Where to live with soaring in mind?

If you need an Eastern Metro area then Blairstown is the place.

At 11:56 16 February 2009, wrote:
When it comes to Winter soaring, Blairstown, NJ is the best.

OLC airfield: #1

OLC champion: #1, #2, #6 and several in the top 25.(The #1
guy flys
1-26! )

OLC Club: #1 (Aeroclub Albatross)and #3 (1-26 Association)

Hilton Cup Champ flights made from there.
1000K flights made from there.

Ridge, wave and thermal flights

7 / 365 tow operation

Beautiful rural part of NJ, but not far from "civilization" (New
York
City)

Cook

Austin does seem to fit these requirements well. What are some typical x/c
flights out of there on a good day?

I grew up in Ashland Or. and that is a great option. Hard to find a good
job there or I'd be there myself. Moderate probably best describes it
overall, in weather, soaring, skiing, etc. It's a small, liberal,
tourist town. Good public schools, small arts scene, expensive homes,
interesting people (although less and less so as it is becoming a wealthy
retirement area). And I think one of the more beautiful places in the
country. Small, steep ski hill nearby, when it is good it's great, but
it is often just average. Definitely visit and see for yourself. The
drive to Montague soaring is at least 30 minutes though.


At 15:15 16 February 2009, Gregg Ballou wrote:
If you need an Eastern Metro area then Blairstown is the place.

At 11:56 16 February 2009, wrote:
When it comes to Winter soaring, Blairstown, NJ is the best.

OLC airfield: #1

OLC champion: #1, #2, #6 and several in the top 25.(The #1
guy flys
1-26! )

OLC Club: #1 (Aeroclub Albatross)and #3 (1-26 Association)

Hilton Cup Champ flights made from there.
1000K flights made from there.

Ridge, wave and thermal flights

7 / 365 tow operation

Beautiful rural part of NJ, but not far from "civilization" (New
York
City)

Cook

Austin does seem to fit these requirements well. What are some typical x/c
flights out of there on a good day?

I grew up in Ashland Or. and that is a great option. Hard to find a good
job there or I'd be there myself. Moderate probably best describes it
overall, in weather, soaring, skiing, etc. It's a small, liberal,
tourist town. Good public schools, small arts scene, expensive homes,
interesting people (although less and less so as it is becoming a wealthy
retirement area). And I think one of the more beautiful places in the
country. Small, steep ski hill nearby, when it is good it's great, but
it is often just average. Definitely visit and see for yourself. The
drive to Montague soaring is at least 30 minutes though.


At 15:15 16 February 2009, Gregg Ballou wrote:
If you need an Eastern Metro area then Blairstown is the place.

At 11:56 16 February 2009, wrote:
When it comes to Winter soaring, Blairstown, NJ is the best.

OLC airfield: #1

OLC champion: #1, #2, #6 and several in the top 25.(The #1
guy flys
1-26! )

OLC Club: #1 (Aeroclub Albatross)and #3 (1-26 Association)

Hilton Cup Champ flights made from there.
1000K flights made from there.

Ridge, wave and thermal flights

7 / 365 tow operation

Beautiful rural part of NJ, but not far from "civilization" (New
York
City)

Cook

Jim Archer wrote:
Austin does seem to fit these requirements well.

Too many people, too few mountains.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

* Updated! "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* New Jan '08 - sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more

* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

On Feb 16, 11:30*am, Jim Archer wrote:
Austin does seem to fit these requirements well. *What are some typical x/c
flights out of there on a good day?

I grew up in Ashland Or. and that is a great option. *Hard to find a good
job there or I'd be there myself. *Moderate probably best describes it
overall, in weather, soaring, skiing, etc. *It's a small, liberal,
tourist town. Good public schools, small arts scene, expensive homes,
interesting people (although less and less so as it is becoming a wealthy
retirement area). *And I think one of the more beautiful places in the
country. * Small, steep ski hill nearby, when it is good it's great, but
it is often just average. *Definitely visit and see for yourself. *The
drive to Montague soaring is at least 30 minutes though.

*At 15:15 16 February 2009, Gregg Ballou wrote:



If you need an Eastern Metro area then Blairstown is the place.

At 11:56 16 February 2009, wrote:
When it comes to Winter soaring, Blairstown, NJ is the best.

