>
> Map is at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F_ob2obJlgXFcdwrcOt1JiGjVPQ&usp=sharing
>
> For more details about the analysis, see the Soaring Club of Houston web page: https://sites.google.com/site/soaringclubofhouston/about-soaring/cross-country/top-20-us-soaring-sites
>
> To our European and international pilots (hint, hint) - would be great if someone would create a similar map for Europe, or global. Great publicity for your club or location - within a day of posting this to US SSA’s Facebook page (reposted to many club’s pages), the Google map had over 2000 views.
>
> Frank Allen, SCOH

You missed some flights for Montague/Siskiyou County CA.

75900 points for the 3 years with 50% over 300k in the best year.

We have a 7500'X150' paved runway with a large glider tie down area.

Most flights were out of Siskiyou Co Airport and we got these points without a large contest or encampment. We now have 9 pilots that fly out of this site only about half post on the OLC.

Richard,
www.craggyaero.com

[Renny[_2_]]

On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 9:56:21 AM UTC-7, wrote:
> Neat. But isn't total OLC miles flown at a site more a proxy measure of population density, wealth and leisure time than an indicator of being a great soaring site?

Interesting......Well, let's see now...New Mexico in one of the poorest states in the US...On population, New Mexico's population only is a bit over 2 million (900K in the Albuquerque metro area).....and on leisure time, yes indeed, we have a fair amount of "leisure time" out here in NM and a fair number of retirees that upload OLC flights, but we also have a lot of folks that are working that manage to take advantage of the outstanding soaring conditions at Moriarty. Let there be no doubt that Moriarty is not #1 on this list due to population density, wealth and leisure time.....Moriarty is # 1 due to truly has outstanding soaring conditions, an excellent airport with the many support services that glider pilots are always looking for and of course, some really outstanding pilots. It truly is a "great soaring site!"

Finally, having said this, there may be some location in the US that is truly the very best (whatever "best" means), but if there are no pilots, no airports and no infrastructure for flying there, it will definitely not make the Top 20 list!! ;-)

[JS]

Many places are seasonal.
The Appalachian chain with "a low up high and a high down low" is loads of fun.
But the best soaring is often where nobody would go on vacation, the Great Basin being a decent example.
Tonopah, Nevada is a great place for Summer XC but other than the brewery there is little infrastructure left on Doon.
Ely has much better infrastructure, but no longer has regular tows available. Don't think they have a brewery, but the hardware store has a great selection of stainless metric hardware.
You can fly the Great Basin from quite a few places along the edge. The Utah locations are shy on decent beer.
Moriarty's pretty consistent weather combined with a relatively low cost of living has attracted many. And it has a brewery.
Come to think of it, Tehachapi has a brewery too.
Internationally, you won't find much population density (especially with any wealth) outside of Windhoek, Namibia yet it's obvious that Bitterwasser, Kiripotib and Pokweni offer tremendous soaring. December always seems to be the best for them. Wonder if they have a brewery?
Jim

[Dan Marotta]

What do glider pilots need other than lift and beer? :-D

On 12/27/2016 11:27 AM, JS wrote:
> Many places are seasonal.
> The Appalachian chain with "a low up high and a high down low" is loads of fun.
> But the best soaring is often where nobody would go on vacation, the Great Basin being a decent example.
> Tonopah, Nevada is a great place for Summer XC but other than the brewery there is little infrastructure left on Doon.
> Ely has much better infrastructure, but no longer has regular tows available. Don't think they have a brewery, but the hardware store has a great selection of stainless metric hardware.
> You can fly the Great Basin from quite a few places along the edge. The Utah locations are shy on decent beer.
> Moriarty's pretty consistent weather combined with a relatively low cost of living has attracted many. And it has a brewery.
> Come to think of it, Tehachapi has a brewery too.
> Internationally, you won't find much population density (especially with any wealth) outside of Windhoek, Namibia yet it's obvious that Bitterwasser, Kiripotib and Pokweni offer tremendous soaring. December always seems to be the best for them. Wonder if they have a brewery?
> Jim

--
Dan, 5J

[[email protected]]

Thanks for putting this together!

