(This article was written last week.)

Let's just take a look at the recent Big Spring Nationals.

The entry fee was $300 and increased if you entered later in the year. By far
most pilots paid $300. A few paid $350, one paid $400, and none paid $450.

The towing fee was $450. If you took a practice flight on Saturday was $35.

With 38 pilots the total entry fee was approximately $13,500 and the towing fees
were $17,100, for a total of $30,600.

We are already talking about real money here and this is a small meet with less
than 40 pilots.

We didn't pay for everything. The city of Big Spring put up a lot of services
and food and water for us (free ice cream in addition) worth around $10,000.
Those services were valued at $20,000 for the 2007 Worlds.

Then there's the cost of room and board while in Big Spring. The cheapest room
was $55, which you could share, but many rooms were $100 or more. You've got to
eat, and you don't have a kitchen. So assuming that you are really cheap you are
spending $50-$75 a day for room and board.

Now comes the drivers at $25/day per pilot. Add the driver's dinner and gas for
the truck, another $25/day. Also got to pay the driver's room.

Add this up and you get at the low end for 38 pilots: $26,600 + $3,500 for the
drivers' rooms.

Add to this the cost to getting to Big Spring and back, I'd guess at $200 -
$400/pilot as it's a long ways away from pretty much anything.  At the low
end that gives us: $7,600.

Let's add it all up: $30,600 + $10,000 + $26,600 + $3,500 + $7,600 = $78,300.

Without sponsorship pilots are paying a significant amount of money to come to a
competition. We're getting about $10,000 worth of sponsorship from the city of
Big Spring. It would be very nice to have about $25,000 more. Reduce towing and
entry fees.

The 2015 Big Spring Nationals income and expenses can be found here:
http://ozreport.com/data/2015BigSpringbudget.xlsx.