Harris Hill Gliderport, Elmira, New York State details
IFMU, thank you for your reply, especially the attachment showing Harris Hill near Elmira - the very birthplace of American gliding, I am told!
Recommend all you guys have a look at it! Clearly the grid of 50+gliders is set up for a competition, probably a National comp? and probably at least 6 towplanes as well, to make sure the entire grid is launched in an hour - unless there are two classes, which makes life a little easier except that whichever class is launched last will get grumpy if they miss the best weather!
The cooperation in the US with local ATC for both gliders and GA is truly heartwarming, especially compared with the curious reluctance of the British to permit GA into controlled airpace....over here we are funneled into tight little corridors of free space. (OK, its a very small island, during the Olympics, even smaller, it seems..)
But for all that, gliding in the UK and in Europe is much more popular than in the US; we have to thank the Germans for that, as the restrictions on flying power during the 30's in that country caused accelerated development of sailplanes, and these days the truly hot ships in general production are still from Europe rather than the US. I bet most of the gliders in that photo of the grid on Harris Hill are European.....
Incidentally, good thing you have that extra airstrip available at the bottom of the hill....only way to keep a farmer sweet if gliders keep arriving is to buy a piece of his farm, and I bet he got a good price for it!
When planning your gliding club, my own personal theory is, it should not be at the top of the hill, like Long Mynd. Nor at the bottom of the hill, like Dunstable, but half way up the hill, like Talgarth (Black Mountains gliding club in Wales). Very very much worth a visit, all you sailplane pilots, for rock polishing, go to Wales.
Top of the hill attracts cloud cover. Bottom of the hill - hill gets too crowded, attracts hang gliders etc and sometimes fog from the valley delays
operations.