Nephi wrap-up

I agree with every good thing that has already been said here about Nephi
and the Soaring Safari.

Thanks to Bruno and Tim and ALL the volunteers who made this event happen.
It was a gathering of some of the finest human beings you would ever want
to meet. Diana and I enjoyed it immensely.

The flying conditions were outstanding and I was able to do a personal
best. I am pretty happy with that.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...l?dsId=3281998

I can’t wait till next year!

Steve Rathbun –R5

At 17:54 14 August 2013, Tim Taylor wrote:
Seven days of soaring, over 46,000 km (28,000 miles or a little over
going
=
around the earth) of cross country flying, amazing views, interesting
landi=
ngs, outstanding hospitality, many new friends, and lots of smiles. That
i=
n one sentence sums up the Nephi, Utah OLC and Cross-Country camp. Utah
ha=
s long been on the map for some fantastic soaring with Parowan to the
South=
and Logan to the North. Nephi is in the middle between the two allowing
a=
ccess to flying terrain and conditions of both as well as the desert
flyin=
g area of Ely, Nevada; all without having to worry about SLC airspace to
th=
e north.

Nephi is a city with a population of about 5,500 located about 80 miles
sou=
th of Salt Lake City along I-15. It is nestled in a six mile wide valley
b=
etween the southern end of the Wasatch mountains crowned by 11,600 foot
Mt.=
Nebo towering 6,600 feet over the airport on the east side of the
valley
=
and the lower Long Ridge to the west. The terrain to the west is classic
G=
reat Basin high desert providing good heating early in the day. The
airpor=
t is located at 5000 feet msl with a 6300 x 100 foot runway that provides
t=
he opportunity to launch heavy gliders. The area around the airport is
mos=
tly farm fields so there are many places to land if needed as we found
out.

Nephi has been on the radar of Utah pilots for many years with several
loca=
l safaris organized by Lynn Alley (2KA) over the years. One motor glider
ha=
s been based there for many years but the lack of local tows has limited
th=
e opportunity to explore all the potential. Bruno Vassel IV (B4) has
been=
flying over the area for many years on flights out of Cedar Valley
airport=
, forty miles to the North. He had noted that Nephi appeared to start
earl=
ier and was easier to get back to at the end of the day. To truly
explore
=
the potential we needed to hold a camp and invite a few friends to come
fly=
with us. With that kernel of an idea Bruno was the spark that organized
t=
he event. The goal was to have fun flying speed tasks or OLC flight in
a=
low pressure environment. It was not really a camp for new pilots but
we
=
had many pilots that had not flown really long flights set personal
bests.

Most of the flying during the 2013 camp was limited to south and west of
Ne=
phi due to weather. The camp was planned for early August with the hopes
t=
hat the usual summer monsoons would have retreated to the south and east
bu=
t still have enough heating and long days to truly stretch the legs of
pilo=
ts. Most of the week the monsoon stayed just on the line east of Nephi,
oc=
casionally drifting to the west but only really effecting one day but it
wa=
s still flyable.
The area to the south overlaps with most of the flying area of Parowan so
m=
uch of our flying was over familiar terrain with the milk runs down to
Rich=
field, Beaver and beyond. The late summer weather in Utah allows more
dese=
rt flying than contests in late June and we tried to take advantage of
that=
as much as possible. The west desert is intimidating at first like the
Ca=
prock of NM or the Hill Country of TX, but after a few flights, pilots
begi=
n to relax and enjoy the amazing conditions as reports of 12 to 17 knot
the=
rmals trickled in during the camp. Flights to Wheeler Peak and Mt.
Wilson
=
VOR provided a chance to see turnpoints in Nevada and many pilots got the
o=
pportunity to fly great cloud streets along the ridges to the west of the
S=
evier dry lake. Nephi has the nice advantage that the winds are
typically
=
out of the southwest so 170 miles final legs were covered at over 113 mph
a=
nd final glides often started at over 80 miles out along what appear to
be
=
infinite cloud streets. Lift worked until late in the evening with the
lat=
est landing at 8:30 pm!=20

We did have some challenging conditions with strong east winds due to a
pre=
ssure gradient and thunderstorms in the area or the airport. Fortunately
t=
here was a nice alfalfa field next to the airport that served as Nephi
airp=
ort #2 on a few days. At one point we had eight gliders in the alfalfa
fie=
ld when direct cross winds set up at 18G28. Other pilots took the grass
ne=
xt to Runway 17/35 to provide a wider and softer area to touch down in
the
=
winds. Everyone landed safely and it was just an interesting way to end
th=
e day. We were told by local pilots and airport management that east
cross=
winds are very rare but even still, the Nephi airport wants to be even
mor=
e glider-friendly and is considering adding a cross section of grass
inside=
the airport in the future to allow gliders a place to land if there are
st=
rong cross winds.

