During the Santa Cruz Flats Race one of the southern California pilots there mentioned that a fellow pilot from Elsinore felt that my campaign against the USHPA Competition Committee Chairman's awarding of full meet validity to the King Mountain co-Nationals was really aimed at keeping Bill Soderquist from challenging me for a position on the 2011 US National team. The charge is that I wanted to reduce the number of NTSS ranking points that he would receive from the 2009 King Mountain co-Nationals so that he would have less of a chance of surpassing my total NTSS ranking points.

This charge is false.

It is also obviously incorrect if you just take a moment to look at the facts.

The question you have to ask yourself is whether giving the 2009 King Mountain co-Nationals a meet validity that is in line with the USHPA Competition Rulebook (going by the rules) or giving in a fair valuation (my proposal), both of which are less than the arbitrary full validity (with specious argumentation from the Competition Committee Chairman) would have any great affect on Bill's changes of being on the US National team. If the effect is negligible, then it is unlikely that this is my motivation.

The US National team in 2011 will likely consist of the top six pilots by NTSS ranking. Bill is currently ranked at 18th with 926 points (including the 2009 King Mountain co-Nationals). I'm ranked 7th with 1560 points. Bill would have 617 if he got 23 NTSS ranking points from the King Mountain co-Nationals putting him in 34th place.

You will notice that there are a lot of pilots who are vying for the 2011 US National team that are doing significantly better than Bill Soderquist when it comes to accumulating points for the 2011 team. It is these pilots that I should be concerned about, not Bill.

But first and foremost I should be concerned about my own results and performance. At the end of 2008 I was ranked third in the US (and had the highest US pilot ranking in the World ranking in the spring of 2009). It is my relatively poor performance during this northern hemisphere flying season, that has caused me to drop in the rankings.

In addition, Bill rarely (never?) attends more than one of the NTSS-based competitions (only one that I am aware of in 2008, and none before that). It was only because the King Mountain co-Nationals was sanctioned this year that he attended more than one in 2009. While that pattern may change in 2010, so far that would for me be a distance consideration, relative to concerns about my other competitors and about my own performance.

I believe in fair open competition to choose the best pilots for the US National team in an objective manner. You fly against each other and you fly against the best pilots in the world, and if you do relatively well against them, you get your NTSS ranking points. I do not choose to engage in any underhanded tactics that would undermine that approach.

This is one reason why I object to the arbitrary and capricious manner in which the King Mountain co-Nationals were given 100% meet validity. This has raised such a stink that it will now be arbitrated by the USHPA BOD members as a body, and not left to the Competition Committee.

I have done Bill a favor by providing a comprehensive rational for awarding the King Mountain co-Nationals significantly more validity than it would be due under the USHPA Competition Rulebook.

I hope that Bill chooses to fly in the upcoming NTSS competition season in the US. I love flying against the best. For me the competition is not about beating other pilots, but rather testing yourself and using other pilots as a guide to how well you are doing.