Col. Jim Little, director of the airpark facility, said this year's hang gliding competition will be much smaller than last year's world championships — which drew more than 200 pilots from all over the world — but is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

“It's not a national or world championship like last year, but they are calling it the Big Spring International'” said Little. “Event officials are telling me this is still one of the Hang Gliding Association's biggest events of the year.”

Little said the scaled-down nature of the event should minimize any disruption at the airport facility.

“Last year, because we had so many pilots, we had to launch from both ends of the runways,” said Little. “This year, however, we should be able to keep the launches in one area, so that will help to keep any disruptions to the airport to a minimum.

“The hangar space is going to be a little tighter than in years past, as well. Last year, we actually had three hangars — the large, main hangar and then two others, if we needed them — to work from. This year, we'll have to keep everything in the main hangar. We've already began clearing everything out for them and we should be ready in time for the pilots' arrival.”

Little said he will take the same precautions as years past in preparing for the hang glider pilots.

“We'll put out advisories to protect everyone involved,” said Little. “We'll make all of the area pilots and anyone coming into Big Spring aware of the hang gliders and make sure we're covered in all areas.”

Little said the recent shortage of hotel and motel rooms in the Big Spring area did little to deter the association from scheduling the hang gliding meet.

“We warned them there's a severe shortage of lodging in the city,” said Little. “In the end, I suppose the flying conditions, which is what draws the pilots to the Big Spring area, won out.”

According to David Glover, one of the organizers and coordinators of last year's championship and coordinator for this year's event, there are few places in the world that can offer the kind of flying Big Spring boasts.

“The consistency of the conditions here means we can fly everyday,” said Glover. “We’re not winded or weathered out. The sun hits the ground and the ground heats up, so thermal layers of air go up. The base of the clouds are really high, which means we can fly up really high into the air and the thermals are strong, so you don’t have to fly around too much before you hit a thermal that pushes you up.

“Our desire is to see how long we can stay up and then fly around a course as quickly as we can. It just has the right combination of meteorology and geography to allow us to fly for a long time and fly fast. The men and women who come here just love the flying. It’s excellent.”

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it