Some highlights of the flights posted to OLC from Ron Gleason (not all
the
=
flights were posted):
104 flights
46,284 km
445 km average
809 km longest
132 km/hour fastest
Many badges, records, and personal best flights.

Bruno did an outstanding job of organizing the event and working with the
C=
ity of Nephi to prepare the airport for the camp. The city of Nephi was
ve=
ry welcoming and worked to make our visit enjoyable. Beth Ann and Paul
Sch=
neider watched over us and manned the retrieve desk and Parker Zentner
ran
=
a smooth line. The local Utah Soaring Club helped and supported the camp
a=
s well as bringing three of their Grob Twins for the members to
experience
=
cross-country flying. We were able to get support from Utah Tow Pilots
wit=
h John Templeton from Parowan as chief, Kim Hall from Logan, Dave
Robinson
=
from Heber, and Michael Alley and Stan McGrew from Morgan. Overall we
had
=
a great time, flew fast and long flights, had a wonderful time with old
and=
new friends, and look forward to coming back to Nephi next year.=20

Tim, sounds brilliant. Anyone got a 2 seater I can ride tandem in next
year?

Jim

Little more to say, except this was one of the most fun and best organized events in my soaring experience (started in 1990).
The city and county efforts and welcome were unsurpassed. Got several comments and questions while shopping in town in soaring clothes; saw a couple of folks I encouraged to come to the Open House in that crowd.
Organization by Bruno, Utah Soaring Association, other clubs, and volunteers gave great support and generated the opportunity for pilots to post those OLC flights.
The terrain is dramatic and the soaring challenging and satisfying – all that a soaring pilot could desire.
Mandatory Flarm and encouraged SPOT/similar made for safe flying and easy retrieves. The latter also allowed crew, those at the airport, in town, or back home to feel involved. After calling my ID (B6), location (Junction Apt), condition (Pilot and ship A-OK), and my tow request (Aero, if available), I called my wife, home near Seattle. She immediately remarked that I was no longer moving and was a long way from Nephi. She also liked being able to follow my track between Ephrata and Nephi.
Watch for the 2014 Announcement and Register early! Whatever quota will fill quickly.

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

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

On Monday, August 19, 2013 9:36:00 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
Thanks for all the great information! Are there full-time tows available at

Nephi?

Hi Dan,
No, there is currently no tow plane based in Nephi. We are just getting the airport going with having sailplanes flying out of it and for the next few years my guess is that any soaring out of Nephi will need to take place during an event or bring your own tow plane. If anyone is bringing a tow plane any time to Nephi, please let me know so I can come fly with you too.

Bruno - B4

Wow, What a Cool event. I'm sorry I missed it.

However, I'd like to thank Bruno again for posting His HD Videos so that we may all look over his shoulder on the magnificence of Utah Soaring. In case you missed the link to the Nephi Soaring Video, here it is again.

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

On Monday, August 19, 2013 10:03:06 AM UTC-7, wrote:
Hi Dan,

No, there is currently no tow plane based in Nephi. We are just getting the airport going with having sailplanes flying out of it and for the next few years my guess is that any soaring out of Nephi will need to take place during an event or bring your own tow plane. If anyone is bringing a tow plane any time to Nephi, please let me know so I can come fly with you too.


Sounds like a business opportunity looming for some enterprising soul...

Sounds like a business opportunity looming for some enterprising soul.

It sure points out in spades what will get a large number of soaring pilots to congregate. Location, location, location. Competitions attract many folks, but this type of event caters to just about anybody. Flexible, no pressure, and social. And the most important thing is that most attendees want to return next year for a "rematch" ;D

I'd like to add my HURRAH!! also.

Everywhere in town I met locals that knew, and supported, this soaring event. The mayor and county commissioner gave away t-shirts and a goodie bag. The county fair was in town which made for a busy town (at least by Nephi) standards. They advertised our event in the newspaper, the fair brochure and (believe it or else) the electric bill. 500 people showed up on the Saturday open house! The local professional photographer climbed the 11,000 ft peak to take some spectacular pictures of our flying by.

I believe that I got gold altitude on the first day and gold distance on the last day but will have to wait for the badge dude to confirm.

MANY, many, many thanks to Bruno and everyone else for all their hard work and making this happen!

- John (67R)