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