ELY 2020

[[email protected]]

Good news for Ely soaring fans.
First, great thanks to Keith for providing his Cessna and arranging tow pilot.
Towing service in Ely will be available from June 29 until July 18 for 10 pilots.
Reservation fee is 150 $ per week. Weekly increments only.
Towing cost will be based per tach time, hook-up to hook-up, expected 8 $/min.
Interested pilots please e-mail me and I will send back "pilot info form",
to get basic personal and glider information.
Marek Malolepszy

[[email protected]]

Additional info, got some questions.
Reservation fee is not going towards towing, non refundable.
Besides tow cost there is no additional ferry fees.
Ely Jet Center (FBO) at Ely Airport imposes tie-down fee as every year.
Marek

[[email protected]]

Ely has been ruined by their airport manager and ridiculous prices. Now soaring there is only for the rich. Such a shame, used to be real fun back with the Stowers brothers. Tonopah is a better way to go. Or head up to Utah.

[kimobear]

On Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at 10:38:56 AM UTC-6, wrote:
> Ely has been ruined by their airport manager and ridiculous prices. Now soaring there is only for the rich. Such a shame, used to be real fun back with the Stowers brothers. Tonopah is a better way to go. Or head up to Utah.


How much do they charge now at Ely?

Salutem,
Kimobear

[Dan Marotta]

How about ground launching?Â* Bring your own.

On 2/27/2020 9:28 AM, kimobear wrote:
> On Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at 10:38:56 AM UTC-6, wrote:
>> Ely has been ruined by their airport manager and ridiculous prices. Now soaring there is only for the rich. Such a shame, used to be real fun back with the Stowers brothers. Tonopah is a better way to go. Or head up to Utah.
>
> How much do they charge now at Ely?
>
> Salutem,
> Kimobear

--
Dan, 5J

[[email protected]]

On Monday, February 24, 2020 at 10:07:26 AM UTC-8, wrote:
> Good news for Ely soaring fans.
> First, great thanks to Keith for providing his Cessna and arranging tow pilot.
> Towing service in Ely will be available from June 29 until July 18 for 10 pilots.
> Reservation fee is 150 $ per week. Weekly increments only.
> Towing cost will be based per tach time, hook-up to hook-up, expected 8 $/min.
> Interested pilots please e-mail me and I will send back "pilot info form",
> to get basic personal and glider information.
> Marek Malolepszy

Send me pilot info form to and let me know what is tie down fee there.
Richard

[Craig Reinholt]

Just a reminder that Ely is a very unforgiving soaring site. Off field lands in the desert can result in major glider damage. There are few safe landing choices. If you are new to Ely, please contact someone that has spent some time there and discuss the site before deciding to come fly.
Craig
ASH 31mi

[[email protected]]

I was talking to a tow pilot about the fact that Ely is mostly un-landable for 100 miles all around the place and there seems to be a thunderstorm over the airport every afternoon in June and July! His reply was, “just land on the silver sage and I’ll come get you�! ...........OK, I ask, what’s Silver Sage? He explained that it’s a very light colored (silver) sage brush that grows on most dry lakes and level ground in the summer and only gets about 8� high. Best to have this all arranged ahead of time with the duty tow pilot, each day, because you may be able to safely land on most silver sage areas, but there’s no roads whatsoever in the places where silver sage grows and the buffalo roam!
😗 JJ

[Ramy[_2_]]

True about the silver sage but there are plenty of dirt strips and dirt roads to land in Ely area. The databases we use have landable places every 20-30 miles. Landouts are actually rare as the conditions are strong enough that you fly near 18K under strong cloud streets the whole day. We rest on the weaker days. Also thunderstorms are more common later in July when the monsoon hits. All that said, Ely (and most of the Great Basin) is a great place to fly for those who are comfortable flying in the middle of nowhere...

Ramy

[Craig Reinholt]

On Monday, March 2, 2020 at 7:52:27 AM UTC-8, Ramy wrote:
> True about the silver sage but there are plenty of dirt strips and dirt roads to land in Ely area. The databases we use have landable places every 20-30 miles. Landouts are actually rare as the conditions are strong enough that you fly near 18K under strong cloud streets the whole day. We rest on the weaker days. Also thunderstorms are more common later in July when the monsoon hits. All that said, Ely (and most of the Great Basin) is a great place to fly for those who are comfortable flying in the middle of nowhere....
>
> Ramy

Ramy, The turnpoint databases are quite out of date. I reviewed on Google Earth the strips you are mentioning trying to update the Ely turnpoint file. Almost all were overgrown and would probably have torn up a glider if they landed there. After reviewing every airport and outlanding options on Truckee, Minden, Air Sailing, Montague, Bend, The Great Basin, and Ely files, to create a Lakeview TP file and potentially revamp a couple of other TP files, no one should use any turnpoint database for landing. Some are semi OK (Lakeview & Montague are best). Some were downright dangerous (Minden, TGB).. In addition, major airport changes were not listed such as width reductions, lengths, airport frequencies, etc. For Ely, I use a personally created TP file, but with caution because it is a now 1.5 years old.
For private airstrips, sectionals are woefully out of date as well. There are private strips on sectionals that haven't been there for decades. I'd only rely on public use airports and a few of those with skepticism on Sectionals.
Craig Reinholt

[Craig Reinholt]

And good luck to anyone landing on a dirt road in the West. Most have high side berms and are probably narrower than a 15M ship.

