US midwest soaring

"nimbusgb" wrote in message
oups.com...
What is the soaring like in the US Midwest? From the SSA state records
I see that the distances covered and the speeds over standard courses
seem less than impressive.

Are there significant weather, airspace or other factors that limit
the soaring in Minnessota, Illinois, Indiana and the central midwest?

I also notice that the club fleets in these areas seem to revolve
around a couple of 2-32's and a 40 or more year old two seater with
very few glass ships in evidence, not promising for someone facing an
international assignment in the area

Ian M


You seem to have a good handle on it.

There are no special airspace limitations. Good soaring weather happens on
occasion but the midwest weather does not generally lend itself to
spectacular flilghts. High humidity, low cloud bases and frequent
thunderstorms are the summer norm. Horace Greeley must have had glider
pilots in mind when he said. "go west, young man".

As for the prevalence of old 2-33's, I don't understand that either.

I know some of our forign guests who buy a 1st or 2nd generation glass
glider and leave it at a western soaring site. They grab inexpensive
airline flights whenever they can to get in some spectacular western US
soarning.

Bill Daniels

On 31 Jul, 16:28, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:
"nimbusgb" wrote in message

oups.com...

What is the soaring like in the US Midwest? From the SSA state records
I see that the distances covered and the speeds over standard courses
seem less than impressive.

Are there significant weather, airspace or other factors that limit
the soaring in Minnessota, Illinois, Indiana and the central midwest?

I also notice that the club fleets in these areas seem to revolve
around a couple of 2-32's and a 40 or more year old two seater with
very few glass ships in evidence, not promising for someone facing an
international assignment in the area

Ian M

You seem to have a good handle on it.

There are no special airspace limitations. Good soaring weather happens on
occasion but the midwest weather does not generally lend itself to
spectacular flilghts. High humidity, low cloud bases and frequent
thunderstorms are the summer norm. Horace Greeley must have had glider
pilots in mind when he said. "go west, young man".

As for the prevalence of old 2-33's, I don't understand that either.

I know some of our forign guests who buy a 1st or 2nd generation glass
glider and leave it at a western soaring site. They grab inexpensive
airline flights whenever they can to get in some spectacular western US
soarning.

Bill Daniels

St Louis and Indianapolis is the likely location.

I was out over the last week and would like to know what you guys call
'low cloudbase'. My estimate was at least 8000' agl of scattered Cu
with a possible inversion at perhaps 10k, a real luxury for a UK
pilot. Of course I have no idea of the expected thermal strength but 2
to 3m would have made for a couple of 4 or 500 k days in my book!

On Jul 31, 12:04 pm, nimbusgb wrote:
On 31 Jul, 16:28, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:





"nimbusgb" wrote in message

roups.com...

What is the soaring like in the US Midwest? From the SSA state records
I see that the distances covered and the speeds over standard courses
seem less than impressive.

Are there significant weather, airspace or other factors that limit
the soaring in Minnessota, Illinois, Indiana and the central midwest?

I also notice that the club fleets in these areas seem to revolve
around a couple of 2-32's and a 40 or more year old two seater with
very few glass ships in evidence, not promising for someone facing an
international assignment in the area

Ian M

You seem to have a good handle on it.

There are no special airspace limitations. Good soaring weather happens on
occasion but the midwest weather does not generally lend itself to
spectacular flilghts. High humidity, low cloud bases and frequent
thunderstorms are the summer norm. Horace Greeley must have had glider
pilots in mind when he said. "go west, young man".

As for the prevalence of old 2-33's, I don't understand that either.

I know some of our forign guests who buy a 1st or 2nd generation glass
glider and leave it at a western soaring site. They grab inexpensive
airline flights whenever they can to get in some spectacular western US
soarning.

Bill Daniels

St Louis and Indianapolis is the likely location.

I was out over the last week and would like to know what you guys call
'low cloudbase'. My estimate was at least 8000' agl of scattered Cu
with a possible inversion at perhaps 10k, a real luxury for a UK
pilot. Of course I have no idea of the expected thermal strength but 2
to 3m would have made for a couple of 4 or 500 k days in my book!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

8000 agl is pretty good for this part of the country. the low days
are down around 3 or 4000. it can get really dicey haveing landout
options down that low. tread carefully...

Ian,

It can actually be pretty good on occasions. I currently fly an LS6
with the Saint Louis Soaring Association, from our own field just East
of St Louis - you can check my OLC flights for the past three years to
get an idea of the variety of conditions.

Our club is just getting it's feet wet in XC, although we have a
pretty good fleet of older private glass. Club has a G-102, G-103,
and a Blanik, along with the usual Schweizers (which don't get flown a
lot). Tows via Pawnee and SuperCub.

2005 was an excellent year, with many 300k days. 06 was OK, but this
year has been a bit weak, with a lot of low cloudbase (3000' agl) days
that make XC challenging. On the bright side, there is an airport
every 15 miles, it seems, so even on those low days XC can be
attempted safely.

There is also an active XC club in the Indianapolis area.

So stop in and check us out the next time you are in the STL area!

Kirk
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