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

Here is a list of top 50 breweries of 2015. San Diego shows up multiple times, even SLC shows up on the list. Out of San Diego there is Warner Springs, home to many National Champs, two from same family one of the local pilots will be flying WGC 2017. Four hours drive to Tehachapai, gateway to the Sierra's. I know the owner of Ballast point, sold brewery for 1 billion dollars. Told him he needs a helicopter and I could fly it for him (commercial, instrument rotorcraft). He said "No". Instead he is wasting the money on college for the kids, home and cars.


On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 10:27:23 AM UTC-8, JS wrote:
> Many places are seasonal.
> The Appalachian chain with "a low up high and a high down low" is loads of fun.
> But the best soaring is often where nobody would go on vacation, the Great Basin being a decent example.
> Tonopah, Nevada is a great place for Summer XC but other than the brewery there is little infrastructure left on Doon.
> Ely has much better infrastructure, but no longer has regular tows available. Don't think they have a brewery, but the hardware store has a great selection of stainless metric hardware.
> You can fly the Great Basin from quite a few places along the edge. The Utah locations are shy on decent beer.
> Moriarty's pretty consistent weather combined with a relatively low cost of living has attracted many. And it has a brewery.
> Come to think of it, Tehachapi has a brewery too.
> Internationally, you won't find much population density (especially with any wealth) outside of Windhoek, Namibia yet it's obvious that Bitterwasser, Kiripotib and Pokweni offer tremendous soaring. December always seems to be the best for them. Wonder if they have a brewery?
> Jim

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

Below is a list of top 50 breweries of 2015. San Diego shows up multiple times, even SLC shows up on the list. Out of San Diego there is Warner Springs, home to many National Champs, two from same family one of the local pilots will be flying WGC 2017. Four hours drive to Tehachapai, gateway to the Sierra's. I know the owner of Ballast point, sold brewery for 1 billion dollars. Told him he needs a helicopter and I could fly it for him (commercial, instrument rotorcraft). He said "No". Instead he is wasting the money on college for the kids, home and cars.

https://www.brewersassociation.org/press-releases/brewers-association-lists-top-50-breweries-2015/

On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 10:27:23 AM UTC-8, JS wrote:
> Many places are seasonal.
> The Appalachian chain with "a low up high and a high down low" is loads of fun.
> But the best soaring is often where nobody would go on vacation, the Great Basin being a decent example.
> Tonopah, Nevada is a great place for Summer XC but other than the brewery there is little infrastructure left on Doon.
> Ely has much better infrastructure, but no longer has regular tows available. Don't think they have a brewery, but the hardware store has a great selection of stainless metric hardware.
> You can fly the Great Basin from quite a few places along the edge. The Utah locations are shy on decent beer.
> Moriarty's pretty consistent weather combined with a relatively low cost of living has attracted many. And it has a brewery.
> Come to think of it, Tehachapi has a brewery too.
> Internationally, you won't find much population density (especially with any wealth) outside of Windhoek, Namibia yet it's obvious that Bitterwasser, Kiripotib and Pokweni offer tremendous soaring. December always seems to be the best for them. Wonder if they have a brewery?
> Jim

[James Thomson[_2_]]

