Waaaaa! All the pilots fly so far that the radio can't reach them.
And the place is open and flat with tons of landouts but no
telephone wires and apartment complexes to crash into, so if
you landout (nobody ever does), do it near a road.

Oh, and the cloudbase is so high you won't get much experience
having to "chance" it. Waaa!

Wipes away his crocodile tears...

Hey Ray...look at the PICTURES on Burts site! My God, Cu all the way
across the freakin' state.
For Cripes sake, fly to Austin, get lunch, and then get a tow
up and fly home, ok? :P

P.S. And make sure you have comfy cushions and your pee tube works good...

In article ,
Burt Compton wrote:
not over the desolate landscape of Mars

Ray, Lots of folks seem to think this is the local scenery at Marfa. It's
not. We soar over a grassy plateau with cows grazing below. Our airport
elevation is almost 5,000' msl, so we're not that hot in the summer (compared
to lower Texas.) You will find some great (unlandable) scenery down by Big
Bend Nat'l. Park and the Rio Grande but not 'round Marfa! With such strong
conditions and high cloudbases, landing out isn't part of your mission.

The main problem of landing out at Marfa is the long distances between ranch
houses and the paved roads. An experienced XC soaring pilot will have no
problem, as Marfa is really a place to "do" XC, not to "learn" XC.

What trips up some pilots at Marfa is that they forget to bring an experienced
crew person, and think a handheld radio is good enough for the crew car. (Get
a "real" antenna for the crew car.)

In any case, we'll have a good time when you get here!

Burt Compton
Marfa Gliders, west Texas
www.flygliders.com
800-667-9464


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Mark J. Boyd