Has the USHPA Competition Committee and the USHPA BOD asked one single "competition" pilot what they want? Have they done a survey of "competition" pilots to find out where they want the nationals in 2009? They can find the list of "competition" pilot here on their very own web site: http://www.ushpa.aero/competition/ntss1/index.php.

I'm just going to bet that they haven't asked them for their advice on where to hold the nationals or how to "improve" the competition scene, unlike Gary Osoba did, and I reported on earlier.

Here's the list of people who were at the USHPA Competition Committee meeting over the weekend:

Mike Haley (Chair), Connie Work, James Anderson, Steve Kroop, Dick Heckman, Rob Sporrer, Ollie Gregory, Lucas Ridley, David Glover, Jon James, Riss Estes, Lisa Tate, Urs Kellenberger, Rich Hass, LE Herrick, Dennis Pagen, Paul Montville, Martin (office), Bill Finn, Stan Abraham, Rigo Villalobos, Leo Bynum.

Here is the list of voting members at that same meeting: Mike Haley (Chair), Dick Heckman, Steve Kroop, Rob Spore, L.E. Herrick, Jon James, Riss Estes, Lisa Tate, Urs Kellenburger, Rich Hass, Leo Bynum, Dennis Pagen.

I want you, my readers, to find one name on the voting member list for the USHPA Competition Committee that you'll find on the list of competition hang glider pilots found above. Have you found him yet?

So who exactly is making decisions for the competition pilots?

Oh, is the USHPA's list of "competition" pilots not complete enough for you? Well, how about our USHPA president's list of King Mountain Competition pilots? You'll find them here: http://www.flykingmountain.com/contestresults.html. You'll find one familiar name.

Now, is anyone on that list (other than Mr. James, recreational class pilot and currently ranked 80th) voting at the USHPA Competition Committee on the future of USHPA sanctioned hang gliding competitions?

There were two competition pilots in the meeting who were not voting. Neither of them were allowed to vote. Both of them spoke in favor of Big Spring as the site for the Nationals.

When do competition pilots get to determine their future, instead of USHPA bureaucrats?

What does Gary Osoba have to say about this choice:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13683&start=14

As one of the original pioneers in the development of hang gliding, I can remember times of very high attrition (fatalities). They generally fell into two categories. One had to do with unsafe designs. It took time to understand the parameters, and to require certification to standards which produced safer flying designs.

The second one was more pervasive, but only for a relatively short period of time. This is because people learned, and changed. It had to do with a certain element, attracted to the sport in its seminal stage for all the wrong reasons, people who lacked meaning or substance, who thought that the more radical the conditions, the more dramatic (unsafely so) event they could survive would somehow impart desperately desired value to their life. Macho mentality. Neanderthal impulses. Existentialism at its worst. Sartre never envisioned this segment of the early stages of hang gliding. Le etre et le neant.

The most functional definition of raw intelligence revolves around the ability to adapt. To learn from prior experience.

Let me get this straight. Go to a site which has a reputation for producing extreme mechanical turbulence, and to do so frequently. Mistake it, and then pose it as "big conditions". Then maximize the amount of time you spend in these conditions by the design of the task. The survivors become the victors.

Welcome back to the worst part of the early 1970's, and ignore what was learned by the pioneers of the sport. I have a small, disconnected voice. Too bad the departed can no longer speak, in tones and at volumes more difficult to ignore.

Puzzled, but with no ill intent.