OLC airfield: #1

OLC champion: #1, #2, #6 and several in the top 25.(The #1
guy flys
1-26! )

OLC Club: #1 (Aeroclub Albatross)and #3 (1-26 Association)

Hilton Cup Champ flights made from there.
1000K flights made from there.

Ridge, wave and thermal flights

7 / 365 tow operation

Beautiful rural part of NJ, but not far from "civilization" (New
York
City)

Cook- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I live about 25 miles south of Ashland, Oregon in California and 12
miles north of the Siskiyou County Airport. Ashland is a very nice
town. Believe it or not Taxes are lower in CA and Real Estate is
much less. It is a rural area.

Please see for the soaring information.

http://www.craggyaero.com/towing.htm

Richard
www.craggyaero.com

On Feb 14, 9:50*pm, tienshanman tienshanman.
wrote:
Tim,

I have always been interested in Utah but have not been able to really
assess what it's like there with a family if you are not an LDS member.
I have heard that it can be socially limiting, a bit stifling. I was
wondering if you could comment on this.

--
tienshanman

On Feb 14, 9:50 pm, tienshanman tienshanman.
wrote:
Tim,

I have always been interested in Utah but have not been able to really
assess what it's like there with a family if you are not an LDS member.
I have heard that it can be socially limiting, a bit stifling. I was
wondering if you could comment on this.

--
tienshanman

I've lived in Utah for over 50 years, and like a lot of other non-
religious, non-conservative Utahans, I have a love/hate relationship
with this state -- well, let's say 'aggravated' instead of 'hate'. I
love the weather (four very distinct seasons), the geography, the
recreation, and of course some of the best soaring in the world. I'm
often aggravated by the dominating ultra-conservative politics, but am
not much affected -- nor stifled -- by the conservative culture.
There's plenty of local counter-culture, so anyone can find a fit
here. I have many Mormon friends -- some of them glider pilots. I
believe you'll find that most of the people here are friendly and
helpful.

With three kids, your main issues might be with the Utah schools.
While fairly well rated for achievement, Utah schools are near the
bottom on spending per student and near the top in class size -- due
to the local penchant for large families. There are excellent private
schools, however, at least in SLC.

One thing you may appreciate is that Utah is not as affected by
economic extremes as most other states. The employment and real-estate
have gone up and down, of course, but not the boom and bust seen
elsewhere. All that may change, however.

For my own selfish reasons I generally don't rave about Utah, since
the locals are doing more than enough to populate the place. But since
we're just talking among soaring friends, and since I'd always like to
see more soaring pilots here, I can say that Utah has to be one of the
best places in the world to live, especially if you're a glider pilot.


Jeff

On Feb 15, 4:20*pm, Greg Arnold wrote:
tienshanman wrote:
I would appreciates some suggestions…..I am looking for the ideal place
to live in the US – for soaring (I have not told my wife how massively
weighted this particular criterion is!). I am overseas now and more
than likely we will return to the US this summer. I have spent hours on
the net researching places to live which have the best combination of
access to good flying, good schools (3 elem school age kids), a
critical mass of interesting people and culture and good weather. One
thing I do not want to do is drive anything more that about 15 – 20 min
to a glider field and I intend to buy a self launching glider if some
sort so I could presumably fly from a small, welcoming GA airport. I am
open to virtually any region. I’ve been gone for 14 yrs so I’m dealing
with a blank slate. What places should I consider? Why?

The US gliderport with the best year around soaring conditions is at
Warner Springs in the mountains northeast of San Diego. *However, it is
more than a 20 minute drive from the amenities you are looking for.

I ditto that. I can't think of a better location then San Diego area
for year around great soaring, great weather and great location. I
think Warner Springs is less then an hour drive from most locations
around San Diago.

Ramy

On Feb 16, 12:28*am, tienshanman tienshanman.
wrote:
Tim Taylor;682793 Wrote:



On Feb 14, 9:50*pm, tienshanman tienshanman.
wrote:-
Tim,

I have always been interested in Utah but have not been able to
really
assess what it's like there with a family if you are not an LDS
member.
I have heard that it can be socially limiting, a bit stifling. I was
wondering if you could comment on this.

