Best places for a soaring pilot to retire?

On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:41:00 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
Looking for new Ideas for places to retire. The usual considerations apply; cost of living, health care, weather, and available soaring. Doesn't have to be the US. near water would be nice. I own a Ventus C.

Anyone live in/near Grass Valley, CA? 1 hr from Truckee and Sacramento, 1.5 hrs from Williams, 2.5 hrs from Bay area.

Thanks for any suggestions

Matt

Probably would pick Florida in the winter, no better weather in the country than Florida in that time of year. As for the summer I would pick Utah, nice place to soar. Wouldn't give you two cents for the entire state of PRK, Peoples Republic of Kalif!
Argentina would be my out of country choice for the winter, Australia for the summer.

One of the great things about Utah for soaring is, the varied terrain. A pilot is not running the same mountain range, time after time after Mother @#$%^ing time. You can even launch your glider from at least four different airports all with a different character and different flying conditions. I used to think the Owens Valley and Sierras were all I could want, but after ten days in Utah, I just scratched the surface.

For those speaking of Uvalde, Texas has some great soaring and some great people in the sport, but it is God awful hot AND humid. Sugar melts so I tend to stay in Mountainous dry climates.



On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 1:41:00 PM UTC-8, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
Looking for new Ideas for places to retire. The usual considerations apply; cost of living, health care, weather, and available soaring. Doesn't have to be the US. near water would be nice. I own a Ventus C.

Anyone live in/near Grass Valley, CA? 1 hr from Truckee and Sacramento, 1.5 hrs from Williams, 2.5 hrs from Bay area.

Thanks for any suggestions

Matt

I am biased, but will retire in Utah. I currently fly out of Logan and plan to retire at Grassy Meadows Sky Ranch (UT47), 60 miles south of Parowon. We can fly the ridge and surrounding mountains in Hurricane in the winter and then the great basin and Colorado plateau the rest of the year. I will likely spend a month or two in Logan each summer during the monsoon season, plus it is the best mountain flying in the US and is very addictive.

You can see Bruno's videos of glider flying at all the sites.

For Hurricane seach gliders racing desert and kolob canyon. There are two airports near Hurricane. Utah offers some of the best mix for Soaring for the entire year.

I was wishing I had glider available on Christmas day as the west winds we perfect here in Hurricane to fly the ridge. When I was here in late October there we Cu along the mountains.

On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 2:09:52 PM UTC-7, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 11:00:59 PM UTC+3, wrote:
i want to post a reply with a suggestion not put forward yet, but also post up a related topic..

Suggestion -- fly out of Ephrata Washington ... you can live a LOT of places, but the hidden gem I'd suggest is Richland WA.

Yes, nice place.

I was in the USA based at Seattle for a couple of months in winter 1998/9.. On Jan 1 (Friday) I drove with my family to from Seattle to Richland via Yakima to stay with some internet friends there. We had a look around the area on the Saturday and then drove back to Seattle via Portland on the Sunday.

The terrain and climate looked nice, and 250k - 300k is a good size for a nearby metro area. Big enough to have almost everything, not so big to have traffic.

Looks like it has lots of nice connections to SEATAC and LAX and less so to Salt Lake City, Denver, MSP, SFO.


Ephrata has excellent soaring -- perhaps not quite as good as Moriarty etc

Somehow, I always had the impression when I saw this name that it was in New England somewhere.

And the Richland area has excellent health care and a more cultural things going on that you would expect -- the big DOE laboratory makes it a highly-educated community. It's very sunny there, not terribly hot in the summer, and almost no snow during the winter.

Yes, looks good. Much like Canterbury in New Zealand. Or the Pyatigorsk area here (coincidentally formerly a centre of uranium mining and processing).

* I'm a CFI-G/ASEL, got my -G in 1971, and I love teaching, particularly in the club setting. I'm also a tow-pilot, have towed using just about every towplane type used in the USA, currently tow in Pawnees. I realize nobody wants to take an unknown pilot at word-value, but I am looking for places that have some interest in another CFI and Towpilot ... who isn't guaranteeing to hang around for ever. But I can fill-in tow on weekdays etc. I've instructed in everything from 2-22s (at Torrey Pines!) on up, currently instruct mostly in G-103s - own a Discus B and a Ka-6.

If you're not wedded to taking your own glider with you, several clubs in New Zealand take on foreign instructor/tow pilots to enable a seven day a week operation in the summer (northern winter). They're not paid positions, but you get free food&board and an old car to drive and all the flying you want.


* any idea of really relocating needs to pass "the Annie test," and so far that seems a high barrier, and a lot of places that glider people like just aren't going to pass it.

I'm not familiar with that one.

Do you know of any clubs/operators looking for tow pilot help right now? This post has me intrigued as I'm planning on being in NZ starting next week. In country for three weeks on holiday.

