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Event info

To register you must follow the steps here an at the web site on the "Oz Report".

Big Springs welcomes the best hang glider pilots to compete in the flatlands of Texas, home of the World Record flights.

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Flying site

Big Spring, one of the best cross country hang gliding competition flying sites in the world, is located in the Texas panhandle, USA. We usually fly big distances every day at Big Spring so be prepared physically.

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Event info

To register you must follow the steps here an at the web site on the "Oz Report".

Big Springs welcomes the best hang glider pilots to compete in the flatlands of Texas, home of the World Record flights. The Big Spring Nationals will be held here on August 2-9, 2014. Flex wing, Sport Class, and Rigid wing classes are allowed. The competition counts toward the US National Championship.

Flying site

Big Spring, one of the best cross country hang gliding competition flying sites in the world, is located in the Texas panhandle, USA. We usually fly big distances every day at Big Spring so be prepared physically. This is not Europe.

Big Spring, the county seat of Howard County, is at the "crossroads" of Interstate Highway 20, U.S. Highway 87, State Highway 350, Farm Road 700, and the Missouri Pacific line. The City is in a rocky gorge where the northern limit of the Edwards Plateau and the southern most hills of the Caprock converge. It is named for the "big spring" in Sulphur Draw, a historical watering place for coyotes, wolves, and herds of buffalo, antelope, and mustangs.

The McMahon Wrinkle Airport, formerly Webb AFB, has a ten thousand foot main runway and additional taxis ways.

The region consists of 904 square miles with a population density of 37.20 residents per square mile compared to a statewide density of 79.54. Howard County and Big Spring are located in an area where three ecological regions merge. To the north and east are the western Rolling Plains; to the south is the Edwards Plateau; and to the west are the southern High Plains (also known as the Llano Estacado or the Staked Plains).
When we are there in August it is normally dry although there are occasional thunderstorms. The prevailing winds are out of the south, but August winds are normally calmer than other summer months. Cumulus clouds appears almost every day at about noon.

We only fly at Big Spring during the competition in early August. Cloudbase varies from 7,000’ MSL to 12,000’. Elevation at Big Spring is 2,500’. Thermals are normally 300 to 600 fpm (your climb rate), although they can be 900 – 1000 fpm. The prevailing wind is south, but we come for the light winds and hope to do mostly closed tasks.
The inversion breaks around noon and we don’t start launching until we see the cu’s forming. Thermal activity lasts through 7 PM. We’ll normally start the tasks at 2 PM.

The reason why Big Spring is often called the best cross country hang gliding competition flying site in the world is proven by several record made there. For Example:

The longest task ever called and made in a competition was flown there with five pilots making goal – 215 miles (346 km).

The 100 km out and return world record rigid wing: http://www.fai.org/fai-record-file/?recordId=7858
Type of record: Speed over an out-and-return course of 100 km
Performance: 51.42 km/h
Date: 2003-08-02
Course/Location: Big Spring, TX (USA)
Claimant Davis Straub (USA)
Hang glider: AIR Atos C


Take off - 2,573 feet ASL - 32°13'5.93"N, 101°31'32.42"W
Winds: Southerly 5 – 15 mph
It is located on the town airfield.
Take off method: Dragonfly aerotow. 1 pilot at a time.
Precautions: Stay west of the main runway. Don’t fly low over any of the prisons.

Landing - 2,500 feet ASL
There are plenty of places for landing in the area. Cotton fields, peanut fields, open plowed fields, grass and bushes in uncultivated areas. The towns are very spread out.

See flying site videos:
The 2007 Worlds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9IapewHfEY

Spot Landings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFyDADuSLeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUfMbbhYPpk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KITzUrOTi_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX0RYTUybGk

Selection and entry fee

Number of participants is limited to 50.

The following are required:
USHPA card. Pilots must meet the requirements of minimum hang 3 rating; as well as aerotow (AT), turbulence (TURB) and cross country (XC) sign offs. Aerotow rating or evidence of extensive aerotowing experience is a strict requirement.
USHPA membership.
A GPS of each competitor for registration with make, model, and serial number available including backup GPS, if any.
Radio frequency used. The frequency list will be maintained by the meet director, be publicly displayed and pilots will be allowed to change their frequencies on the list.
Pilot and driver cell phone number. The phone list will be maintained by the meet director and be publicly displayed.

Entry fee
Pilot entry fee and full on-line registration must be received by us in the following amounts given the dates below:

Before June 8th $300
Before July 6th
After July 6th $400
August 2/3 $450

Make you payment with Dwolla for Ozreport

or through PayPal with your credit card or PayPal account (add $15 to the amounts above unless you use your PayPal account to send money to davis@davisstraub.com as a friend, which does not incur a credit card fee):

PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!
Before July 7th you may also send a check (in the proper amount - see above) made out to Belinda Boulter and sent to:

Belinda Boulter
PMB 1889 PO Box 2430
Pensacola, Florida
32513
(This is a mail forwarding address and mail sent there can take two weeks or more to reach us.)