--
tienshanman-

Tienshanman,

As others have commented each place has pluses and minuses. *We came
to Utah as non LDS about nine years ago. *As with most states each
community is different, in any state there are places you would live
and places you would choose not to. *As I said before I prefer
“college” towns because they tend to have a social atmosphere that is
different from most other towns. *We had two children that were 4 and
10 at the time so it was a concern of ours, as well as how we would
like it here.

As it turn out it was a non-issue for the most part. *Logan has a high
enough percent of population of non-LDS that we were able to find out
own circle of friends without any problems and our children have done
the same. *As Mike said there is limited interaction between the LDS
and others mostly due to the time constraints that their religion
places on them. * We do not have anyone trying to convert us to their
religion or other things like that. *Logan has most of faiths
represented from the Catholic Church to a Synagogue. *There are
Lutherans, Methodists and Buddhists.

For me the three areas of the state I would be most comfortable are
Logan, Salt Lake City and St. George. *I don’t think I would want to
live in one of the small towns out of the Wasatch front and would
likely not want to live in the Prove/Orem area. *But I grew up in
California and am considered a liberal, especially in Utah.

We feel much more comfortable here than in Minnesota, could not take
the “Minnesota Nice” that to the locals in a positive term, but to
outsiders is a negative. *When it gets cold in the winter we always
say to ourselves it could be worse, we could be in Minnesota.

Utah has a reputation of being odd, but I think most of it was earned
twenty to thirty years ago; there have been many changes even in the
last nine years that I have been here. *We will soon see a brew pub or
two in Logan and hopefully you won’t have to join a club to go in a
bar by next year.

We love the outdoors and being active. *I live less than a mile from
the national forest boundary and a mile from a major university. *The
local ski resort is only 27 miles away and I can get a season pass for
about $250 a year. *Compare that price to what you would pay anywhere
else. *One positive in Utah for the non-LDS is that the LDS can’t do
activities on Sunday so the ski resorts, hiking and biking trails,
movie theaters, etc are empty on Sundays. *If we have more than a
minute wait in a lift line it is time to move to a different lift.
And yes it is the best snow on earth.

My top list in the west includes Boulder, CO, Fort Collins, CO, Logan,
UT, Albuquerque, NM, Ashland, OR/Montague, CA, Paradise/Chico, CA,
Reno, NV, PASCO, WA and Flagstaff, AZ. *I picked the job site and
family friendly part first, but was looking at the soaring
possibilities when I came to Logan. *Having a tow available was what
sealed the decision. *I got lucky that the soaring was better than I
ever imagined and I am still learning about the potential each year.

Tim, thanks for all of the good info on Logan. Because of your very
objective assessment I'll put Logan way up on the list and defintely
come by for a good look this summer when I plan to do the big home
hunting journey. In the meantime I'll try to learn as much as I can
about the area on the net. I also very much enjoy backcontry skiing and
from what I can tell the mountains just E. of town are full of good
places to tour with nice powder runs. I also still like to hike my
paraglider up peaks and fly back down and I noticed a neat clip on
youtube of a guy flying off of one of the peaks the edge of town and
landing on a big lawn at the univ!

--
tienshanman

Well, you should have mentioned the backcountry skiing and the
paragliding before. Utah is THE PLACE for you (or at least one of the
very few ideal options). I'll give you tour info for the Salt Lake
area and Southern Utah, if you let me know when you're coming, and I
imagine Tim could do the same for Logan and Northern Utah.


Jeff

PS: You might also want to check out Durango/Cortez Colorado while
your in the West.

In message
,
writes
snip

With three kids, your main issues might be with the Utah schools.
While fairly well rated for achievement, Utah schools are near the
bottom on spending per student and near the top in class size
Snip

If the schools are achieving, does class size / spending matter?

--
Surfer!
Email to: ramwater at uk2 dot net

I ditto that. I can't think of a better location then San Diego area
for year around great soaring, great weather and great location. I
think Warner Springs is less then an hour drive from most locations
around San Diago.

Ramy

I live in north San Diego County in the small coastal community of Del
Mar. It takes me about 1hr 10 minutes to get to Warner Springs. SD
County is a big place, 4,261 square miles, so driving time can vary
widely. I would say and certainly the OLC data backs this up, that
overall, we do get the best year round soaring. There are places that
have better conditions at certain times of the year, but probably no
site that is more consistently soarable.

Bob