Top 20 XC Soaring Sites in the US

At 18:27 27 December 2016, JS wrote:
Many places are seasonal.
The Appalachian chain with "a low up high and a high down low"
is loads of
=
fun.
But the best soaring is often where nobody would go on vacation,
the Great
=
Basin being a decent example.
Tonopah, Nevada is a great place for Summer XC but other than
the brewery
t=
here is little infrastructure left on Doon.
Ely has much better infrastructure, but no longer has regular
tows
availabl=
e. Don't think they have a brewery, but the hardware store has a
great
sele=
ction of stainless metric hardware.
You can fly the Great Basin from quite a few places along the
edge. The
Uta=
h locations are shy on decent beer.
Moriarty's pretty consistent weather combined with a relatively low
cost
of=
living has attracted many. And it has a brewery.
Come to think of it, Tehachapi has a brewery too.
Internationally, you won't find much population density (especially
with
an=
y wealth) outside of Windhoek, Namibia yet it's obvious that
Bitterwasser,
=
Kiripotib and Pokweni offer tremendous soaring. December always
seems to
be=
the best for them. Wonder if they have a brewery?
Jim


The brewery is in Windhoek - not very far down the road (in the
scale of Namibia). Products get a pass mark!

On Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 8:22:34 AM UTC-8, V1 wrote:
Looking for cross-country soaring sites to visit on vacation? Places to retire with top-notch soaring?

I’ve done an analysis based on three years of US OLC (Online Contest) flight data covering 270+ sites, more than 40,000 flights, and in excess of 5 million miles flown. YMMV.

Map is at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F_...PQ&usp=sharing

For more details about the analysis, see the Soaring Club of Houston web page: https://sites.google.com/site/soarin...-soaring-sites

To our European and international pilots (hint, hint) - would be great if someone would create a similar map for Europe, or global. Great publicity for your club or location - within a day of posting this to US SSA’s Facebook page (reposted to many club’s pages), the Google map had over 2000 views.

Frank Allen, SCOH

You missed some flights for Montague/Siskiyou County CA.

75900 points for the 3 years with 50% over 300k in the best year.

We have a 7500'X150' paved runway with a large glider tie down area.

Most flights were out of Siskiyou Co Airport and we got these points without a large contest or encampment. We now have 9 pilots that fly out of this site only about half post on the OLC.

Richard,
www.craggyaero.com

At 16:22 27 December 2016, V1 wrote:
Looking for cross-country soaring sites to visit on vacation? Places to
ret=
ire with top-notch soaring?

I=E2=80=99ve done an analysis based on three years of US OLC (Online
Contes=
t) flight data covering 270+ sites, more than 40,000 flights, and in
excess=
of 5 million miles flown. YMMV.=20

Map is at
https://drive.google.com/open?id=3D1...cOt1JiGjVPQ&u=
sp=3Dsharing

For more details about the analysis, see the Soaring Club of Houston web
pa=
ge:
https://sites.google.com/site/soarin...oaring/cross-=
country/top-20-us-soaring-sites

To our European and international pilots (hint, hint) - would be great if
s=
omeone would create a similar map for Europe, or global. Great publicity
fo=
r your club or location - within a day of posting this to US
SSA=E2=80=99s
=
Facebook page (reposted to many club=E2=80=99s pages), the Google map had
o=
ver 2000 views.

Frank Allen, SCOH

Hi Frank. Looking to tour the USA in my dotage. Would be nice to see your
map. Could you post a tinyurl please?

In UK soaring is definitely weather dependent. It is also about where you
can get a tow in a decent glider. If you are over this side between April
and August, look me up at Booker which is just 20 minutes from LHR. You can
take me flying in our Duo.

Jim

Hi Frank. Looking to tour the USA in my dotage. Would be nice to see your
map. Could you post a tinyurl please?


Thanks Jim.
The links were in the original message, so I assume that given the various software used to read ras, the links may have gotten striped out for some readers. Alternate directions to the main page:
* Go to the Soaring Club of Houston website (scoh.org)
* Click on drop-down menu for About Soaring - Cross Country
* Click on the link in the Top 20 US Soaring Sites box
* From the resulting page, you have links to the map, and the supporting spreadsheet and word document.

PS - I used to subscribe to the British Soaring magazine. Always amazed me to see their annual map of UK soaring sites, with gliderports about every 30 kilometers throughout much of the country - sweet!

On Wednesday, December 28, 2016 at 10:47:32 AM UTC-7, V1 wrote:
Hi Frank. Looking to tour the USA in my dotage. Would be nice to see your
map. Could you post a tinyurl please?


Thanks Jim.
The links were in the original message, so I assume that given the various software used to read ras, the links may have gotten striped out for some readers. Alternate directions to the main page:
* Go to the Soaring Club of Houston website (scoh.org)
* Click on drop-down menu for About Soaring - Cross Country
* Click on the link in the Top 20 US Soaring Sites box
* From the resulting page, you have links to the map, and the supporting spreadsheet and word document.

PS - I used to subscribe to the British Soaring magazine. Always amazed me to see their annual map of UK soaring sites, with gliderports about every 30 kilometers throughout much of the country - sweet!

In the UK, I'd head off cross country when cloud base reached 1800agl because if I fell out, I could get a launch from the next club en route;^)

OMG give me a break! Ionia, MI is #1 and every other site is second. ;-). My basis is number of racing tasks last year. Checkmate.

Fun article, but it's going to get torn to shreds now by the winter and it's grounded soaring pilots.

One last time: Ionia, MI is #1

Sean
7T

I can just see you with that foam rubber hand "We're Number 1".

On Wednesday, December 28, 2016 at 11:53:41 AM UTC-8, Sean wrote:
OMG give me a break! Ionia, MI is #1 and every other site is second. ;-). My basis is number of racing tasks last year. Checkmate.

Fun article, but it's going to get torn to shreds now by the winter and it's grounded soaring pilots.

One last time: Ionia, MI is #1

Sean
7T

Sean, every practice task by the local pilots are all racing tasks! However, I seem to be the only one who puts the task on the OLC post. A few years ago we had Grand Prix events over several weekends. Not everyone in soaring do MATS or TATS. Good luck at the WGC!

Ionia is # 1?

Put the Bong down, Sean.

Concentrate on the WGC.

Come to IYK. A little easier to escape the home valley than Tehachapi and we also have the Indian Wells Brewery that's just up the hill from the airport.