MORIARTY SOARS TO TOP
The city’s municipal airport has been ranked the best place in the United States for gliding.
Moriarty Municipal Airport is the best place in the United States for gliding, according to a recent ranking based on three years of data processed by the Houston Soaring Club.
The group rated airports based on data from the Online Contest, a website that glider pilots use to record their flights with details such as distances and time aloft. The survey compiled data from 2014 to 2016 based on airfields to create a Google map
of the Top 20 U.S. Soaring Sites.
For all three years combined, the Moriarty airport earned a total of 592,869 points, more than any other airport, as well as earning the most points for 2016.
That Moriarty easily sailed above the others pleases airport manager Bob Hudson, but he said it doesn’t surprise him at all. He sees glider pilots come in from all over the world year-round to take to the skies above Moriarty. The airport has a blessed combination, he said, of good facilities and ideal soaring conditions, aided by a commercial operator — Sundance Aviation — providing tow planes seven days a week.
A number of factors work well for the Moriarty airport, Hudson said. The flat land of the area heated by the sun provides thermals — columns of rising air that the gliders can ride for great distances, he said. High winds that frequent the region add to the thermals. Optimal conditions begin in March or April, but the region can stay warm enough to keep soaring going throughout the winter, he said.
“We get some pretty reliable long flights,” Hudson said.