You can pay on site in Big Spring on August 2nd or 3rd. The entry fee for payment on site is $450.

Payments are fully refundable if we receive a request by email by noon Eastern Daylight Time, July 19th. Refunds may be available after that date. $15 PayPal fee is not refunded.

Special deal: Each one bring one:
If you bring a pilot who has never flown in the Big Spring competitions, you both get $100 off your entry fees (applied to your tow fees). Sounds like a pretty good deal, 'eh?
Here is the fine print on this deal:
You must have actually convinced someone who wasn't planning on coming to the 2014 Big Spring Nationals to join you, not just getting together with someone who was going anyway and both sharing in the savings. You need to have them on your retrieval team, in your retrieval car, and on your radio frequency at the competition. You'll need to mentor them (not just a few hints, but actual mentoring). You both must register by July 5th and pay the full amounts (you both will get credits toward your tow fees). We ask you to be honestly making the effort to get someone who wouldn't come otherwise to come to the meet. That is the work that you are doing in exchange for the discount.

Another special deal:
Convince a pilot who hasn't been to a Big Spring competition after the 2009 competition to join you at the 2014 Big Spring Nationals, get $50 off your meet fee if both pilots register and both pilots pay full fees by July 5th (the $50 will go toward your tow fees). Email belinda@davisstraub.com after you have registered and paid if you are taking advantage of these offers.

Finish registration by filling out our waivers and medical information forms (see dowloads). If you have previous versions of these forms that you have filled out and can be slightly edited to apply to this competition use them. Be sure to sign them electronically with your signature (say with a jpeg of your signature).
We use double resitration. All pilots must be registered with Aitribune for live tracking and with Ozreport for payment purposes.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHo3OTNSQkJTTWdDdldyaTBOT04wdlE6MA#gid=0

Prize fund and scoring categories

1, 2, 3 in Overall

General schedule

Saturday August 2, 2014
Registration and Training day
Sunday August 3 - Saturday August 9, 2014
Competition flying days
Saturday August 9, 2014
Awards and closing ceremony

Daily schedule

Saturday August 2, 2014
Registration and Training day
Sunday August 3 - Saturday August 9, 2014
Competition flying days
Saturday August 9, 2014
Awards and closing ceremony

Accommodation and Activities

How to get here

Big Spring, TX 79720, USA
Big Spring United States

Plane

The nearest international airport is in Dallas.

Downloads

Waypoint files

Organizers

Davis Straub
Organizer
Email: davis@davisstraub.com
Belinda Boulter
Meet organizer
Email: belinda@davisstraub.com

Contacts

Socials

Confirmed
Selected
Registered
# Name Nation Sponsor Glider Status
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# Name Sponsor Glider
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Category Tagline Participant Email Phone Description Price
Please sign in and register before posting your own classifieds.

Another Great Event in Big Spring Series

We had a week of non stop great flights with distances from 120 till 208 km (optimized). All in strong winds and outstanding climbs of up to 1800fpm. Texas flatlands showed their wild nature and only the strongest were able to conquer them. We congratulate the winners! Davis Straub was nominated by many pilots to receive the Flytec "Above and Beyond" award. Mick Howard was also given this award (special speed sleeves and a donation of $100 each in their name to the Cloudbase Foundation). We donated $1875 from the pilots to the Cloudbase Foundation, to be $1000 by the Foundation, plus $200 from Flytec and additional donations at the event. This money supports the Child Welfare Board for emergency and other supplies for foster children in Big Spring.

Open Class

  1. Zac Majors (10613)
  2. Derreck Turner (10612)
  3. michael williams (7141)

Open class winners are: Zac Majors First Place, Derrek Turner Second Place, Michael Bilyk Third Place, Robin Hamilton Fourth Place, Davis Straub Fifth Place, Bruce Barmakian sixth place in All pilots USA.

Sport class

  1. David Williams (34324)
  2. Cory Barnwell (3830)
  3. Matt Christensen (34249)

Photos by Greg Chastain

Sport class results

Tasks and results

Task 1

03 Aug, 2014

Class 1, Class 5 — 120.7 km — Race to goal

Task results:
Overall results:
Tracks:

Task 2

04 Aug, 2014

Class 1, Class 5 — 139.4 km — Race to goal

Task results:
Overall results:
Tracks:

Task 3

05 Aug, 2014

Class 1, Class 5 — 160.3 km — Race to goal

Task results:
Overall results:
Tracks:

Task 4

06 Aug, 2014

Class 1, Class 5 — 177.8 km — Race to goal

Task results:
Overall results:
Tracks:

Task 5

07 Aug, 2014

Class 1, Class 5 — 214.0 km — Race to goal

Task results:
Overall results:
Tracks:

Task 6

08 Aug, 2014

Class 1, Class 5 — 207.6 km — Race to goal

Task results:
Overall results:
Tracks:

Task 7

09 Aug, 2014

Class 1, Class 5 — 126.8 km — Race to goal

Task results:
Overall results:
Tracks:
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