New Year's Day is usually a fantastic day to show up at the Mountain Valley Airport, Tehachapi's local glider port, to see pilots fly an open canopy event or open cockpit flying. However, with all of the snow blocking the runways, it was not possible to do any flying. The airport measured over 32 inches of snow the day after Christmas 2019. Jane Barrett who, with her husband Larry, is the owner/operator of the Mountain Valley Airport, said that this is the most snow they have seen since the airport opened in 1979.

For me it's always a wonderful time to visit old friends at the glider port because one of the reasons I moved to Kern County over 35 years ago was to be close to the world-class soaring and glider flight school. I have over 1,000 hours flying in sailplanes. It is a great place to just watch the gliders and sailplanes, take a flight or learn to fly.

Many television shows, movies and commercials have been produced at Mountain Valley Airport. Skylark North, a full-service glider flight school located at the airport, has ongoing flight training contracts with the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, the National Test Pilot School, and the U.S. Army Quality Test Directorate. The flight school also works closely with NASA on various aviation projects.

For more information visit http://www.skylarknorth.com.