Soaring experience at Driggs, ID with Teton Aviation

I like to fly at different places, so I visited Driggs, Idaho and flew
with Teton Aviation this summer. Driggs is a small town (population:
1100) right next to the Grand Teton range and a scenic place to fly.
But if you are interested in flying a pure glider there, there are a
few details you might want to be aware of.

You must reserve a tow at a specific time in advance, and you must
take off at that time regardless of the lift condition. You may cancel
your tow 2 hours before the scheduled time without a penalty. You may
reschedule your tow to a later time of the same day without a penalty
if there is an availability.

The FBO (Teton Aviation) and tie-down area are located at the south
end of the runway (runway 3). Most of the time, there is a southerly
wind in the afternoon, so you will be taking off from runway 21. Since
private vehicles are not allowed on the taxi way, you must ask Teton
Aviation to tow your glider from the tie-down area to runway 21. There
is a $15 charge for this service.

There is a small, paved, private land connected to the north end of
the taxi way. You may be allowed to keep your glider in this area if
the land owner permits. The benefit of keeping your glider there is
that you do not need to move it for 1.2 miles between the tie-down and
runway 21 everyday. The land owner was nice enough to let me use the
area this time, so I kept my glider there. However, there are no tie-
down cables and it's hard-surface, so basically you must leave your
glider untied or disassemble and assemble it everyday. The ground
outside of the hard-surface area has lots of tall, wild thistles and
is not suitable for the tie-down in my opinion.

Teton Aviation's main business is scenic rides, and they seemed to
have much higher priority than private glider tows (a scenic ride is
$250 and a 2,000 ft glider tow is $45). If scenic rides are busy, your
tow will be often delayed. I had three tows from Teton Aviation, and
two of them were delayed for 30 minutes, and the other was delayed for
62 minutes. In one case, I had my tow scheduled at 2pm, and the tow
plane showed up around 2:30pm with a Blanik for the scenic ride
scheduled at 2:30pm. I pointed out that my tow was scheduled at 2pm
and I had been waiting for 30 minutes, but they towed up the 2:30pm
scenic ride first, then me. There are no structures or trees to
provide you shades at runway 21 while waiting.

When you take off from runway 21, the line services may or may not be
provided at the discretion of Teton Aviation. I had them for only one
of the three tows. You must push your glider into the runway, take
dollies off, hook up the rope by yourself, and take off with a wing on
the ground. I took off in the 15 kts of wind with gusts without a wing
runner. The tow pilot was considerate enough to request a wing runner
for me over the radio, but Teton Aviation declined the request.
Personally, this was the only glider FBO I’ve ever seen in 23 years
which doesn't provide a wing runner, but I said to myself that I just
landed out on a desert airport and doing an aero-retrieve. The takeoff
was uneventful.

If you have no line services, your dollies will be left where you left
them. The first exit to the taxi way on runway 21 is about 705 yards
from where you take off. After I landed, it was too windy to leave my
glider unattended, so I called Teton Aviation over the radio and asked
them to bring dollies for me. They did so, but I’m not too sure they
always provide this service.

There are quite frequent power plane traffics including business jets.
In the vicinity of the airport, contrary to the "right of way" rules,
Teton Aviation’s operation policy requires you to yield the way to
power planes unless there are safety concerns.

Overall, I didn't feel that it was a suitable place to do cross-
country flights mainly due to their tow scheduling policy. So, I left
there after flying three days. But the Grand Teton range was very
beautiful. I also enjoyed hanging around in Jackson, WY and visiting
Grand Teton National Park.

Thanks,
-Gen