I have spend a great deal of time to make this web site. I have tried to gather information from reliable web sites sources. Nevertheless all information's should be double check before usage. Some information can change and some could be incomplete or inaccurate. They are intended to give and overview of things at the ridge and there use is at the user own risk.

Note that the ultimate reference for everything pertaining to the Ridge is Tom Knoff. This incredible pilot holds lots of records and has countless hours of ridge flying in all sorts of ship starting all the way back in the Seventies. For all type of information one should contact him.

Maps and black and white aerial pictures of Airports are from: www.mapmart.com on this site one can find a wealth of information pertaining to mapping.

Also have a look at my other Websites:

Motor giders: www.trb.8m.com

Discus 2 Turbo: www.d2t.8m.com 

DG1000 vs Duo: www.dgvsduo.8m.com

Discsu CS: www.aerosport.8m.com

Lake Placid: www.lkp.8m.com

St. Auban: www.stauban.8m.com

The Duo Discus T: www.ddtr.8m.com

Getting started
For a few years, fellow pilots have spoken to me about the Ridge and how addictive it was to fly there. As I was getting more experience, the idea of going there was slowly maturing. Simultaneously I was willing to expand my flying horizon. I had bin contemplating for some time to fly in other places and try others way of flying. I had bin flying thermal in at my home club, but wave, Ridge or mountain flying were progressively attracting me.

In fall of 2001 I had decide to go to the Ridge in April of 2002. I started gathering information and read articles about the Ridge. I also look at other club in the US, Western Canada and Europe. I read Tom Knauff s Book on the Ridge and started gathering maps of the areas. This very well written book made me realize that this was no Mickey Mouse stuff and that the ridge commended a great deal of respect, particularly from a new comer. I therefore decide to wait and learn a lot more on it since I obviously was totally ignorant of everything pertaining to the Ridge.

One thing I wanted to avoid was getting there without the proper information and knowledge. Spring 2002 came and I decided to put all that Ridge thing on the back burner because there was no way for me to gather a sufficient amount of information in so little time. Due to various reason I also abandoned the idea of going at other places that I had bin seeking information on.

One more try
The season passed and late in the fall 2002 I was contemplating 3 possibilities. One was to go at Lake Placid for learning about wave flying in the Fall of 2002, second was to go flying in France during winter and third was to eventually go to the Ridge the coming spring of 2003. I went to Lake Placid and did an introduction to wave. This stimulated me to learn more. Therefore I was thinking of going ether to France or the Ridge. Depending among other things on my work schedule and how I could synchronize things I would decide witch one to do.

Has time passed it appeared that going to France was going to be possible. I finally went to Southern France and did very interesting flying in the mountain. On my way back it appeared that I could also possibly go to the Ridge. Has my departure for the US was depending on a few things I could not be sure until days before leaving for the US that I would be able to go. But I was lucky and everything felled into place at the right time.

A few month before, despite the uncertainty, I had started gathering back all the dormant documentation I already had on the ridge. I went on the web to get many more maps of the area. I recreated the Ridge from Williamsport to Altoona with Aerial photos and Topographic maps and from Williamsport to Covington with DEM (Digital Elevation Maps). These maps where giving me a very good idea of the geographic situation.

I started re-studying Tom s book, like I had done the year before, but this time in relation to the picture and maps of the Ridge I had. This made it a lot easier to memorize, than if I had no maps available. I tape all my small maps together to get the big picture of the place, I made myself a 4 feet long Topographic map, two 5 feet long Digital Elevation Map and an 10 feet long Aerial picture map. These maps where collage of 5x4 inches peaces that I taped together after downloading them from the web, a very tedious work. Many of these maps where downloaded from; www.mapmart.com one can buy from them, among other thing, many different type of maps.

Out of these 3 type of map; Topo, Aerial and DEM, the DEM and Aerial picture were most helpful in understanding the ridge characteristics and finding the location of airports. I found the DEM outstanding to visualize the peculiarity of the terrain and the gap's shape. The Aerial was excellent to look at the airports, fields and landmarks.

I read Tom book at least 10 times. In fact I studied it to a point that I almost knew it in and out. I made notes, drawing, research on maps and downloaded 125 to 150 different maps. I Investigated the ridged area in order to be able to spot, from the aerial maps, all airports, major and minor Gaps and landmark that could be of interest. I got different zoomed in or out aerial picture of all airports to help me localize them in relation to the ridge and see there runways orientations.

All together I believe that I had spend more than 200h studying and working on the information's that I was gathering. Just finding the appropriate source of information was pretty time consuming. I wanted to reduce to the strict minimum all the uncertainties pertaining to the ridge by learning everything I could. The rest would come with experience. I was also convince that the more I knew the faster I would learn. When Leaving for ridge soaring I had pumped my self up so much that I was almost hoping to be quizzed on all the doe's and don't from the instructor that would check me out. I wanted to be as ready and as safe as it was possible! I have to say that I had prepare my self as if I would undergo a university exam. I have rarely bin so prepare to tackle such a task. But no mater how well I would do in theory nothing would compensate flying itself !

I arrived on the 11th of April 2003, It was raining. Met Tom Knauff did some paper work and went to drive along the ridge to get an idea of what it was. Unfortunately there was not so much to see because of the fog on the mountain top. Nevertheless one of the of the first think that caught my attention was the few communication tower in the area. Some of them directly on the ridge top about 8k south west and 4k north east of Ridge Soaring, but there are many more. They are probably about 200 feet high. I also took a look at the fields in the surroundings. At that time of year noting is being grown so those who are large enough appear to be good for emergency landing providing you don't dig in the wet ground.