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.