Not to get too persnickety on this subject, but I don't think it's true that there were more ridge days in the past. There are a lot more ridge-soarable days than folks realize in the appalachians, including backside (SE) days. But, a lot of folks don't come out for the marginal ones or the ones where the day is going to die early, which are often good training days. In fact, it's probably ridgeable right now, should be tomorrow morning, backside on Saturday, then NW again on Sunday. If you are "on the property", you might be able to get several days in, even if they aren't the sort of days you'd drive 4 hours for.

I have to look, but I think we had at least a dozen backside days this year and a similar number NW (which is a bit low), though we couldn't fly at Blairstown on several good NW days due to tow operations or other issues.

P3

On Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 1:41:30 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Consistent is the key word here. When its good, the Pennsylvania (and north and south) ridges are great. But you can go for weeks without a good ridge day. Just look at the flights for this year on OLC. I'm told by those have been doing this much longer than me that ridge days were much more common in the good old days. I'll second the suggestion to call Tom Knauff. If its predicted to be a good day you could almost certainly get a ride with Tom or one of his instructors. Be careful, though. When the soaring bug bites you you'll wonder why you spent all that time and money getting a power rating. ;)

Mike