Jackson Hole, The End
It's Sunday, and the event is over, so the results are the same. But with no tasks for the last four days, fun injuries are starting occur. Mark Horvath tried to ride a horse using his T-shirt as a bridle, but fortunately the emergency room wasn't too busy. He should be walking soon.
The competition probably won't be worth much for world team points or rankings, but I've decided that comps aren't really about competing. Rather, they're a good excuse to hang out with your friends and generally recreate. Nate Scales suggest we call a competition next year but forget about the competition; this would lower the entry fee substantially, eliminate scoring problems and allow flying to the good parts of the sky instead of turnpoints covered with large black clouds...
Joking aside, this was a fun event. We flew at least one or two extended sled rides every day in the morning, worked on wingovers/spins/whatever, paddled our brains out, hiked, climbed, swam, fished, and generally partook of all the good stuff to do here. Dan did a good job on this comp; I'll come back if he holds another one. The entry fee was reasonable, Jackson is a good town to hang out in, and the mountain was relatively pro-pilot. I'll definitely be back if Dan does this event next year.
I've never competed in a GPS-scored event, but I generally liked it. Mark and Paul Ferguson did a good job downloading everyone's score and running the sailplane-based scoring system (this was cool, you could see you flight in three dimensions from any direction on the computer screen, definite techno geek winner). Scoring problems were minimal despite everyone trying to figure out how to make their GPS work. One of the turnpoints was mis-marked by about a 1/4 mile; I turned directly over the turnpoint and was just barely in the "beer can" radius.
My only real complaint about flying in Jackson has to do with tandem situation. Two Can Fly has the concession, and through some heavy political maneuvering has basically banned anyone else from flying tandem. Given that this is a USHGA site and we're all flying under USHGA insurance, it seems ridiculous that any rated tandem pilot can't fly non-commercial tandems. I wanted to fly with my girlfriend, a rated pilot in her own right, but couldn't do so. I also would have liked to take non-paying friends or potential pilots for a ride; I'm not an active instructor, but I do like to turn people on to flying, and doing a tandem is a good way to do so. There are several people I've taken tandem for free who are now active pilots, and for me this one of the best parts of the sport. Jackson Hole is National Forest land, we're all USHGA pilots, I think this situation is ridiculous. I can see having one commercial tandem concession, but limiting the rights of tandem pilots to fly with other pilots or friends smacks of a money-grubbing mentality. I was told the only way I could fly people tandem was to become a Two-Can-Buy employee and drop $65 their way every time I launched...