Help needed at Mifflin.

Two companies are planning the installation of wind turbines on top of Jacks Mt near the Mifflin County Airport where contests have been held for 23 years. Ridge running on Jacks is vital to the success of soaring at Mifflin and these devices would eliminate an essential part of the soaring activity..
See http://mifflin.ridgesewing.com/Jacks.htm for a further link to information which will show a picture of what the wind farm would look like and a request for letters/e-mails to help thwart this project.

Thanks for your help.

Karl Striedieck

PS Send this on to those who might not follow ras but could help.

Many pilots who fly ridges at many locations are likely to face this dilemma in the future. I fly from an airport that is located at the base of a ridge and the nearby ski resort would be a ready and eager customer for the "locally generated power".

Are there any projects (perhaps in Germany?) where power generation and soaring interests have devised a way to share the available ridge resources? Are there isolated ridges that are less critical to soaring that we might give over to power generation? Other compromises or design solutions?

I agree that losing the pristine quality of ridge lines is a tragedy, but trying to stop ALL ridge top development seems a losing proposition in the long run. This seems especially true in places like Pennsylvania that have a deep historical track record of trading off environmental degradation for short-term gains from natural gas fracking, strip mining, coke burning and other industrial development. My cousins are coal miners in PA and I know how they think.

I don't understand the problem. Don't you fly upwind of the ridge and
approximately at or below the crest? Of course, if you fly above the crest,
I could see the conflict.

If you fly in front of the ridge, is there concern that the power companies
will lobby the FAA to prevent you from flying "too close"ly?


"KS" wrote in message
...


Two companies are planning the installation of wind turbines on top of Jacks
Mt near the Mifflin County Airport where contests have been held for 23
years. Ridge running on Jacks is vital to the success of soaring at Mifflin
and these devices would eliminate an essential part of the soaring activity.
See http://mifflin.ridgesewing.com/Jacks.htm for a further link to
information which will show a picture of what the wind farm would look like
and a request for letters/e-mails to help thwart this project.

Thanks for your help.

Karl Striedieck

PS Send this on to those who might not follow ras but could help.

Damn hippies! ;-) Ill write a letter for you Karl! Count on it.

Sean

On Sunday, October 6, 2013 11:01:33 AM UTC-4, KS wrote:
Two companies are planning the installation of wind turbines on top of Jacks Mt near the Mifflin County Airport where contests have been held for 23 years. Ridge running on Jacks is vital to the success of soaring at Mifflin and these devices would eliminate an essential part of the soaring activity.

See http://mifflin.ridgesewing.com/Jacks.htm for a further link to information which will show a picture of what the wind farm would look like and a request for letters/e-mails to help thwart this project.



Thanks for your help.



Karl Striedieck



PS Send this on to those who might not follow ras but could help.

On Sunday, October 6, 2013 1:53:15 PM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
I don't understand the problem. Don't you fly upwind of the ridge and approximately at or below the crest? Of course, if you fly above the crest, I could see the conflict. If you fly in front of the ridge, is there concern that the power companies will lobby the FAA to prevent you from flying "too close"ly?


We fly at ridge top height and about a wing span out on the good days. We rarely fly below the crest intentionally. It is faster at ridge top.On softer days we may be almost on top of the ridge and a couple hundred feet up.
The windmills are shown almost exactly where we fly.
UH

I wish you luck in battling this issue. Locally, just east of the Columbia River gorge (one of the most beautiful scenic areas on the planet) next to the Columbia River, there is a windmill farm of hundreds of towers. Locating them at that spot spoils an incredibly beautiful scenic area. Yet the green political faction got them through because it is a "clean" energy source.. If you saw the visual pollution and listen to the disgusting drone of the windmills, I don't know how anyone could have allowed it to happen. Public opinion and government dealing won over common sense.

Best of luck.
BTW, every time you see a turbine/windmill stationary, it is SUCKING POWER from the grid to maintain internal power needs.

On Monday, October 7, 2013 3:04:37 AM UTC+2, Roy Clark, "B6" wrote:
Best of luck.

BTW, every time you see a turbine/windmill stationary, it is SUCKING POWER from the grid to maintain internal power needs.

I am shocked to hear that! That is incredible! Do you know how much these turbines suck from the grid while standing still??

Probably 30 amps... Enough to keep the itself aligned it into the wind and to adjust the blades (X 100's of turbines in each farm). The motors required to manage those tasks are not small! If you ever stand near one while they are stopped and trying to re-"spin" you learn that they are working fairly hard, constantly adjusting the blade heading and blade angle. Also, the turbine only engages and produce net power once a certain amount of blade speed (power) is achieved. This speed is higher than most realize. So all the alignment and blade changes at low speed are also from power being sucked off the grid. At low speed the blade is just free wheeling with no power being produced.

We have a huge "windfarm" to the NE of Ionia near Alma Michigan. We fly over it often. Probably 150 - 200 generators. Personally, I refer to this region as the field of death" or the "bird scrambler farm"! The ground around them is literally littered with dead birds. I would fear greatly for the soaring birds in the Mifflin habitat. Were is the EPA on this one? Hmmm? Sure, its a big problem when you endanger the spotted owl (in any capitalist endeavor)...but when hundreds of hawks and other birds are ensured of a brutal inhumane death every month per wind turbine blade strikes its overlooked because its a liberal project.

Enjoy the death of birds at the hand of green energy liberals below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwVz5hdAMGU

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/to...cifixes/page/2

http://now.msn.com/bird-hits-wind-tu...lled-instantly

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...twitchers.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=bird...ih=62 9&dpr=2

The horror of liberals and their wind turbines are very real for soaring birds. Liberals, where are you on this one? Hmmmm? Tens of thousands on INNOCENT BIRDS are dying each and every day! Their blood is on your hands!

Probably 30 amps... Enough to keep itself aligned it into the wind and to adjust the blades (X 100's of turbines in each farm). The motors required to manage those tasks are not small! If you ever stand near one while they are stopped and trying to re-"spin" you learn that they are working fairly hard, constantly adjusting the blade heading and blade angle. Also, the turbine only engages and produce net power once a certain amount of blade speed (power) is achieved. This speed is higher than most realize. So all the alignment and blade changes at low speed are also from power being sucked off the grid. At low speed the blade is just free wheeling with no power being produced.

We have a huge "windfarm" to the NE of Ionia near Alma Michigan. We fly over it often. Probably 150 - 200 generators. Personally, I refer to this region as the field of death" or the "bird scrambler farm"! The ground around them is literally littered with dead birds. I would fear greatly for the soaring birds in the Mifflin habitat. Were is the EPA on this one? Hmmm? Sure, its a big problem when you endanger the spotted owl (in any capitalist endeavor)...but when hundreds of hawks and other birds are ensured of a brutal inhumane death every month per wind turbine blade strikes its overlooked because its a liberal project.

Enjoy the death of birds at the hand of green energy liberals below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwVz5hdAMGU

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/to...cifixes/page/2

http://now.msn.com/bird-hits-wind-tu...lled-instantly

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...twitchers.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=bird...ih=62 9&dpr=2

The horror of liberals and their wind turbines are very real for soaring birds. Liberals, where are you on this one? Hmmmm? Tens of thousands on INNOCENT BIRDS are dying each and every day! Their blood is on your hands!