A Blunder at the King Mountain Co-Nationals

With a secret veil surrounding the first half of the United States Nationals at King Mountain, the competition was held between July 20th and July 26th. Unless you were there, it was a mystery who won this competition until more than a week after the competition had ended. Results of the competition were withheld for some unknown reason and individual tasks results are still not available on the official website.

I find it difficult to believe that the premiere hang gliding event, the Nationals, held the rest of the flying world in a dark cloud for such a long period of time. It appears to me that the organizers of this events are somewhat in a whimsical bubble about how these things should be operated. Isn’t it in their best interest to promote the sport by providing a transparent medium of results? You can find the belated results here at the official Fly King Mountain website.

We cant really blame the USHPA for too much of this but I will… I believe that it is up to the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding association to see that these events have means and method to properly host a sanctioned event including the prompt return of daily tasks. The UHGPA needs to step up to the launch pad and make sure these events are properly recorded and reported in a timely uniform manner.

We can’t really blame the official website too much but I will… It appears the site is being ran by a local flying club and they are doing what they have always done. When they have a local competition, everybody who cares about the results was flying in the competition so results are posted in a leisurely manner. But come on guys, this is the United States Hang Gliding Nationals with a much larger interested audience. You guys need to get your head out of the potato sack and see the whole farm here.

The second half of the United States Hang Gliding Nationals is coming up soon in Big Springs Texas and we will hopefully be reporting prompt results from that event (knock on wood).

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2009 US Hang Gliding Nationals – Big Spring

9 Comments on "A Blunder at the King Mountain Co-Nationals"

Davis Straub on Fri, 7th Aug 2009 2:11 PM

I’ll be reporting on the Nationals at Big Spring and I’ll re scoring it also and the results will be up each evening after each task (unless it is a way long task) and it will be up at the Soaring Spot. URL soon.

Davis Straub on Fri, 7th Aug 2009 2:38 PM

The web site for daily updated scores from the US Nationals: http://soaringspot.com/2009usn/results/

Beck Lowe on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 12:24 AM

What a sad, pathetic person you must be. The Nationals at King Mountain were fantastic. Here is Lisa Tait’s report- sent out with the results the day after the meet.

“Report on the 2009 U.S. National Hang Gliding Championships at King Mountain

This year’s event was well received by the pilots who attended. There were a total of 68 competitors and approx. 15 to 20 free fliers throughout the event. The minimum number of required competitors as determined by the USHPA Board of Directors to qualify for National Champion status was met in each class.

Flying conditions were not their usual 100+ mile flights every day as usually seen at King Mountain, however very challenging tasks were called each of the 5 competition days. One competition day was cancelled due to high winds, however several pilots flew in evening glass off conditions and had fun flights.

As part of the event, Idaho Hang Gliding Association hosted clinics by Betty Pfeiffer and Dennis Pagen before and during the competition. In addition, driver briefings were held and a pilot route guide presentation was given at the kick off BBQ to help educate pilots on flying the area and routes. These clinics were extremely popular and resulted in increased safety and awareness. Many pilots commented on how valuable these clinics were to them. This is something we hope to expand in the future.

The 2009 US National Hang Gliding Championships at King Mountain had approx. $20,000 in sponsorship in either product, in kind, or cash donations from 27 sponsors / donors. This resulted in low entry fees and increased services to the pilots. As a side note, one of our key sponsors was so pleased with the event they are contemplating funding a full color coffee table book on the King Mountain experience and our 15 year history of flying in these incredibly scenic country.

During the course of the event 17 print and television media were represented. CBS and NBC affiliates broadcasted the event regionally and two full color, full page spreads were featured in regional newspapers, as well as numerous local and smaller regional articles before, during and after the event. Sunset Magazine ran the event in their online forum of summer activities.

New this year, and as a result of being a nationals, we offered complementary (funded by a sponsor) “fly alongs” to reporters. Interested media personnel could choose between a tandem flight or a small plane flight out on course provided by a local air charter service. Two reporters choose the tandem flights. I think this has incredible value as both reporters were young and just starting their careers. They have started with a very positive experience in our sport.

Criticism of the event was the lack of daily flight reports posted on the official web site for the event. Usually we have pilots at the event blogging or posting to the internet so the meet director (me) did not consider having someone dedicated to writing a summary of each day to post online. Internet access is a challenge at the location, and we were flying every day, but in hindsight I should have thought to assign this task to one of the volunteer staff.

