Best places for a soaring pilot to retire?

Looking for new Ideas for places to retire. The usual considerations apply; cost of living, health care, weather, and available soaring. Doesn't have to be the US. near water would be nice. I own a Ventus C.

Anyone live in/near Grass Valley, CA? 1 hr from Truckee and Sacramento, 1.5 hrs from Williams, 2.5 hrs from Bay area.

Thanks for any suggestions

Matt

Reno / Minden NV - 3 glider ports, no state income tax, 300 average days of sunshine, 20 miles to Lake Tahoe, Renown Medical Center, University of NV Reno

On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:41:00 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
Looking for new Ideas for places to retire.

Looks like Matt has been making out big with GlidePlan!

On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:15:50 PM UTC-7, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:41:00 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
Looking for new Ideas for places to retire.

Looks like Matt has been making out big with GlidePlan!

Wouldn't that be nice! Sadly, I won't be quitting my day job any time soon... Just thinking (dreaming) ahead.

Matt

All of those places are in the PRK, People's Republic of Kalifornia. Think taxes and relative cost of living. Grass Valley, Williams area and north to Mt Shasta are nice, but suffer with wintr valley fog.

I would consider Minden area or Moriarty. Minden opens up the NV Great Basin area for summer and they are always running the thermal or wave down to Bishop, Lone Pine and return. Moriarity is high country desert flying with easy access. Anything around Pheonix or Tucson works, but not really rear water.

Utah is exploding with activity now with the Nephi cross country camps, activity at Parowan and Logan area. But they do have the winter doldrums.

BillT

On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:16:14 PM UTC-7, Bill T wrote:
All of those places are in the PRK, People's Republic of Kalifornia. Think taxes and relative cost of living. Grass Valley, Williams area and north to Mt Shasta are nice, but suffer with wintr valley fog.

I would consider Minden area or Moriarty. Minden opens up the NV Great Basin area for summer and they are always running the thermal or wave down to Bishop, Lone Pine and return. Moriarity is high country desert flying with easy access. Anything around Pheonix or Tucson works, but not really rear water.

Utah is exploding with activity now with the Nephi cross country camps, activity at Parowan and Logan area. But they do have the winter doldrums.

BillT

MInden is a nice soaring location, but a little too remote/small for living there. I can get to truckee in an hour from Auburn and that gives me access to the Sierras. I will check into Moriarty, thanks. Prawn/Nephi are great flying, but not sure how I feel about living in Utah..

How about some place in the EU? Too expensive?

Florida, TX, or NV.... no income tax. With the money you save, you can drive to a great soaring site and motel it. Being retired, you have the time. CO for a mix of lower taxes and very nice lifestyle (IMO). Day in, day out living amenities should dominate your decision, not a great place to fly. Check Kiplinger or Forbes websites for lists of states and why you should retire there.

On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 6:38:41 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:16:14 PM UTC-7, Bill T wrote:
All of those places are in the PRK, People's Republic of Kalifornia. Think taxes and relative cost of living. Grass Valley, Williams area and north to Mt Shasta are nice, but suffer with wintr valley fog.

I would consider Minden area or Moriarty. Minden opens up the NV Great Basin area for summer and they are always running the thermal or wave down to Bishop, Lone Pine and return. Moriarity is high country desert flying with easy access. Anything around Pheonix or Tucson works, but not really rear water.

Utah is exploding with activity now with the Nephi cross country camps, activity at Parowan and Logan area. But they do have the winter doldrums.

BillT

MInden is a nice soaring location, but a little too remote/small for living there. I can get to truckee in an hour from Auburn and that gives me access to the Sierras. I will check into Moriarty, thanks. Prawn/Nephi are great flying, but not sure how I feel about living in Utah..

How about some place in the EU? Too expensive?

You may try Spain for low cost of living. Southern Germany has good soaring but it is expensive. Western Poland has good soaring and it is relatively inexpensive. Slovakia is another reasonable place and it has good soaring. Flying in Alps from Southern France is another great location.

I am not sure how you would adopt to any of these places. You should read some periodicals on retiring abroad before you spend too much time thinking about it. It all sounds great at first but ...
I am speaking from experience. I have lived in 4 different countries (years in each country) and I traveled through many more. Home will always be home.

Here in the USA we have great soaring, one of the best in the world. Why go anywhere, except maybe for a month or so in winter to SA or Australia.

On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 3:38:41 PM UTC-8, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:

MInden is a nice soaring location, but a little too remote/small for living there.


What?! "remote/small"?

If one is looking for big city ambiance, Minden for sure is not that, though I wouldn't consider it remote or small. Guess it depends what one is after. A lot of glider pilots do retire to the Minden / Carson Valley area. Spectacularly beautiful, great quality of life, and great soaring.

There's a lot of open space, and "city" is close enough. I live 15 miles south of Carson City, 40 miles south of Reno, a few miles east of S. Lake Tahoe, and 9 miles from Minden airport.

bumper

No one mentioned SoCal so far.
I always thought this is the ultimate spot for soaring year around. Somewhere near San Diego should be an hour from Warner Springs with its great year around soaring conditions, and couple of hours from Crystal and maybe 3 hours from Inyokern. So with 1-3 hours drive you'll have access to fantastic XC soaring and wave year around. Weather is great as well. Didn't check the cost of living yet.
East Bay Area (where I live) is also a good choice with access to year around XC soaring with 1-3 hours drive (Truckee, Hollister, Byron, Williams).
As for Mimden/Truckee area and other Great Basin soaring sites, they are great but only for 3-4 month during the summer. The rest of the year is wave or nothing, so unless you are a die hard wave pilot, your soaring season will be short. All my soaring buddies who moved from the Bay Area to retire in Minden area fly much less than I do...

Ramy