We welcome pilots from all around the nation and beyond to come to Lookout and
enjoy the festivities and fun. We will have a big cookout Saturday Night the
22nd, with lots of action both days.
Rob Kells will be here with all the great Wills Wing gliders including the T2,
U2 and Sport 2 175. Now is a great chance to demo these gliders and speak with
one of the leading authorities on modern gliders.
The flight park will be having some fun competitions this week, which will have
a different spin on competing. Most of the competitions will focus on technique
and safety over simply achieving a goal.
We will start with a sweetest launch competition. The prettiest launch, based on
some simple criteria such as eyes up, nose control, keep pulling the glider all
the way through launch, etc. will win. Everyone's the judge. After dinner, we
pull out the videotapes of the launches and we all get to have a few laughs and
we cheer the loudest for the pilot with the best launch.
We will also have a safest landing contest, with a similar format. Instead of
having a tiny spot for people to hit, there will be a very wide circle to land
within. The focus will be on wings level, no pitch oscillation, good speed
coming in, nice flare timing with no ballooning. Safest and smoothest landing
gets the loudest cheers and wins the prize.
Lastly, we will have a short distance competition. We will pick waypoints the
day of the competition. The waypoints will all be within view of launch to make
this a spectator event. Depending on conditions, we can increase the difficulty
of the task for advanced pilots. We may have a sink rate competition also.
This is a great time for foot launch pilots to learn aerotowing and for aerotow
pilots to learn foot launching.
As usual, we will have the bonfire stoked, volleyball court raked, and the
horseshoe pit ready. Our campgrounds are great for camping and we have plenty of
lodging on-site and also with 10 minutes drive. Come and join us for that
weekend and stay a while longer.
Pilots of all skill including beginners are welcome for the weekend.
So far we have had two days of twenty plus winds. We hope to get
things rolling today. I'm glad I scheduled four day clinics, to allow for a day
or two of poor conditions. I think it will go fine. I got here early and had one
participant from Santa Barbara and I got him one day of instruction in before
the clinics and he loved it. He said he had all these horror stories and how
difficult it would be, but now he sees it is easy and none of the stories he
heard were true, providing you take the proper attitude and use it the right
way.
I'm hoping everyone feels this way by the time we get everyone involved. I spent
a few hours just showing equipment and everyone seems very interested.
The USHGA Competition Committee is holding a virtual meeting
instead of a physical one at the USHGA Spring BOD meeting. You can follow the
action (but please don't comment)
here.
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The Oz Report, a near-daily, world wide hang gliding news ezine, with reports on competitions, pilot rankings, political issues, fly-ins, the latest technology, ultralight sailplanes, reader feedback and anything else from within the global HG community worthy of coverage. Hang gliding, paragliding, hang gliders, paragliders, aerotowing, hang glide, paraglide, platform towing, competitions, fly-ins. Hang gliding and paragliding news from around the world, by Davis Straub.
