Belinda and I have hauled the Oz Report world headquarters to the Hunter's Hot Springs resort, headquarters for the US "nationals." We're here to fly in the "nationals" and report on the going ons here.

At first I was reluctant to come fly here in Lakeview, although I had flown here many times before (or maybe because I had flown here many times before). I was concerned about the possibility of fires (like last year). I didn't want to go to a meet that was moved to another location. It was a long four day drive from Big Spring. I was concerned about flying in the hills if there was a lot of wind. I don't know about the expertise of the task committee at this site and I'm very concerned about the Safety Director's experience (none).

But I recall liking flying here and wanted to come back for another meet after having a great time in Big Spring. Jeff O'Brien and I are hooking up with Belinda as our driver, so I figured that would be good team practice for the Worlds next year in France.

Gale was at the headquarters when we pulled in Thursday evening. It looks like she has everything under control. The Resort is in dilapidated shape compared to when we last saw it in 2000. The kitchen and bar are gone.

We are hooked up to electrical (and wireless) only in a field here at the headquarters and it is great. So beautiful. It doesn't look like there has been much growth (if any) in this area (which is a nice contrast to the rest of the world).

Why have I put the "nationals" in quotes and lower case? That's because this meet is hardly a Nationals. This meet was given the "Nationals" appellation for 2008 by the USHPA in order to encourage participation. We (the folks at the competition committee, and especially David Glover and I) tried to get it applied to this meet in 2007 just for that purpose. At that time there was no other meet that really needed it and the Worlds were on at Big Spring. The EC wouldn't let it happen.

For 2008 the Big Spring meet would have been the appropriate meet for a Nationals as it was very popular and all the top ranked pilots wanted to go there. But now the USHPA decided to give this meet the appellation in part because the Competition Committee Chairman and meet organizer threatened to not run the meet unless he got it. After the failure of the 2007 meet to draw much participation he no doubt had a good case that he wouldn't have good participation unless he had the name.

So that meant that the appellation was attached to a meet that had failed the year before and not to a meet that would have good participation and would draw the top pilots, making it more deserving of the name. Of course, even with the name, the meet had great difficulty attracting participation. It is unclear why.

Whatever the name, I'm looking forward to some great flying and a strong meet here.