Texas will host the Hang Gliding World Championships in 2007 and the
pre-Worlds in 2006. These events will bring many top ranked hang glider pilots
from around the world to Texas and specifically to Big Spring, but to other
locations as well for other events. The World Championships have only come to
the USA one other time in the last thirty years.
Texas is known as the single best location in the world for cross country and
competition flying for hang gliders, paragliders and sailplanes. For decades it
has been the location of World Class gliding events. It is where the most
prestigious hang gliding and paragliding World Records have been set. It's
climate and terrain are known throughout the world as the most favorable for
both competition and World Record setting.
GOALS:
Tie together and promote the gliding events coming up in the next two years in
Texas in order to:
1. Increase awareness among Texans of Texas' special nature (giving Texans
another good reason to be proud of their state). Texas really is unique
with just the right mix of the most favorable soaring conditions. (1)
2. Attract out of state visitors and Texans to attend these events for their
enjoyment and to encourage them to imagine their participation in such events in
the future. (2)
3. Attract increased sponsorship to all the events so that more resources are
available to them to make them more successful and to attract more top world
class pilots and allow them to afford to attend more of the events. (3)
All the events have local support, sponsorship and are self supporting. This
state wide effort is aimed to supplement that support through participation by
state wide agencies and businesses.
TACTICS:
1. 2006 and 2007 calendars of all Texas gliding events published by the Texas
state office responsible for encouraging state tourism and distributed in the
many state tourist and welcome centers. Perhaps stand alone or in other state
publications. We making entries for these calendars now.
2. Articles in Texas Highways and Texas Monthly highlighting and describing
these upcoming events. We have a newspaper writer who will be submitting free
lance articles.
3. Technically informative articles in Texas newspapers
describing the unique soaring conditions in Texas and the World Records set
here. I'll write up some articles.
4. Corporate sponsorship (through the sale of naming rights) that will bring
additional resources to tow the competitors into the air using specialized tugs
and tug pilots to Zapata, Leakey and Big Spring to allow for more top pilots to
attend these events and make it easier for them to set new World Records and do
well at the competitions. We'll need to approach possible sponsors.
5. Network of contacts with local Texas papers in all locations where events
are taking place to encourage coverage of the events and explanation of their
significance and coherence. We'll use our existing names and email addresses and
add to that.
6. Outreach to European pilots by Texas agencies to encourage them to come to
Texas and assure them that they will get a big friendly Texas-style welcome.
We'll contact the Texas tourism agencies.
7. Prize money for various accomplishments at the WRE, the National Fly-In
and the pre-Worlds and Worlds. With corporate or individual sponsorship this
will be possible.
DATES:
The major hang gliding events start in mid June in Zapata, in way south east
Texas and move north to Leaky in the Hill Country west of San Antonio at the end
of July and further north to Big Spring in early August.
The major sailplane events start in late June in Marfa in the southwest Texas,
then move north to the Texas border at Hobbs, New Mexico, then east to Uvalde,
just south of Leakey.
CALENDAR:
The calendar can be found
here.
The calendar for 2007 for the SSA has not been set yet.
Footnotes:
(1) We have detailed the particular confluence of climate and
weather conditions that make flying World Record distances from southeast Texas
up into the panhandle possible
here. Scroll down and click "Why
Zapata," and "You
need a Weatherman."
Flying in east Texas near College Station and in west Texas, from Leaky and
Big Spring up into the panhandle, is likewise spectacular. We have flown
major national hang gliding competitions in Hearne and Big Spring for the last six
years. Unlike any other hang gliding competition held anywhere else in the world we
have had incredibly consistently soarable conditions, competing on 41 out of 42
contest days.
In general the lift is smooth and consistent, the winds are light, the chance of
overdevelopment slim, and landing options (the bail out fields) are plentiful in
Big Spring and Hearne. Pilots love to come fly in Texas.
(2) There are just some people who have wanted to fly all their lives, but
never had the opportunity to express that desire. One such person is Chris
Chaney, a jewelry designer from Big Spring, who got the opportunity for a tandem
flight when hang glider pilots started coming back to Big Spring, four years
ago. He competed in his first competition this year in Big Spring.
Another is Ann Auld, a wife and mother of two girls in Leakey, Texas who got
excited about the free flying taking her first flight in an ultralight called a
Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly at the Texas Open/National Fly-in and within a short
time became a general aviation pilot and purchased her own Cessna 172. David
Glover, competition organizer, remarked on her blossoming from a shy housewife
to a true leader.
(3) Historically events and hang glider pilots are very lightly sponsored
especially in the United States. It is important for our events to be the most
successful that they can be, that we get enough sponsorship to be able to entice
and adequately pay for tug pilots to come and tow up the hang glider pilots, as
well as pay for their expensive tow planes. For years we have been doing this with
minimal funding with a lot of folks providing support through not taking any
wages. We are unable to maintain this support.
HANG GLIDING, PARAGLIDING AND ULTRALIGHT WORLD RECORDS SET IN TEXAS:
When we come to fly in Texas, we are looking for two different things. First the
conditions that allow for the longest flights possible: flights that last over
ten hours and 400 miles. These flights are possible from south Texas. No where
else in the world has anyone gone as far. In the last five years all of the
longest distance flights in the history of hang gliding and paragliding have
started near Zapata, Texas.
We also come to fly competitions in Texas, where tasks usually last any where
from two to six hours and can range from sixty to 150 miles. The idea is to go
as fast as possible to a goal perhaps around designated turnpoints. We have also set world records for speed in these
conditions. We find them in east Texas and in the panhandle.
More World Records set in Texas can be found
here.
Flex wing straight distance : 700.6 km, 435 miles
Date of flight: 17/07/2001
Pilot: Manfred RUHMER
(Austria)
Course/place: Zapata,
TX (USA)
Rigid wing straight distance : 655.0 km, 407 miles
Date of flight: 18/07/2001
Pilot: Davis STRAUB (USA)
Course/place: Zapata, TX (USA)
Paraglider straight distance : 423.4 km, 263 miles
Date of flight: 21/06/2002
Pilot: William GADD (Canada)
Course/place: Zapata, TX (USA)
Swift straight distance : 689 km, 428 miles
Date of flight: 18/07/2005
Pilot: Robin HAMILTON (UK)
Course/place: Zapata, TX (USA)
Single Surface straight distance : 287 km, 178 miles
Date of flight: 18/07/2005
Pilot: Bo Hagewood
Course/place: Zapata, TX (USA)
Ultralight sailplane straight distance : 978 km, 608 miles
Date of flight: 18/07/2005
Pilot: Gary Osoba (USA)
Course/place: Zapata, TX (USA)
