Announcing Nephi, Utah OLC/Cross Country Camp Aug 7-11

Many local glider pilots think Nephi, Utah can and should become one of the next great racing and soaring destinations in the western United States. The airport has a huge new 6,300' x 100' runway at 5,000ft elevation, a full parallel taxiway and is very capable of handling wet operations (ballasted gliders). It has incredibly been home to only one DG400 motor glider for the last 15 years. Nephi has very little plane traffic with only a handful based on the field, no FBO for us to bother, 100LL self serve, is located close to a very large urban population for crew considerations, and has just spectacular soaring conditions and scenery for 250+ miles to the northeast, east, south and west of the airport. Think of the north Parowan tasking area and conditions but with a glider full of water, more landable fields and often a tailwind on final glide to get you home late in the day.

Dates: Aug 7-11, 2013
Map of Nephi: http://goo.gl/maps/wUbtH
Photo of Nephi from air: http://ssa.org/sport/PhotoGallery/9399.jpg
Camp Registration: http://ssa.org/members/contestreport...il.asp?id=2240

This camp will encourage you to fly different types of cross country flights over the 5 days - not just the racing tasks. This is not a formal racing event but those pilots interested in racing or learning how to fly a task will be given daily tasks for an opportunity to compete against fellow pilots. We will award daily winners for tasks (currently thinking two handicapped classes: FAI and Sports) to encourage different daily flying such as doing a racing task one day and then trying for a record flight the next day and then doing an OLC distance flight the next. On an amazing flight you can always decide to ditch the task if you were racing that day and still go for a big OLC points flight or a state record. The choice is yours. The lift starts early at Nephi and we will be seeing gliders that are attempting record flights launching well before noon as our sniffers.

We expect some pilots to come to attempt state or national record flights or personal goal flights as 1000km+ thermal flights are very doable from this location and 500km flights are easy in all but the worst weather. Nephi is after all only a few hours to the east of legendary Ely. Again, if you don't want to fly a task every day or at all, this camp is still for you! Come fly the famous Utah terrain and conditions for the first time in a relaxed environment, with many local mentor pilots willing to help you and lots of landable fields and near by airports but with also mountain and desert flying just a few miles away. Nephi seems to be a perfect location for pilots to experience some of their first mountain flying while still having lots of landout options.

There will be a beginning mountain soaring class the first morning for anyone interested and we will be holding daily morning group soaring seminars covering safety, group soaring techniques and to help the pilots get familiar with western soaring/OLC flying. If you are new to flying near mountains or western terrain we will most gladly find you a local mentor to help you get comfortable with this rewarding type of soaring. Bring your cameras!

Every evening plan on hanging out at the airport to talk about the day, compare flights and swap lies with everyone. With the soaring starting so early in the day plan on an efficient but relaxed first come first serve launch process. The current plan is to limit the participation to 30 gliders. With no other Utah contests this year these spots will fill up quickly. Register early and reserve your spot.

Tie downs will be off to the side of the taxiway in the grass/dirt. I walked the taxiway sides 2 months ago and they should be pretty good to tie down with lots of natural mowed grasses so plan on your own stakes and tie downs in the dirt. We are working on getting city approval for on-airport camping. There are flushing restrooms within the airport property and there are 6 hotels right in Nephi so there are no problems getting a room nearby. We will have a reduced group rate at one of the hotels. Plan on catered dinners multiple nights with a modest per person fee to cover costs.

Here are a few videos showing the area and soaring right around Nephi - Make sure to watch in full screen mode and as high definition as possible: This first video start just west of Nephi while on task and shows some of the area south and east of the airport - http://youtu.be/pSSlBKjmC8Y?t=1m30s

This next video shows spring-time slope soaring of the mountain just a few miles east of the Nephi Airport called Mount Nebo. - http://youtu.be/1TwOKtv8PnY

This last video shows taking off from Parowan in a rainy overcast sky and flying north through the tasking area around Nephi to give you another feel for the area. You get a quick view of Nephi at 2:50 in the video - http://youtu.be/TEZdEEwI5HI

Sorry this was so long however I hope it accurately shares our excitement for really opening up Nephi to even larger soaring events. Nephi really has unlimited soaring potential yet to be tapped. I am very happy to take phone calls or emails with questions and my contact info is on the registration page linked from above. We are very open to ideas and suggestions to make this camp even more enjoyable and worth attending! Please fire away. What do you think?

See you in Nephi!
Bruno Vassel - B4