Why not go to the place that has the best and safest conditions for a hang gliding competition? Why not go to the place that was chosen for the World Championship? Why is the USHPA BOD so unaware of what is really going on? Do you really think that CIVL would have chosen Lisa Tate to organize the Worlds and have chosen to fly at King Mountain? Guess again.

Big Spring is an incredible site for hang gliding. In 2008 we set the World record for the longest task set and made in any competition ever. Ever. This was a task that the pilot loved. Even the ones who didn't make it all the way. The smiles were high wattage.

Big Spring is the site where we have had the highest percentage of days flown during a competition compared with any other site. The only one close was in Hearne, also in Texas. This is the number one desire of competition pilots.

The area around Big Spring provides unlimited areas for safe landings, safe low saves, and easy retrieval from goals and if you don't make it to goal. The goals are almost always at small airports which provide for wind socks, grass breakdown areas, building shading from the sun and wind.

The air conditions are Big Spring are magnificent. They are made for hang gliders, unlike the Owens and King Mountain, which were made for hang gliders of the eighties. We can do triangle and out and return tasks even with significant winds as we showed again in 2008.

The city of Big Spring provides incredible support. They bring out flocks of volunteers and we salute them every time that we go to Big Spring. Our event really rallies the community and gives them something to look forward to each year. They see Big Spring as having a special niche and we love to encourage them and repay them however we can for their generosity. Given them the prestige of the Nationals is one way to help them.

I actually find it a terrible slap in the face to the good people of Big Spring for the USHPA BOD to give the Nationals moniker to the King Mountain meet. But the USHPA BOD really has no idea, no connection with the folks in Big Spring, so they would not even be aware of what they have done.

The Big Spring Internationals got huge media exposure in the papers and on TV around Texas. We have worked for years to build this up and it is paying off.

The airport facilities provide for pilot safety and comfort. Hang gliders can be stored in the hangar, and pilots can rest in air conditioned comfort in the terminal building while keeping track of world affairs on their computers.

Why give the moniker to an event that wouldn't be successful without the moniker, when you already have an event that clearly deserves the moniker because it truly represents a site of National quality?