The German pilot said that he felt that they would get three out of five days flying during any of the German Opens at Altes Lager Niedergörsdorf, so that my estimate at 50% flyable days was a bit too pessimistic. He had done a 340 km triangle there himself.

He also felt that the 2008 world gliding championship had worse weather than was the norm at the nearby site.

I compete at a wonderful site in Maryland in the northeast and it has relatively weak conditions and some non flyable days. I love flying there and it seems a lot like Altes Lager Niedergörsdorf. But I know that it is no Forbes, or Big Spring, or even Montecucco.

Over the past three years of competing at Forbes, there are been 23 where we competed and two where we didn't do to the weather conditions. This year we had those two days. We also stopped a task on the last day after an hour and a half due to cu-nimbs. We hadn't stopped a task before.

I put up links to the site proposals here: http://ozreport.com/13.008#1.

Apparently the Mexican pilots wanted to put in a proposal for the hang gliding Worlds, I assume at Valle de Bravo, where the paragliding Worlds are being held. The story I heard is that the head of the association that would allow for the bid to go in for the paragliding worlds wanted $200,000 for his signature. They somehow got around that corrupt official, but he is still in there and frustrating the process of putting in a bid for the hang gliding worlds.

The list of corrupt countries. Mexico is 72 out of 180. Afghanistan is 176. The US is tied at 18^th. Brazil is 80^th. Turkey is 58^th. Australia and Canada are 9^th. Germany is 14^th. Italy is 55^th.