Good Day All,

I have been tossing around the idea of traveling to Arizona in late January. Since I live in Western Canada it will be a much needed break from the Canadian Winter. While there I am hoping to be able to get to a Soaring club for a few days and have a little fun. I know, its not the best time of year, but not a big deal for me. I am not looking for "break any records for time/endurance" kind of soaring, just to get out and have fun. I don't have a tremedous amount of Glider experience; about 1500 launches on Air, Winch, and Auto Tow, with an instructor Rating.

I know there are some "soaring individuals" that lurk around here. I was wondering if anyone had any clubs/airports/contacts to suggest; and any other related information that would be helpful. Again, just looking for a family type, easy going place to visit. I do have an FAA License. Also, if there are any other suggested places that is "somewhere warm" I would be in favour of that as well.

Thanks so much.

Cheers

Macdon221.

There are two glider outfits in the immediate area. Here they are, closest one first.

http://www.turfsoaring.com/

http://www.azsoaring.com/

Jason at azsoaring is a great guy.

http://www.asa-soaring.org/

+1 on Estrella/AZ Soaring. Bruce and Betty (on edit, I remember her name as Betty, shit I hate getting old) run a great operation. Been a few years since I've flown there, but unless something has drastically changed, it is nothing but laid back fun. An hour with those guys will remind you what your feet are for when you fly!!!

Gump

Bruce was killed in a Helio on floats a couple of years ago up in Alaska. Jason is continuing on the tradition.

http://anchorage.injuryboard.com/defect ... eid=250072

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_i ... 1515&key=1

Jason is a good kid. We used to yak at him on the radio when I flew for Treadway out of Chandler on our way to Hermasillo, and he was flying Twotters for Skydive Arizona.

I hadn't heard about Bruce.

Gump

There is also a gliderport at a place called El Tiro, which is southeast of the Phoenix area, near Tucson. I know little or noting about El Tiro but you can easily contact them through http://www.ssa.org

If you are staying in the Phoenix metro area, then the previously identified Turf and Estrella are pretty much the two big choices. Both good desert soaring sites.

Turf is out about an hour from downtown Phoenix, it was and still may be owned by a fellow named Roy Couliette. I last flew there in 1979, so everything may be changed now, but it was definitely a no-frills, remote, minimal-infrastructure, dirt road type of place back then.

Estrella is in an area that has been very much built up since I flew my last contest there in 1985. Back then it was 20 miles down a dirt road too, but now I understand it has a huge housing development there. I never met the new owner(s) but I heard they were good people. I knew the original guy who ran it, aerobatic glider guru Laszlo Horvath.

The advantage of Estrella, from distant memory, is that on a day with no thermal activity you can still do plenty of soaring on their two nearby ridges. It was a little further to any ridge soaring from Turf, so if there was no thermal activity you were not going to be up for long.

If you are willing to go west to the Mojave desert, there are four good places to fly: Adelanto/Krey, Palmdale/Crystalaire, Tehachapi, California City.

A few years ago I took some Aerobatic lessons from Jason at Arizona Soaring in the MDM-1 Fox. I loved it. They had a great operation.

I have flown and towed at both Estrella and Turf a fair amount. You won't go wrong with either. Bruce Stephens had a heart of gold. Roy no longer owns Turf, but he does over see it. Most of the folks at Turf have been there forever. Including Be Bop the Cockatoo... Turf is no longer an hour from Phoenix. Oh, it's location is the same, but the town has all but enveloped it.
You are correct in that the conditions will not be 'ideal' in Jan. and EZ was right on with the ridges at Estrella... But everything else is probably more accessible from Turf.

A relative new comer on the (soaring) scene, and not so 'serious' is Sheble Aviation. Having said that, I would not discount a visit to Val and Joe Jo, in fact given the time of year, it might be my first choice! If you can swing the coin, you can do a MES in a Beech 18, and you can consider that a party, more than a rating . If you don't already have the SES they have a Supercub (complete with the Thrustline mod) as well as a Lake Buccaneer...

One things for sure... While I can really appreciate the winter sports, there is a lot to be said for being able to walk around in a tee shirt in January Soaring aside you will be coming to AZ in what happens to be my favorite time to fly.

Take care, Rob

Rob wrote:
A relative new comer on the (soaring) scene, and not so 'serious' is Sheble Aviation.

You mean there's a soaring operation in Blythe ? (I think I remember that Blythe is Sheble's base of operation)

Good soaring in the Blythe vicinity in summer, the desert heat mixes with the moisture from the river and they get pretty "big air" as the hang glider guys say. It will overdevelop faster than elsewhere in the desert however. No idea what kind of soaring they have in January, but there's plenty of ugly two-tone brown lava ridges and hills all around. If the sun is shining on that brown craggly ugly stuff, there's bound to be something workable.

For the Canadian pilot thinking of coming down for the winter, there is one distinct fact that you should know and prepare for:

If God wanted to give the Earth an enema, he would put the tube in Blythe.

Also, you may want to check out wherever you plan on soaring, to find out what kind of glider(s) they have available. Several clubs and small schools have essentially been put out of business because the entire worldwide fleet of L-13 "Blanik" gliders is grounded pending some serious structural work. And the Blanik is a wonderful, light-flying glider compared to the now-common "Mack truck" Grob 103. So a typical small mom and pop operation built around a couple of Blaniks and a 1-26 may not be bale to give you a checkout.

Shebles is doing gliders?!? You're ****ting me!

And no not Bythe, that was long ago. They were in Kingman but then they moved from Kingman to Fort Mohave somewhat recently. Family has ants in their pants as my dad used to say.

Not $#!tting you .... Sheble is doing Gliders And again, while it may not be a world class soaring outfit, hanging with that clan is a gas...
Not Blythe, in fact I can't recall them ever being in Blythe. They got out of Kingman a few years back and moved the wheels to Sun Valley (Ft Mohave) Which puts them wayyy closer to the floats (Laughlin).
I have zero glider experience with them, but suggested them based on the amount of totally fun activities there are to do there... float, fly, flaughlin...
They used to keep the glider outfit in Needles, I suspect that with the move to Sun Valley, they moved the glider ops there as well, but again not really sure. I have a mech type from AK inbound this weekend to annual and work on my cub, (and thaw out) maybe we will tool up the river and see what shakes at Sheble...

I think Senior started in Blythe.

I got my private with Shebles a few years ago, in Kingman, and I remember landing at Blythe and walking around and seeing the name Sheble Aviation on an old hanger or office. I'm not sure, I was distracted by one of the Goodyear blimps and it's Turbo Commander chase plane both on the ramp