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