Anyone soaring in Northwest Louisiana

[PatrickEMTP]

Hello,
Does anyone soar in Northwest Louisiana, say the Shreveport/Bossier City area. I am new to r/c, and find soar planes interesting and think the seem to be relaxing.. Any info would be nice.
Thanks
Patrick

[11b2c]

I used to before I moved to Las Vegas last summer. The S.H.A.R.K.S. club is not set up very well to accomodate gliders, and their yearly dues are excessive for someone who will not use any of the facilities the money goes for (the preflight pits, and the runway). For this reason, I struck out on my own and flew at a private airstrip north of Shreveport. This is the field used by the Shreveport Soaring Club, a fullsize glider operation. In the morning the field is free of air traffic, and I would soar the RC in the morning and fullsize in the afternoon. Not a bad deal. To be honest, the desert southwest leaves much to be desired when it comes to RC soaring, compared to good old Shreveport. I miss the long grass, the ubiquitous black vultures and the fat, lazy thermals.

Usually the SSC starts up the season around late April. Stop by there, introduce yourself, and they should be very hospitable towards your RC flying, provided you fly on a non-interference basis with the fullsize. The owner of the field is a gentleman.

You also might send an e-mail to a contributor to this website by the name of "ejett", with whom I have soared at that location a couple of times. He lives in MS but has business in NW LA.

I have encountered sporadic RC soaring interest in Shreveport; if someone put up the effort I'll put money down they could at least form a loose soaring club in the area.

The SSC website (a little outdated but still works):

http://www.d.umn.edu/~cprince/ShreveportSoaringClub/

Hope this helps.