oliver gregory <<email>> writes:

After all the great feedback from Team Challenge 2007, we've enjoyed exceptional interest in our fall teaching meet this year. The Tree Toppers hope to outdo themselves with an even better experience this fall. Team Challenge will start Saturday September 27th with a pilot meeting at 7PM. The meet will start Sunday, September 28th and end Saturday, October 4th. We'll have a fun party mid week and a big awards dinner party at the end of the meet. We have an incredible line up of talent helping us with talks and workshops again this year.

Mark Stump will give his fabulous "Fly4Fun/Is It Safe" talk to start us off Saturday night. Mark's is my favorite hang gliding talk and will set the tone for the meet.

Dennis Pagen will present a "Video Launch Seminar", a "Gaggle Flying and Scratching" talk, and help with all our other seminars.

Jim Lamb will give us an "Essentials of Thermal Soaring" talk to help us stay airborne.

Terry Presley will give us a "Restricted Landing Field Technique Seminar" with video enhanced learning for when we venture from the nest.

Mike Barber will present his great "XC Decisions" talks, contribute to other talks and help out.

Kevin Carter will do his "Good Landing Techniques" and "XC Strategies" talks with video enhanced learning and everything else he does.

New Englander Lindsey Chew will do a "SeeYou Seminar" with Stan Roberts helping. We plan to download a team's GPS tracks and run them simultaneously on SeeYou over Google Maps to relive the "Thrill of Victory and Agony of Defeat" thing with the team that wins a good day. This will provide fodder for our panel of experts to comment on the flights.

We'll have a "Weather Talk for the Attention Deficit Disordered." No! I will never make anyone suffer through one of my weather talks again! This talk will be fast and furious weather for the point and clicker with help from Nate Newkirk, Jeff Nibler and me. We'll have hand outs! Nate and the gang have come up with some amazing stuff. It's guaranteed to blow your socks off!

OK! Lets count 'em! That's five Former US National Team Members, A World Record Holder, A World Champion, some New Englanders that talk funny, a couple of not too shabby old Arkansans and some incredibly talented up and coming pilots in this group.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS!

We haven't even tried to promote it and we are already full! We set up online registration a couple of months ago on our TTT website www.tennesseetreetoppers.org and were pleasantly surprised by the incredible interest. TC2008 filled with registered pilots a couple of weeks ago. Now we have an online waiting list at our website. Now we have an online waiting list at our website.

With all this interest, we will allow willing teams to have 6 or 7 pilots on the team for the same cost as a team of 5. This would be a cost of $550 to be shared among the pilots. Only 5 pilots from a team will be allowed to compete each day due to setup and launch area restrictions. At least one "A pilot" team leader must fly every day to lead their teams! Teams bigger than 5 will decide which pilots will fly or drive each day. All pilots must be members of the TTT to participate. Teams already registered should contact me if they are interested in adding extra members.

Slots will open up, so keep checking in. We have accepted registrations without payment to hold slots. On July 15th, pilots who have not sent in their checks for registration will be dropped off our list so more slots may open then. We'll make an announcement on the Oz Report and the TTT website when slots open up.

Team Challenge 2007 was a fantastic success for all who participated and TC2008 will be even better. The early fall weather is great for flying, camping and hanging out in the Sequatchie Valley of Eastern Tennessee. This is a beautiful place with lots of friendly people who are all jazzed about hang gliding. We welcome pilots to join the Tree Toppers and participate in the great experience as volunteers, wind technicians, drivers and merry makers for the first Team Challenge with our Revamped Radial Ramp! Visit our site at www.tennesseetreetoppers.org

Keep checking in for the slots to open. I'm looking forward to all the fun and learning. Can't wait!

Actually it was promoted, in the Oz Report.