It was the summer of 1989 and I had just flown my second cross
country flight ever. I had purchased a used Wills Wing Euro Sport and flown
twenty nine miles from Chelan Butte past Mansfield. (My previous cross country
flight was on a Pacific Airwaves Vision 20, twelve miles north from Chelan, a
year earlier.)

I headed south with my driver to Oregon from Seattle and hooked up with the
Wills Wing pilots because I had a truck and a driver and they didn't.

Obviously we all had king posted gliders because there weren't any topless
gliders then. I had an intermediate glider but Joe Bostik had won the Nationals
previously flying a Sport (it's a long story).

There were seventy five pilots at this high end competition including Mark
Newland from Australia (who would eventually win the competition), Mark Gibson,
Kari Castle, Jim Lee, Chris Arai, Randy Haney, Larry Tudor, Kenny Brown, and
numerous other top pilots. This was one of the big competitions held in the US
and I went to it just because it was nearby. All the top pilots from the Pacific
Northwest were also there.

Now as a neophyte I was in a competition with experienced pilots but we were
flying similar gliders even if mine was not the top end king posted glider. I
had Joe's example to refer to. It was possible then to fly in a open class
competition with equipment that was similar to that used by the best pilots. I
didn't feel that I was greatly disadvantaged by my equipment.

On the first day the goal was seventy five miles to the east. I was the last one
to make goal. I had about tripled my longest distance. I continued to do
relatively well on the following days, and when the goal was a little over
hundred miles to the south almost to Lakeview, I landed just short after
climbing to by far my highest point by then, 15,000'. Ken Brown spent the night
out next to an alkali lake as we had traveled far over areas that were not that
accessible.

I ended up in twenty fifth place out of seventy five surpassing all my "flying
buddies" from Washington state.

Things have changed since then. That's why we have Sport Class now. The idea is
to have competitions that allow for equipment that isn't the top of the line and
promote access to competitions for pilots who have less experience and don't fly
on the open class circuit.

It is the fact that things have changed that requires that we support Sport
Class and the competition venue it provides to pilots who have less resources
and time to devote to competition.