SF Bay Area Winter Soaring

[Michael Ash]

I'm going to be in the SF Bay area for a conference in January 2008 and
I'm pondering the idea of taking some time afterwards to do some flying in
a new place. I'm looking to rent a glider and stay for a couple of days. I
have some questions for people familiar with the area:

How is the soaring in January? I assume the thermals are about as dead as
they are here in Virginia, but here it would be good wave/ridge season, is
that the case there?

How long should I expect to stay to have a good chance of seeing some good
soaring? Obviously nobody can predict the weather with great accuracy that
far in advance, but some vague idea as to how frequent good soaring is
during that time of year could be helpful. I have a feeling that staying
just for the weekend following the conference is being too optimistic.

What is a good operation in the area? I recall from previous looks at the
SSA's map (which doesn't seem to work for me now, it sticks on "Loading
soaring sites for State..." when I click on a state) that Williams Soaring
looked like a nice place and reasonably close. I'm open to clubs but it
seems to me that for this sort of transient thing a commercial operation
might be a better choice.

I'm a low time pilot (under 40 hours, checkride passed in April) and so
far I have only flown with my club, what should I expect or prepare for
flying elsewhere? Renter's insurance is the obvious one and I'll search
the group archives for advice on that, anything else I should know?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

[Marc Ramsey[_2_]]

Michael Ash wrote:
> I'm going to be in the SF Bay area for a conference in January 2008 and
> I'm pondering the idea of taking some time afterwards to do some flying in
> a new place. I'm looking to rent a glider and stay for a couple of days. I
> have some questions for people familiar with the area:
>
> How is the soaring in January? I assume the thermals are about as dead as
> they are here in Virginia, but here it would be good wave/ridge season, is
> that the case there?

I've had some nice thermal flights on New Years day, but that's not
typical. Generally, good soaring conditions, whether wave or thermal,
will be tied to passing weather fronts, so it is impossible to predict
this far ahead of time. It may be raining for weeks on end, sunny and
dead, foggy 24 hours a day, or a series of beautiful soaring days.

If you'd like to fly solo, only Williams Soaring Center (two hour drive
from the Bay Area) and Soar Minden (four hour drive from the Bay Area)
will have gliders available to rent. Hollister is closer, but they only
rent gliders for instruction. Non-students fly with Bay Area Soaring
Associates, you may be able to talk a member into taking you for a
flight in their DG-1000. There is also Northern California Soaring
Association in Byron...

Marc

[Bob Kuykendall]

In my mind, for soaring nearest metro bay area it's a tossup between
NCSA at Byron and Hollister Gliding Club at Hollister.

NCSA is about an hour east of both San Fran and Santa Clara. It's a
club, and I know that they do instruction, but I can't remember if
they rent gliders:

http://norcalsoaring.org/
http://ncsa-buzzard.blogspot.com/

Hollister is about an hour south of Santa Clara and an hour forty
south of San Fran:

http://www.soarhollister.com/

Other good but more distant options are Avenal (south), Williams
(north), Montague (way north), Truckee and Minden (both east),
California City and Tehachapi (both way south).

It's a pity you have to drive so far these days. It used to be that
the Bay Area was ringed with gliderports now gone: Sky Sailing in
Fremont, Lagoon Valley in Vacaville, Hummingbird Haven in Livermore,
and also the gliderport at Calistoga. Eh, that's progress for you.

Give me a shout if your conference is near Sunnyvale, let's talk about
soaring in China!

Thanks, Bob K.

[Kloudy via AviationKB.com]

Michael Ash wrote:
>I'm going to be in the SF Bay area for a conference in January 2008 and
>I'm pondering the idea of taking some time afterwards to do some flying in
>a new place.
Williams Soaring looked like a nice place and reasonably close. I'm open to
clubs but it
>seems to me that for this sort of transient thing a commercial operation
>might be a better choice.>
>Thanks in advance for any advice.
>
My advice would be Williams. They have a large fleet (k-21s, 23s, Duo, asw24,
discus CS) for rent and the staff are top notch.
As far as January NCal weather advice, maybe check out the Williams Soaring
forum and look at flight report posts.
http://www.soaringnet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1547
http://www.soaringnet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1539&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

We see some wave and frequent convergence. It varies a bit.
Good luck

--
Message posted via http://www.aviationkb.com

[Michael Ash]

Bob Kuykendall > wrote:
> Give me a shout if your conference is near Sunnyvale, let's talk about
> soaring in China!

I'm not sure what counts as "near", but the occasion for the trip is
MacWorld, which is held right smack in downtown SF.

As for soaring in China I still haven't managed to actually do any yet.
It's just barely conceivable that I will have by January, but right now I
think the earliest I'd be making my next China trip would be next spring.
But we shall see.

Thanks for the advice, and thanks also to Marc and Kloudy for yours.
You've given me much food for thought.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

[Kloudy via AviationKB.com]

Michael Ash wrote:
>
>I'm not sure what counts as "near", but the occasion for the trip is
>MacWorld, which is held right smack in downtown SF.
>
Hey, as an aside. After the conference lets out on Sunday, try dinner and the
Flamenco performance @ Thirsty Bear restaurant/brewery. About a block NE from
from Moscone. Its pretty cool.

now back to our regularly scheduled thead.

--
Message posted via AviationKB.com
http://www.aviationkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/soaring/200707/1

[[email protected]]

As has been noted, winter thermals here are sometimes better than
summer's -- which isn't saying much, but I had a great time one New
Year's hanging out over the East Bay Hills for about 90 minutes, never
going more than 4-5 miles in any direction, but having wonderful views
of the Bay and city. Cloud bases were about 3500' and Hayward was my
safety (and home) airport. OK, I was in a motor glider.

Mark Twain explained why (without intending) our winter thermals are
better than our summer ones: "The coldest winter I ever experienced
was a summer in San Francisco." The city can be colder in summer than
in winter if the fog blows in. We have a really cold current running
here. Consequently, summer thermals are largely absent until you get
out of the marine influence, which entails driving 1.5+ hours to the
places mentioned.

One possibility that hasn't been mentioned and might fit your
interests is Rolf Peterson's soaring operation at Livermore, less than
an hour drive from the city. OK, it's not really a soaring operation,
though it is listed in PASCO's bulletin. He owns a Grob 109B motor
glider and does instruction in it. If you want to see if he's
available call him. His number and email are listed under "Mt. Diablo
Soaring on PASCO's web site:

http://www.pacificsoaring.org/clubs.html

He's a great pilot, instructor and person. And, given the minimal
soaring in January (unless the Mt. Diablo wave is working), a motor
glider is a nice option. Even then a motor glider helps.

Hope you have a good time.

Martin

[Michael Ash]

Kloudy via AviationKB.com <u33403@uwe> wrote:
> Michael Ash wrote:
>>
>>I'm not sure what counts as "near", but the occasion for the trip is
>>MacWorld, which is held right smack in downtown SF.
>>
> Hey, as an aside. After the conference lets out on Sunday, try dinner and the
> Flamenco performance @ Thirsty Bear restaurant/brewery. About a block NE from
> from Moscone. Its pretty cool.

Actually it lets out on Friday, as it's a during-the-week thing, but I'm
familiar with the restaurant from past trips and I'll keep that in mind.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software