Coal Mining and Ridge Soaring

I was doing some ridge soaring west of Boulder, CO on Saturday, and it
got me thinking about the "real" ridge soaring in the eastern U.S. I've
read articles recently, and heard a story on npr about "mountain-top
removal" coal mining in West Virginia. For those of you unfamiliar, the
overburden is removed, then the coal is mined and the land is
revegitated. It sounds like a lot of this has been going on recently
My question for those of you ridge soaring in the eastern US:
Has this altered the ridge soaring there?
It seems to me that the lift may have been replaced by a convenient
land-out field. Not an ideal trade off IMHO.

Shawn

Where I soar, 300m southwest of Boulder, the ridge-based lift areas far
out-number the land-out areas, so I vote for some of that "mountain-top
removal" coal mining to move out west.

But then, a whole lot of copper mining has been going on here for more than
100 years, none of which have resulted in any new landing areas...

-ted w.



"scurry" wrote in message
...
I was doing some ridge soaring west of Boulder, CO on Saturday, and it
got me thinking about the "real" ridge soaring in the eastern U.S. I've
read articles recently, and heard a story on npr about "mountain-top
removal" coal mining in West Virginia. For those of you unfamiliar, the
overburden is removed, then the coal is mined and the land is
revegitated. It sounds like a lot of this has been going on recently
My question for those of you ridge soaring in the eastern US:
Has this altered the ridge soaring there?
It seems to me that the lift may have been replaced by a convenient
land-out field. Not an ideal trade off IMHO.

Shawn

scurry wrote:
My question for those of you ridge soaring in the eastern US:
Has this altered the ridge soaring there?
It seems to me that the lift may have been replaced by a convenient
land-out field. Not an ideal trade off IMHO.
Shawn

The "Ridge" (series of ridges) that run from Williamsport PA to
Knoxville TN does not run through coal country. Predominately
limestone and hard rock. There some quarries but no striping.
...lew... (formerly lived across the road from "Ridge Soaring")

There is actually a lot more to The Ridge than "just" the Allegheny
Mountains from Williamsport to Knoxville. A lot of us fly sections of
larger Appalachian chain, including southern New York and New Jersey as
well. The area in eastern Pennsylvania near Pottsville and Tamaqua was
famous for strip coal mining, and some of this has been reclaimed. Though
I've seen some of the areas from up close (too close) in the air, I've never
walked them. Some do indeed look landable, and a couple definitely have
ball fields on them. Sounds like a good winter project...

Erik Mann


"Lewis Hartswick" wrote in message
hlink.net...
scurry wrote:
My question for those of you ridge soaring in the eastern US:
Has this altered the ridge soaring there?
It seems to me that the lift may have been replaced by a convenient
land-out field. Not an ideal trade off IMHO.
Shawn

The "Ridge" (series of ridges) that run from Williamsport PA to
Knoxville TN does not run through coal country. Predominately
limestone and hard rock. There some quarries but no striping.
...lew... (formerly lived across the road from "Ridge Soaring")

Papa3 wrote:

There is actually a lot more to The Ridge than "just" the Allegheny
Mountains from Williamsport to Knoxville. A lot of us fly sections of
larger Appalachian chain, including southern New York and New Jersey as
well. The area in eastern Pennsylvania near Pottsville and Tamaqua was
famous for strip coal mining, and some of this has been reclaimed. Though
I've seen some of the areas from up close (too close) in the air, I've never
walked them. Some do indeed look landable, and a couple definitely have
ball fields on them. Sounds like a good winter project...

Coal mining?
;-)