At 18:27 27 December 2016, JS wrote:
>Many places are seasonal.
>The Appalachian chain with "a low up high and a high down low"
is loads of
>=
>fun.
>But the best soaring is often where nobody would go on vacation,
the Great
>=
>Basin being a decent example.
>Tonopah, Nevada is a great place for Summer XC but other than
the brewery
>t=
>here is little infrastructure left on Doon.
>Ely has much better infrastructure, but no longer has regular
tows
>availabl=
>e. Don't think they have a brewery, but the hardware store has a
great
>sele=
>ction of stainless metric hardware.
>You can fly the Great Basin from quite a few places along the
edge. The
>Uta=
>h locations are shy on decent beer.
>Moriarty's pretty consistent weather combined with a relatively low
cost
>of=
> living has attracted many. And it has a brewery.
>Come to think of it, Tehachapi has a brewery too.
>Internationally, you won't find much population density (especially
with
>an=
>y wealth) outside of Windhoek, Namibia yet it's obvious that
Bitterwasser,
>=
>Kiripotib and Pokweni offer tremendous soaring. December always
seems to
>be=
> the best for them. Wonder if they have a brewery?
>Jim
>

The brewery is in Windhoek - not very far down the road (in the
scale of Namibia). Products get a pass mark!

[Andrew Ainslie]

I think you're missing a few points. Here's an example: Harris Hill is an extraordinary historical repository for glider pilots. The weather is sometimes dodgy... but what's more fun, doing 200 miles on a day when no one else goes cross country, or doing 300 miles on a day when everyone else does 500?

The area is really safe because it's filled with airports. The weather is challenging, leading to a learning experience on every flight. The takeoff over a cliff is breathtaking. And when you land, you're surrounded by great camaraderie, amazing history, and a really beautiful landscape.

So... don't just look at the numbers. There's more to gliding than just distance.

[[email protected]]

Very interesting. And all the whining on here confirms a well known fact - glider pilots who are stuck inside for the winter are a bunch of grumpy grinches. Let's hope spring gets here soon! In the meantime, come join us for some our year round flying in Houston Texas. Ha!

[Casey[_2_]]

Frank that was a lot of work. I wonder if results would change if only top 3 scorers were used instead of entire club? But then I guess that would be crunching 270 x 3, or 3 times the work.

[V1[_4_]]

Casey, I suspect that would change the results, but more work than I'd want to do.
I do encourage others to try different analyses and let us know the results.

[Andy Blackburn[_3_]]

Nice analysis. There's no perfect metric, but you certainly tagged some decent ones - lots of miles logged, lots of long flights, high average flight distance. Yes, there are remote soaring sites where you can have a nice time flying not as far or as reliably, or with as many other pilots around, but mostly reliable weather to fly long distances with other soaring pilots seem like decent criteria to first approximation. As a comparison, you might consider taking out OLC flights flown during contests or OLC camps, just to see what the normal organic XC flying looks like when there aren't events being hosted. You could also sort purely by average OLC distance to pick out the hidden gems - but I'm nit-picking.

9B

[Jim White[_3_]]

At 16:22 27 December 2016, V1 wrote:
>Looking for cross-country soaring sites to visit on vacation? Places to
>ret=
>ire with top-notch soaring?
>
>I=E2=80=99ve done an analysis based on three years of US OLC (Online
>Contes=
>t) flight data covering 270+ sites, more than 40,000 flights, and in
>excess=
> of 5 million miles flown. YMMV.=20
>
>Map is at
>https://drive.google.com/open?id=3D1F_ob2obJlgXFcdwrcOt1JiGjVPQ&u=
>sp=3Dsharing
>
>For more details about the analysis, see the Soaring Club of Houston web
>pa=
>ge:
>https://sites.google.com/site/soaringclubofhouston/about-soaring/cross-=
>country/top-20-us-soaring-sites
>
>To our European and international pilots (hint, hint) - would be great if
>s=
>omeone would create a similar map for Europe, or global. Great publicity
>fo=
>r your club or location - within a day of posting this to US
SSA=E2=80=99s
>=
>Facebook page (reposted to many club=E2=80=99s pages), the Google map had
>o=
>ver 2000 views.
>
>Frank Allen, SCOH
>
Hi Frank. Looking to tour the USA in my dotage. Would be nice to see your
map. Could you post a tinyurl please?

In UK soaring is definitely weather dependent. It is also about where you
can get a tow in a decent glider. If you are over this side between April
and August, look me up at Booker which is just 20 minutes from LHR. You can
take me flying in our Duo.