Respectfully submitted,

Lisa Tate
Meet Orgainzer/ Director”

Scot Huber on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 12:44 AM

Yes the USHPA needs a forum on their website for competition reporting and general pilot feedback. The OZ Report is under the shadow of Davis Straub who was fired from the competition committee by USHPA president Lisa Tate, for what I understand was telling someone to F-Off! and other heavy handed ways. Can’t play nice with others.
Davis has been giving Lisa as much criticism as he can since then. She directs the King Mt. meet putting countless hours into it for the love of the sport, she gets prizes donated by countless busnesses and creates the most beautiful trophies you can imagine. She does all this for free, along with trying to build the USHPA.
She in my mind is doing the best she can for all the members love of flying and should be commended for her efforts.

Air Sports Net on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 7:36 AM

I am sure Lisa does a good job but I think we need to rethink the entire process here. Someone at the USHPA needs to recognize that flimsy competition results is not acceptable at this stage of the game.

Air Sports Net on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 8:30 AM

In reponse to Beck,

We requested results from Lisa after the competition but for some reason we were not included in the results package you are talking about. While we understand the delay in the reporting, a week seems a bit much beyond a reasonable time frame.

Drew Harris on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 10:15 AM

As a relative “insider/outsider” to the US national competition scene (I was once VERY involved in the World Hang Gliding Competition Circuit) and with NO specific ties to anyone who’s commented on this as of yet, I notice a few very pertinent things about the King Mountain Meet.

–If you look at the list of competitors over the past few years (on their website), you’ll find very little variance from the lists. Even with this year being a “Nationals” meet, the same group flew in the competition in 2009 as in 2008, basically. Not one of the Naionally ranked members of the U.S. National Hang Gliding Team attended the meet. How can you have a US Nationals when the best pilots aren’t there?

–Results were posted late and it was relatively impossible to follow the event until after it occurred. That has NEVER happened at a National event of any kind in recent years (whether a US or International competition). Even when they do the Rally and Race in BRAZIL, it’s covered daily on blogs, internet, etc…and you’re going to tell me that in the middle of nowhere BRAZIL there’s better internet/satellite coverage?

–The 2009 US Nationals Hang Gliding Competition looks a lot like all the previous CLUB competitions at King Mtn. Even scoring the TEAMs first. And “Four Boobs and a Girl” is what we want to have represented as the winning TEAM at the US Nationals to the rest of the world?

–There was no international presence at the event. Evey Nationals that i’ve seen (in and outside of the US) has pilots from other countries making up a decent amount of the competitors because, being a Nationals, the meet should be the best of the best, from the site to the staff. Although only the US pilots are ranked and scored for the US National winner part of it, there are ALWAYS other international pilots in attendance.

I’m not looking for a squabble, but this is just my humble opinion as an observer who was once VERY involved in the sport. I don’t usually get involved now, but I follow the sport I love closely and have already noticed a trend of “Bashing” between the Lisa Taitians and the Ozians…and felt the need to comment without being a part of either side.

Skydog on Tue, 11th Aug 2009 11:12 AM

I would like to point out that story is not trying to start a squabble but rather point out some issues that might be improved upon in upcoming competitions. We take no sides and hold no loyalty to Lisa or Davis. I apologize to all parties involved if they see this story as more than motivation to do better in the upcoming events. We are sure that Lisa did the best she could considering the circumstances involved but our point is that these kind of things shouldn’t happen. Hopefully we can all learn from this.

Davis Straub on Mon, 17th Aug 2009 8:18 AM

Scot Huber is misinformed, although he is correct in that was sort of the excuse given by Lisa for my dismissal from a volunteer position. As I recall she didn’t appreciate the fact that I gave many significant criticisms of her strategic plan for the USHPA, and was not enthusiastic about her proposed changes to the competition system (and I’m still working to subvert those).

I do not have any personal problems with Lisa and quite frankly don’t care one way or the other regarding my position as competition chairman (after all it was work that I would rather someone else did). But I do have a number of substantial critiques of the process around the King Mountain meet. It is no reflection on the pilots who flew there or the tasks to find fault with the organization and other aspects of the meet.

You’ll also notice that I do not provide any criticism of the competition here in my posts above, so I wonder why I suddenly become the object of attack by Scot.

I will be providing more information about the problems that I see with the USHPA processes in future Oz Report articles.