Thanks for all the great information! Are there full-time tows available at
Nephi?

Having flown at Parowan a few times before it became known to the world, I
really liked the terrain and, expecially, the locals and would like to try
Nephi. Of course, I've flown over out of Parowan.

wrote in message
...
Thanks everyone for the very kind words and great reports about the event. I
am hoping that those that were not able to attend have seen enough reports
and OLC traces to have come to your own conclusions that Nephi is an up and
coming world class gliding destination and a serious location for future
large soaring events.

From a first time organizer's perspective I was humbled and very grateful
for the enormous support and efforts brought by many volunteers. Thanks!
Your time really paid off and made a huge difference. The smiles on
everyone's faces at the end of every day was proof the time was well spent
and we accomplished a lot.

Just a few observations:
1. We hit a home run with this brand new event format. Daily racing tasks
were called by CD after weather briefing for an FAI Class and a Sports
Class. We awarded daily prizes (many donated by local Nephi companies and
sponsors) to the top 3 winners of these two classes and also top 3 OLC point
flights of the day. Many pilots loved that you could try a racing task one
day and then fly an OLC flight the next depending on how you felt or what
happened with the weather. We awarded daily prizes only so people didn't
feel pressure of where they were on the score sheet. There wasn't one!
Before you hard core racers dismiss this format please remember that many
pilots are interested in improving and trying to fly tasks and we saw
everyone who came said they enjoyed it.

2. Mandatory Power Flarm...Huge success! With 40 gliders flying in any
possible direction since not all were flying a racing task but flying OLC
flights, we insisted on flarm-equipt aircraft. I may be wrong but I think
this might have been the first gliding event in the US to make Power Flarm
mandatory. Thanks to the rental program it was not a hardship that kept
anyone away and many new pilots were introduced to the great features and
fun that Flarm flying with others brings. We love flying with Power Flarms!
Well, once the install bugs are worked out on each ship.

3. Nephi can be made ready for the big time. I am already working with the
airport and city to either double the ramp space for glider tie downs or to
create a large irrigated/cut grass tie down area next to the ramp with
strewn cables for aircraft to tie to. A ramp is always nice but I am
personally partial to a large lawn that can also then be used for other
events like air shows, concerts, who knows what. Yes I am reaching here but
still working on my pitch for the city.

I swear every local I talked to says they hardly ever see an eastern
crosswind! That said, when you are low and wanting to land it doesn't matter
how rare it happens if the ATIS is saying 90 degrees cross at 21 gusting to
30. We are working with the airport to put in a grass crosswind runway to
the north of the runway. In the event this happens again we will be ready to
land inside the airport boundary. Problem solved.

4. We will be back to Nephi in 2014! We really want to have at least two
glider events next year in Nephi. We will do either another OLC/XC camp like
we did this year or a regionals in early August. We also want to get another
group like the motor gliders or 1-26 group to come late June/early July.
With two glider groups coming it will help to push the city over the edge to
make the airport improvements.

5. The public open house we did on Saturday was a huge success. We had
hundreds upon hundreds of people come to the airport on Saturday from
11am-2pm to see the gliders. The city did an amazing job getting the word
out in many ways including even putting in a flyer for the open house in
everyone's utility bill!

With a good group of glider pilot volunteers we were able to have an ASG-29
and a Grob Twin Astir nose to nose for the public to get up close to and
look at right as they walked through the entry gates to the airport. The
front canopy was open on the Twin and we warmly invited people to have their
kids sit in the cockpit, touch the controls and get a picture taken. They
lined up for miles it seemed to get to sit in a real glider and it was a
huge hit our encouraging them to come and touch instead of keeping the
gliders behind a rope and everyone 10 feet back. Yes, we took the probes out
of the tail before hand. The city had a DJ playing music helping to make
a fun mood and we had a motor home with awning out with a large flat screen
playing glider movies. The atmosphere was so amazing and positive to help
the public get a better feel for both what gliding is and who we are as a
pilot community. You all should have seen the Mayor walking around during
the open house with his face just beaming! It helped we gave him a free
glider ride on the first day too.

Sorry, it is so easy to get long winded when talking about soaring. I only
took one video during the week just because I kept forgetting to put the
camera in the cockpit. Here is a link. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GykgzjEhGjo

We had a professional photographer hike up to the top of Mount Nebo right by
the airport and take pics of us one day. They turned out amazing! Here is a
link to his gallery. I am sure some of these will end up in various SSA
publications.

http://kimos.shootproof.com/gliders2013

Thanks again everyone for your huge support to help make Nephi what it was
and for your safe flying last week. We can't wait to do it again with you
soon!

Bruno - B4