Soaring pilots have a rare opportunity in the coming years to create an international soaring facility in a place with great soaring conditions. If you were doing this, what would you include, what would you design into it, what considerations would be important as the facility comes together?

Let me explain.

The county commissioners and airport management at the Minden-Tahoe Airport committed two years ago to creating a general aviation opportunity with strong support for soaring on the east side of our airport. This came after many years of lobbying by soaring pilots for recognition of the unique soaring resources available he superb wave and thermal conditions and occasional ridge flying from an airport that is friendly to us and our activities.. A look at US flights registered on the OLC in any given year demonstrates just how good we have it here, and we'd like to create an international soaring center so pilots from all over can take part in our great soaring.

Who are we? Three years ago several like-minded pilots created the Sports Aviation Foundation www.sportsaviationfoundation.com with the idea of finding funds and building an aviation facility that would be on the opposite side of the airport from heavier traffic and would prominently feature an international soaring facility. We recognized that regular crossing of the main runway with golf carts towing gliders can become a safety issue. We will not exclude general aviation, but the jets that visit Minden fairly regularly will be separated on the west side of the airport while we operate from the east side. There are nay-sayers who believe jets will take over this airport, but in the ten years I've lived here we have seen no appreciable uptick in jet operations -- the economic demand is just not there.

So we have a foundation that can guide the development of an international soaring center, we have land dedicated to creation of a general aviation facility that will be glider-friendly, and we have received 501(c)(3) status from federal (IRS) and state authorities. Airport management has brought in utilities and is now planning tarmac upgrades, some of which will be very helpful to glider pilots in strong cross-wind conditions.

And we - the Sports Aviation Foundation - are looking for suggestions and ideas. How many times have you said to yourself "I wish they had thought of gliders when they designed this airport?" Well this is your opportunity. We have a clean slate, and we want to make sure to include all the good ideas we can for designing a facility that will be used heavily by gliders.

Some of the ideas you will suggest are already on our "must-do" list, but what we'd like to avoid is getting to a certain point in the design and thinking "oh darn, why didn't we think of that?"

So this is an invitation to glider pilots everywhere to say "hey, don't forget to include a family-friendly campground," or "where are the water points for ballasting during international competitions?" or "how about drive-through parking for glider trailers?"

I recognize that this might be an invitation for some snarky replies, but it's also an invitation for getting in on the ground floor of a design and building process. And even coming to be a part of this exciting process if you have a mind to relocate to Minden eventually and share our outstanding soaring. How would YOU design an international soaring center?