YES, I'd love to hang at an airport. Fly airplanes, talk shop and live the flying dream on my vacation.........from being an airline pilot :-)

I live and fly in socal, and I agree with Ramy.
One can "almost" have acceptable soaring conditions year around if you don't mine driving a couple of hours in one direction or other.
Spring, summer, and fall seasons almost always offer good and great conditions. Plenty of wave in the winter.
Active, high scoring OLC region, if it tells you something. ......

On Thursday, December 28, 2017 at 8:14:11 PM UTC+3, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 2:09:52 PM UTC-7, Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 11:00:59 PM UTC+3, wrote:
i want to post a reply with a suggestion not put forward yet, but also post up a related topic..

Suggestion -- fly out of Ephrata Washington ... you can live a LOT of places, but the hidden gem I'd suggest is Richland WA.

Yes, nice place.

I was in the USA based at Seattle for a couple of months in winter 1998/9. On Jan 1 (Friday) I drove with my family to from Seattle to Richland via Yakima to stay with some internet friends there. We had a look around the area on the Saturday and then drove back to Seattle via Portland on the Sunday.

The terrain and climate looked nice, and 250k - 300k is a good size for a nearby metro area. Big enough to have almost everything, not so big to have traffic.

Looks like it has lots of nice connections to SEATAC and LAX and less so to Salt Lake City, Denver, MSP, SFO.


Ephrata has excellent soaring -- perhaps not quite as good as Moriarty etc

Somehow, I always had the impression when I saw this name that it was in New England somewhere.

And the Richland area has excellent health care and a more cultural things going on that you would expect -- the big DOE laboratory makes it a highly-educated community. It's very sunny there, not terribly hot in the summer, and almost no snow during the winter.

Yes, looks good. Much like Canterbury in New Zealand. Or the Pyatigorsk area here (coincidentally formerly a centre of uranium mining and processing).

* I'm a CFI-G/ASEL, got my -G in 1971, and I love teaching, particularly in the club setting. I'm also a tow-pilot, have towed using just about every towplane type used in the USA, currently tow in Pawnees. I realize nobody wants to take an unknown pilot at word-value, but I am looking for places that have some interest in another CFI and Towpilot ... who isn't guaranteeing to hang around for ever. But I can fill-in tow on weekdays etc.. I've instructed in everything from 2-22s (at Torrey Pines!) on up, currently instruct mostly in G-103s - own a Discus B and a Ka-6.

If you're not wedded to taking your own glider with you, several clubs in New Zealand take on foreign instructor/tow pilots to enable a seven day a week operation in the summer (northern winter). They're not paid positions, but you get free food&board and an old car to drive and all the flying you want.


* any idea of really relocating needs to pass "the Annie test," and so far that seems a high barrier, and a lot of places that glider people like just aren't going to pass it.

I'm not familiar with that one.

Do you know of any clubs/operators looking for tow pilot help right now? This post has me intrigued as I'm planning on being in NZ starting next week. In country for three weeks on holiday.

YES, I'd love to hang at an airport. Fly airplanes, talk shop and live the flying dream on my vacation.........from being an airline pilot :-)

I don't know. I'm working in Moscow these days :-) But I'll be in NZ for five weeks starting Jan 2 and have reserved Jan 4 - Jan 9 for hanging out at my club, Wellington, which is actually situated at Greytown.

I've listed some of the major clubs below, north to South

Kaikohe https://www.facebook.com/Kaikohe-Gli...7786565244227/
Auckland, http://glidingauckland.co.nz
Tauranga, http://glidingtauranga.co.nz
Piako, http://www.glidingmatamata.co.nz/
Taupo, http://www.taupoglidingclub.co.nz
Wellington, http://soar.co.nz
Nelson Lakes, http://googlesite.glidingnelson.co.nz/
Christchurch, http://canterburyglidingclub.nz

NB Kaikohe and Wellington use a winch these days, not aerotow.

The Canterbury club tends to operate from Omarama around Christmas/New Year, rather than from their home at Springfield. I don't know the exact dates.

You'd get a warm welcome at any of them.

On Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:41:00 PM UTC-5, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
Looking for new Ideas for places to retire. The usual considerations apply; cost of living, health care, weather, and available soaring. Doesn't have to be the US. near water would be nice. I own a Ventus C.

Anyone live in/near Grass Valley, CA? 1 hr from Truckee and Sacramento, 1.5 hrs from Williams, 2.5 hrs from Bay area.

Thanks for any suggestions

Matt

Nobody has mentioned the upstate of SC yet. Flyable conditions nearly all year around except for a few weeks in August, where we encounter 'HHH'-conditions and a few weeks in the winter (yeah - they actually call it that way down here!). Strong conditions in April through June - see the Perry contest results. Of course it isn't Moriarty or Parowan but the climate is conducive to a lot of other outdoor activities. You can be on the Appalachian Trail in 2 hours or at the beach in 4 hours or reach the CLT or ATL metro-areas in 2 hours. Friendly club in Spartanburg offering aero-tow and winch and plenty of small airports around to minimize the risk of true off-field landings. Real Estate is still affordable and property taxes are a fraction of what you see in the NE.
Uli
'AS'