Nephi Was Just Awarded 3 Upcoming Nationals!

First off, all the staff and everyone that volunteered at this event deserve a lot of respect and thanks for without their contribution this event would not have been possible.

Ron Gleason, this guy is mild mannered, very well spoken, he made himself available 24-7 to pilots, he was always there if there was just the smallest problem he fixed it immediately every time. He obviously has tons of experience
running contests and it shows!

When the weather finally turned on at Nephi we were all in for a treat, when it is good here it is some extremely high quality mountain flying that rivals Minden and other top sites in the US and the world.

Once I got to know the area I was pleasantly surprised by the number of airports, also all of the beautiful landable valleys in the middle of the rugged mountains.

Many areas have large amounts of landable agricultural fields, but normally you would not need them since you are likely within glide of a nice airport anyways.

While the flying rivals Minden, the landing options are much better at Nephi so they are well suited to beginning xc pilots and pilots new to mountain flying.

I liked that those of us that wanted to be at the front of the grid were able to easily to do everyday, I was actually surprised it was the same small group at the front everyday and the majority of the pilots would pick spots further back that suited them.

The majority of the guys in the front of the grid were ex hangglider pilots I thought this was really cool as I myself switched over from hanggliders 15 years ago.

Talking to people I would guess that 25% or more of the pilots at Nephi had some hanggliding experience in their past!

Ramy who did the first 1000k, yes a hangglider pilot!

The social aspect of this meet was outstanding, there were no egos, everyone was very considerate and helpful to others. It was a great mix of personalities that blended together very well hopefully this made it enjoyable to all.

The only cons I have to say about this event, were that I talked to several people who were disappointed that there were no lectures or classroom time spent on xc flying, there were also no mentors assigned to those who never flew here or were new to xc flying. There was only one classroom scheduled on xc during the event and it was cancelled for some reason at the last minute.

I am sure the organizers have had feedback about this and I am certain it will be fixed at the next event, this was a big learning situation for the organizers of course.

Thanks Bruno, Ron, and everyone else who made this happen!

Joe Simmers "EZ"

Piling on...

I had a wonderful time. Great mix of competition and cooperation.

Will definitely be back next year.

- kurt (TOR)