Best consistent ridge soaring site

Half the population of the USA is within a 500 mile circle around Ridge Soaring Gliderport. It is about a 4 hour drive or less from western Ohio, northern NY, southern Virginia.

The spring and fall "ridge seasons" are easily predictable, and if the ridge winds are not blowing, the thermals are augmented by the undulating earth /mountains. Thermals can reach 18,000 feet, and we have flown over 39,000 feet in wave lift.

Bottom line - watch the weather. it is worth the drive.

Finally, don't put it off. Doris and I are ready to retire, and we are not sure there is enough interest in the gliding community to preserve the Gliderport.

Great ridge day today, (Friday, Nov 17) and probably tomorrow.

Tom Knauff

On Friday, November 17, 2017 at 5:43:50 PM UTC+3, wrote:
Half the population of the USA is within a 500 mile circle around Ridge Soaring Gliderport.

That's an astounding statistic, especially considering how much of that circle lies in the Atlantic Ocean. Chicago is an easy walk outside that circle, and Nashville and Atlanta maybe 50 miles.

It might well be that near half the population of Canada is in that circle too! Quebec is 25 miles outside it, but Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton are well inside.

Don't get me wrong, Ridge Soaring is an awesome place and definitely worth the drive. As a matter of fact, half the experience is staying in the bunkhouse and having a beverage with some of the best/most interesting pilots and people you'll ever meet. I feel a little bad for the people who choose to stay in hotels. If work didn't prevent it, I'd be making the five hour drive right now.

On Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 12:13:12 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Where is the best consistent ride soaring site in the USA. Recently got my PPL, and I'd love to experience ridge soaring. I've Only flown in the flat lands.

If by consistent you mean always being able to count on staying up as long as you want on nearly every day of the year then Dillingham is pretty hard to beat. I did over 100 days of flying there over a three year period and only had 1 flight where I had to land before I was ready to call it a day, and that one was my fault for flying into sink while I was low.

You get *maybe* 3 to 5 days per year that are not good for soaring, so you can plan on flying any day and there is no worry about the weather being bad...

Once you tow to 1000ft, you can stay up as long as you want on the ridge, it's actually hardly any challenge to just fly around at 3000-4000ft all day going back and forth between Kaena point and Mt Kaala. So basically between 10am and 6pm there is always constant ridge lift. And by midday, there is usually a good thermal over the far end of the runway as well, although you have to be careful of the skydivers who are just to the east of there.

There is also wave lift at times, one day while I was there Elmer (the owner of soar Hawaii) took the Grob 103 to 23,000 and would have gone higher if they had been dressed warmer.

On the Waimanalo side of the island, the ridge is actually longer but not many people fly on that side. Some guy did a 36 hour duration flight there in a 1-26 years ago.