Where to live with soaring in mind?

On Feb 14, 5:06*pm, Greg Arnold wrote:

Is the soaring as good as Parowan?

Greg,

Yes and no. If you are asking are the thermals as strong, Logan tends
to average 6 to 10 knot thermals, from my experience Parowan during
the peak of the year is about 8 to 12 knots. Logan has better ridge
sections, about 300 miles total over several ranges. Parowan has some
ridges that work, but not in sections that can be used exclusively as
ridge. Logan is also easier to utilize wave with the Wasatch Front
generating consistent wave from fall to spring.

Each site has positives and negatives and slightly different season.
Parowan tends to go into monsoon conditions in July and can be very
volatile. Logan is usually just north of the monsoon line and gets
fewer of the OD days. Both are in the great-basin so are strong
soaring sites and should never be taken for granted by any pilot. I
have landed in 40 knot blowout of storms at Logan as well as Parowan.

From a safety standpoint Logan has more landable areas and the airport
is much safer than Parowan. Anyone who has come home to a
thunderstorm at Parowan worries about a strong crosswind with no
option but the fields or dry lake bed west of town. All three of
Logan's runways are landable and the main runway is 9000 feet long.
Logan is also 1500 feet lower at 4500 feet msl.

I like both sites, each has great soaring compared to almost anyplace
in the world. For crews I think they will find Logan to one of the
nicest soaring towns of anyplace we have contests. There are not too
many soaring sites you go to live plays and opera in the evening and
spend your days hiking in national forest only 10 minutes away.

If you are interested in the Midwest, look at Northfield MN, the home of
Carleton College. A wonderful small town, with an Ivy League caliber
college within 5 miles of Stanton Airport, the home of the Minnesota Soaring
Club.

The soaring in the summer is great. There have been some great X-Country
flights, including a club member who flew a downwind dash from Stanton to
Gary IN in a 1-26.

The winters are a pain, but that's what keeps the riff-raft out.

No pain, no gain.

Mike Schumann

"Nyal Williams" wrote in message
...
Move to the Mid-west. Housing is cheap. Thermals don't go very high
(5000agl on the best days) so retrieves are cheap. Fly only seven months
of the year, so the entire bill is cheap. Lots of hangar flying in the
winter, and that's cheap.

At 17:30 14 February 2009, Jp Mobo wrote:



redding, sandwiched between a high fire hazard zone and a flood plain

http://www.ci.redding.ca.us/devserv/gis/download.html



desert southwest - dry, lifeless air not good for soaring








At 16:52 14 February 2009, wrote:
On Feb 14, 8:49=A0am, wrote:
Tienshanman:

I'm a big Minden booster. =A0I moved here 4 years ago for the
soaring
and love the mountains, outdoor activities, and -- best of all -- the
soaring. =A0Schools in Douglas County are the best in the state,
population growth is not explosive the way it is in other nice parts
of the US, people are friendly and it's generally a very nice place
to
live. =A0Reno is a 40 minute drive, San Francisco 4 hours, and did I
mention the soaring is the best in the world? Oh, and we don't have
California's tax situation. =A0 Write if there are any questions I
can
answer specifically.

Fred LaSor
email =3D flasor AT frognet.net

Redding is about 100 miles from Montague, CA, lots of soaring
activity, also about 100 miles from Williams, CA Commercial operation
with lots of active pilots.

Turf Soaring and Estrella near Phoenix if you can stand the heat have
incredibly inexpensive housing prices right now (Phoenix Area)

Jim

I thought the criteria was as many as you can afford )

Big John

************************************************** *************

On 15 Feb 2009 00:30:03 GMT, Jim Beckman
wrote:

At 21:35 14 February 2009, bumper wrote:

I put a quarter in one of them slot machines once . . . didn't even get
a
ball of gum out, so I figure they are all a rip-off. Wife won't let me
do
the other, so will content myself with soaring, flying the Husky,
bicycling
etc.

Minden, NV (Douglas County) is not about those things either. It's a
conservative area as well, which suits me fine.

It all depends on what the meaning of the word "culture" is. Keep in
mind that if you pick a conservative enough region of Nevada, you can have
as many wives as you want. Or as many as you can stand.

Jim Beckman

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.

On Feb 14, 8:50*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

possible that is so in the smaller towns, SLC is 50% non LDS.
Although as a non-member they would really put the rush on you
socially if you evidenced any interest at all.