Jim

[V1[_4_]]

> Hi Frank. Looking to tour the USA in my dotage. Would be nice to see your
> map. Could you post a tinyurl please?
>

Thanks Jim.
The links were in the original message, so I assume that given the various software used to read ras, the links may have gotten striped out for some readers. Alternate directions to the main page:
* Go to the Soaring Club of Houston website (scoh.org)
* Click on drop-down menu for About Soaring - Cross Country
* Click on the link in the Top 20 US Soaring Sites box
* From the resulting page, you have links to the map, and the supporting spreadsheet and word document.

PS - I used to subscribe to the British Soaring magazine. Always amazed me to see their annual map of UK soaring sites, with gliderports about every 30 kilometers throughout much of the country - sweet!

[Frank Whiteley]

On Wednesday, December 28, 2016 at 10:47:32 AM UTC-7, V1 wrote:
> > Hi Frank. Looking to tour the USA in my dotage. Would be nice to see your
> > map. Could you post a tinyurl please?
> >
>
> Thanks Jim.
> The links were in the original message, so I assume that given the various software used to read ras, the links may have gotten striped out for some readers. Alternate directions to the main page:
> * Go to the Soaring Club of Houston website (scoh.org)
> * Click on drop-down menu for About Soaring - Cross Country
> * Click on the link in the Top 20 US Soaring Sites box
> * From the resulting page, you have links to the map, and the supporting spreadsheet and word document.
>
> PS - I used to subscribe to the British Soaring magazine. Always amazed me to see their annual map of UK soaring sites, with gliderports about every 30 kilometers throughout much of the country - sweet!

In the UK, I'd head off cross country when cloud base reached 1800agl because if I fell out, I could get a launch from the next club en route;^)

[Sean[_2_]]

OMG give me a break! Ionia, MI is #1 and every other site is second. ;-). My basis is number of racing tasks last year. Checkmate.

Fun article, but it's going to get torn to shreds now by the winter and it's grounded soaring pilots.

One last time: Ionia, MI is #1

Sean
7T

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

I can just see you with that foam rubber hand "We're Number 1".

On Wednesday, December 28, 2016 at 11:53:41 AM UTC-8, Sean wrote:
> OMG give me a break! Ionia, MI is #1 and every other site is second. ;-). My basis is number of racing tasks last year. Checkmate.
>
> Fun article, but it's going to get torn to shreds now by the winter and it's grounded soaring pilots.
>
> One last time: Ionia, MI is #1
>
> Sean
> 7T

[[email protected]]

Ionia is # 1?

Put the Bong down, Sean.

Concentrate on the WGC.

[[email protected]]

Come to IYK. A little easier to escape the home valley than Tehachapi and we also have the Indian Wells Brewery that's just up the hill from the airport.

[Rich Owen[_2_]]

Sean, every practice task by the local pilots are all racing tasks! However, I seem to be the only one who puts the task on the OLC post. A few years ago we had Grand Prix events over several weekends. Not everyone in soaring do MATS or TATS. Good luck at the WGC!

[[email protected]]

Thanks Frank for doing this analysis.

Everyone is pulling for their airport - my turn. Nephi came up #3. Pretty cool. What is really cool is to think that Nephi hit this mark with only flights from the 10 day long yearly flying events held there. We are working really hard on getting a permanent tow plane at Nephi. Wait till there is soaring all season long and some of the locals as well as Ely/Parowan regulars come play with us - we should hopefully post some really good numbers. :)

I'll keep everyone updated once we get the plane squared away so you can make plans to come out and fly with us.

Happy New Years Everyone!
Bruno -B4

[MNLou]

I would submit that the best soaring site in the US is the one that you, personally, can fly out of often:)

Lou

[Tony[_5_]]

Right on Lou!

[Sean[_2_]]

Guys I am only kidding. Trust me. I would vote for Nephi, Uvalde, Minden, Seminole and SOSA...