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.

–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.

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.

“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”