[Jonathan St. Cloud]

On Monday, March 2, 2020 at 8:56:16 AM UTC-8, Craig Reinholt wrote:
> And good luck to anyone landing on a dirt road in the West. Most have high side berms and are probably narrower than a 15M ship.

There was a shot of a DG-300 that was very lucky, one wing on the wire. I believe that was an outlining near Minden. For those that attended the webinar on Dave's outlining on a road in the Great Basin there was a less lucky example. I have about 1,700 hours of XC time, not nearly as experienced as Ramy. However, I would think long and hard and be at the end of a long line of poor decisions to be lining up on a road in the western states.

[JS[_5_]]

While I have not flown out of Ely in a while,
"What Ramy said".
Ely is not the place to learn XC. You need to be comfortable in the middle of nowhere, but keeping landing places in glide isn't difficult with a working band of 6 to 11,000' above valley floors.
Density altitude is 10,000' at 10am. Stay hydrated and on O2.
If you land out, InReach may be your best bet for communication.
Jim

[[email protected]]

On Monday, March 2, 2020 at 9:31:59 AM UTC-8, JS wrote:
> While I have not flown out of Ely in a while,
> "What Ramy said".
> Ely is not the place to learn XC. You need to be comfortable in the middle of nowhere, but keeping landing places in glide isn't difficult with a working band of 6 to 11,000' above valley floors.
> Density altitude is 10,000' at 10am. Stay hydrated and on O2.
> If you land out, InReach may be your best bet for communication.
> Jim

Hi, I am planning my spring weekend trips and i may do the drive bay near Ely area. Can any one share with me the TP files for that area?. I may visit some places to check them out during my off road trip..
THX
Richard

[Ramy[_2_]]

On Monday, March 2, 2020 at 8:35:38 AM UTC-8, Craig Reinholt wrote:
> On Monday, March 2, 2020 at 7:52:27 AM UTC-8, Ramy wrote:
> > True about the silver sage but there are plenty of dirt strips and dirt roads to land in Ely area. The databases we use have landable places every 20-30 miles. Landouts are actually rare as the conditions are strong enough that you fly near 18K under strong cloud streets the whole day. We rest on the weaker days. Also thunderstorms are more common later in July when the monsoon hits. All that said, Ely (and most of the Great Basin) is a great place to fly for those who are comfortable flying in the middle of nowhere...
> >
> > Ramy
>
> Ramy, The turnpoint databases are quite out of date. I reviewed on Google Earth the strips you are mentioning trying to update the Ely turnpoint file. Almost all were overgrown and would probably have torn up a glider if they landed there. After reviewing every airport and outlanding options on Truckee, Minden, Air Sailing, Montague, Bend, The Great Basin, and Ely files, to create a Lakeview TP file and potentially revamp a couple of other TP files, no one should use any turnpoint database for landing. Some are semi OK (Lakeview & Montague are best). Some were downright dangerous (Minden, TGB). In addition, major airport changes were not listed such as width reductions, lengths, airport frequencies, etc. For Ely, I use a personally created TP file, but with caution because it is a now 1.5 years old.
> For private airstrips, sectionals are woefully out of date as well. There are private strips on sectionals that haven't been there for decades. I'd only rely on public use airports and a few of those with skepticism on Sectionals.
> Craig Reinholt

Many databases on the turnpoint exchange are outdated. The ones we are using are not the Ely database, nor the Minden database. Those are indeed outdated. Most of us use a combination of more current databases, including the Tehachapi/DDD database which covers the whole great basin and is getting updated continuously.
That said, you can never fully rely on any database. Even a known airport may be closed for repaving. It would be great if we always had an up to date database of every possible landout. That said, it is by far better than the old days with out databases, only sectionals. A local knowledge and experience goes long way.
Damaging the glider on landout is always a possibility.

Ramy

Ramy

[[email protected]]

For a few years we had dry lake options but last year most of those were wet so it cut down the number of landout options considerably... so flying there best suited for those experienced with the place. Not sure what it is looking like this year.
Darren

[[email protected]]

On Monday, February 24, 2020 at 10:07:26 AM UTC-8, wrote:
> Good news for Ely soaring fans.
> First, great thanks to Keith for providing his Cessna and arranging tow pilot.
> Towing service in Ely will be available from June 29 until July 18 for 10 pilots.
> Reservation fee is 150 $ per week. Weekly increments only.
> Towing cost will be based per tach time, hook-up to hook-up, expected 8 $/min.
> Interested pilots please e-mail me and I will send back "pilot info form",
> to get basic personal and glider information.
> Marek Malolepszy