I lived in Salt Lake City for six years. It's a delightful town with
lots of cultural activities. We found life a bit polarized, as is
generally reported. Members of the LDS church have such busy lives
associated with church activities that we found few mutual social
opportunities. Non-members typically do their own things. This is
also true of older schoolchildren.

Having said this, we made more friends in Salt Lake than we have in
any other city in the USA. We enjoyed the close proximity of outdoor
activities (skiing and hiking) and the soaring is not too shabby.

Be aware that winters can be cold and drawn out and mid-winter
inversions can produce a dreadful unhealthy smog over the entire
valley.

The liquor laws used to be extremely interesting (or stupid, depending
on your perspective), but have improved since the winter Olympics.

Mike

How about Ridgecrest/Inyokern California? Flying is possible year
round and IYK is only 15 minutes from Ridgecrest. The climate is hot
in the summer but it makes for some great soaring. The challenge is
that the only real employer is the naval base at China Lake. Of
course there are jobs with the local banks and school district but
everything is this town revolves around the Navy.

Soaring in the San Gabriel mountains, located in the high desert of
Southern California is excellent; ridge, wave, thermal, shear...often
in combination on the same day. The San Gabriel chain runs east-west,
across the prevailing onshore from the south.
Crystal Airport 46CN, zip code 93544, has an FBO, soaring school & a
sailplane repair facility. It's a private airport, but obviously
glider pilots are welcome, & it's OK to fly your power plane in.
Office SCSA (661) 944-1090.
You can buy a near-new house within 50 miles for $100,000. A tract
house in Lake Los Angeles for $50,000. Or live in the country club for
$250,000. I don't know about schools, but the teenagers who serve as
line staff grew up around here & they're alright. George & Robert at
the sailplane repair both have children & can advise on schools.
The flying culture out here is traditional; straight out of 'The Right
Stuff'. Edwards Air Force pilots come out to fly gliders. You'll meet
old guys with 25,000 hours tinkering on their homebuilt racers at
nearby Apple Valley airport, KAPV. You can rent a 7AC Champ to explore
the mountains. There's an aerobatics box; watch world class experts
like Mike Mangold practice routines.
SCSA has fine gliders; DG's & Grobs for rent, including a brand-new
DG-1000.
Los Angeles is only an hour away, if you prefer the city; there are
plenty of major stores out here in the high desert now.
Good luck,
Jim

At 00:45 15 February 2009, Tim Taylor wrote:
Anyone who has come home to a
thunderstorm at Parowan worries about a strong crosswind with no
option but the fields or dry lake bed west of town.

About three years ago I walked that lake bed. It is big, flat, hard -
just llike a natural airfield, and with easy access to the road.

A few days later I chose to land there because of a blowout at Parowan and
an imminent thunderstorm bearing down from the north. My crew [ the glider
owner, bless his tolerant heart] was on the way before I landed. Landing
was just fine, and the first little plop of rain hit the windshield as I
unstrapped. Two minutes later it was a downpour. When retrieve arrived
[maybe ten minutes at the very most] we considered it best to leave the
trailer by the road and haul the glider to the lake edge for disassembly.


That dry hard surface turns to a gluey quicksand as soon as it is wet. By
the time we reached the edge of the lake I was walking wing on 6-inch
stilts of mud, the tow SUV was up above the hubs in mud, and the 1-26 was
skidding along because the wheel well was completely filled with mud.

We retrieved and washed off the worst. Next morning, that mud had dried
back to the smooth, flat, hard stuff again - it took a careful chisel to
remove some of it.

Then when we were done the FBO told us that the previous year a Cessna had
spent months stuck in the lake bed waiting for the next thunderstorm to
liquefy the surface again before it could be rescued.

Be warned. Not all lake beds are created equal.

Ian

On Feb 16, 12:33*am, "
wrote:
On Feb 14, 8:50*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

possible that is so in the smaller towns, SLC is 50% non LDS.
Although as a non-member they would really put the rush on you
socially if you evidenced any interest at all.

How about Aqua Dulce in the Santa Clarita Valley, about one hour north
of Los Angeles. Great local airport. One hour drive north to
Tehachapi and Calif. City and even close to Pearblossom, from which
originate some of the longest flights in the country (world).--Dennis