Mark Webber <>, Lakeview resident, sends:

Click on above.

This is the first day that I could get a picture without a car in the way. Notice, no smoke.

I think they were looking for an excuse to move it over to Medford (Woodrat). The low attendance was probably the leading factor for Mike (seventeen pilot pre-registered) not wanting to rent out the fairgrounds. Mike called me Tuesday night and asked me about the fire. I told him the winds that night and the possibility of rain Wednesday morning would allow the firefighters to get it under control. I said he should call me Wednesday at noon.

Apparently he made his decision at 10:00 a.m. instead of waiting a couple of hours because I knew by 11:00 that it was "contained". There was no smoke in the air Wednesday and Paul Murdoch's mis-reading of the TFR (see his bulletin here:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HangGlide/message/63654) did not help matters. Paul writes that there is no flying within 7.5 miles of the Lakeview airport, but if you look at the report instead of listening to him (http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_7_8755.html#areas) the center of no fly area with a 7.5 mile radius is 30.8 miles south west of the airport.

There are still some clean-up crews here, dealing with smoldering stumps, but that's all, not a fairgrounds full of them.

You already know that I only planned this event because I thought there was not going to be a sanctioned hang gliding event this year, and after I got the ball rolling here, Florida Ridge jumped in and everyone got as many points as they needed (at a aerotowing site, no less). So now Mark Forbes has as much ammunition that he needs to show as a matter of fact that mountain sites don't work, hang gliding doesn't "work" (pronounced "pay"), and we should be looking at motor mounts.

Is there any wonder why I think the USHPA SUCKS?

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