Thanks for all the great input! This is a great list of options and
will help me evaluate how much I would be able to fly. It sounds like
at the very least, I would be able to stay current and get in some
flying practice every few weekends.

I don't think I'd be willing to keep a car in Manhattan, but renting
would definitely be an option. Also, the bus to Wurtsboro airport is
a very tempting option, especially if I can camp there overnight.
Finally, I just got my motorcycle license, so that might be another
option... Although, as a new rider, I'm not sure how comfortable I am
with the risks involved.

On Feb 27, 3:02 pm, "Chip Bearden" wrote:
Others have summed up the options pretty well. To me the key factor is
whether you have access to a car. Almost anywhere else in the country,
that would be a ridiculous issue: of COURSE you'd have a car. In
Manhattan, however, cars=expense and/or hassle. A garage costs
hundreds of dollars a month. Some people do park on the street but
dealing with alternate-side-of-the-street-parking-regs that render
parking spaces illegal for a few hours every other day for street
cleaning, roving meter maids, and an outsized automobile-to-parking-
space ratio require even more commitment and insensitivity to
frustration than are necessary to keep soaring year round in East
Coast weather.

I've flown at Wurtsboro, Middletown, Blairstown, and Van Sant, and all
are good options. Wurtsboro and Blairstown offer ridge options and
arguably better weather. Middletown is a club (a good one) in the
valley a few miles downstream of Wurtsboro (and 20 min. closer to
NYC). And Van Sant is a commercial operation at a lovely grass airport
that harkens back to an earlier era in aviation.

People have lived in Manhattan and maintained their interest in
soaring, and they still do. It's not as easy as some venues but if you
want to fly, there are ways. As one critic mentioned, you're not going
to be able to keep the glider at home or work on it in the basement
(or probably even have room for all the toolboxes and gear in the
apartment). But Manhattan has other advantages. If this is a time in
your life when you want to live there, you won't have to give up
soaring.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"