Applegate Open 2024

Pilots,

After careful consideration (and heavy heart), we have little choice but to cancel the 2020 Applegate Open event.

This may not come as a surprise to many of you.  We reviewed the Opening Oregon draft Plan from the Governor’s Office and weighed it against a few critical components including non-essential travel abilities both in the US and abroad, the ability to uphold physical distancing, and meet mass gathering requirements in addition to other elements.   With many of the flying sites currently shut down, the lack of flying and teaching currency also played a role in the decision for both race and especially SuperClinic pilots.   With all the uncertainties, rather than waiting two more weeks hoping the pandemic would disappear we chose to cancel.

For those of you who have confirmed your attendance with a payment we have some options for you:

• We will apply your 2020 payment towards the 2021 AO.
• We will refund your payment less the bank fee.
• You also have the option to donate a portion, or all of your paid fees, to a fund we have created to give back and provide support to individuals, businesses and/or projects in the Applegate Valley who will suffer economically from the loss of this event.

A form will be sent in a separate email with those details for you to choose your option.

For the rest of you who have registered but not paid, if you would like to make a donation to a fund mentioned above, here is the link to do so.

https://wingsoverapplegate.org/product/applegate-valley-relief-fund/

I want to thank the team of dedicated folks that have relentlessly supported this event including pilots, staff, and volunteers. The decision to cancel was not easy, but necessary in ensuring you and your loved ones some planning opportunity. We each must do our part to help stop the spread of COVID-19. We encourage you to visit Woodrat once it has been deemed safe and watch for updates on smaller organized events including the September Star thistle Fly-in.

Stay healthy, call a family member or friend and check in on them, pick up some extra groceries for a neighbor who may need to stay home more than you due to medical conditions, support a local store or restaurant by purchasing a gift card or other item, and thank an essential employee; that includes the grocery store clerk.

See you in 2021. Thank you!

Terri
Terri Stewart
President,  RVHPA
Organizer, Applegate Open 2020
AO-organizer@rvhpa.org

We have pushed back the decision date to go ahead with the event or cancel from mid April to the end of April.  We are hoping state and local guidelines will be available by that date.  Admittedly its a longshot. 

Meanwhile if any of you have ideas on how to run a competition while maintaining social distancing let us know.

We’ll notify pilots on the website, on our Facebook page, and in an email once we have a decision.  

Dan Wells
Applegate Open Admin
ao-admin@rvhpa.org

Hi pilots,

I am certain you are receiving countless updates regarding COVID-19, and that you may have concerns regarding your attendance or other adverse impacts the pandemic may force upon the Applegate Open 2020.

Currently, we are going ahead with our plans to hold the event as scheduled.   That said, we too are following the news and the government’s response and guidelines as they develop, and we believe we should know a lot more in the next month as more testing is done and we see how the virus is spreading. We hope to gain a better understanding of the risk to the pilots and volunteers who will be attending our event.

In the mid-April time frame we expect to be able to let you know with some certainty that the event will go forward,  be cancelled or possibly be rescheduled.   For those of you who have already paid and are concerned about event fees, please know, if we have to cancel we will be issuing refunds less our bank’s credit card processing fees of $15.

Hopefully the situation will not be as dire as some have been predicting and we can go ahead with the event as scheduled.

Terri Stewart
Event Organizer, Applegate Open 2020

Only 34 days to go till registration opens on Feb 1, 2020

Here’s a short update on Applegate Open, June 13-20, 2020.

The sanctioning application was submitted on September 24th.  Things are moving along smoothly.  I’m happy to report that Eric Reed and John Russell are planning on returning as Meet Director and Safety Director.  Kari Castle is also planning on returning for the SuperClinic and we are expecting Ken Hudonjorgenson to join her.

One big change this year is that the event will have a new Event Organizer. Terri Stewart, RVHPA’s president, will be taking over for Dan and her husband Bon (yes Bon-its not a typo) will be taking over for Mary Beth as volunteer coordinator. .  This is something that Mary Beth and I have been wanting—Some well qualified people taking over the event that are young enough to keep it going long term. Maybe they can break the Haley’s record run of 15 years with the Rat Race.

We’ll still be around helping out in this transition year and beyond.   Dan will be handling most of the admin work leading up to the event and Mary Beth will be recruiting volunteers.  Entering our 70’s we want more time for flying, a new grandchild, and traveling than we were able to do for the last couple of years.  This change will make that possible. 

There are still some details to work out with LongSword Vineyards and we will be looking at the number of fields planned to be going into CBD Hemp cultivation in 2020 later this fall.  More CBD hemp fields and lack of landing areas that could threaten the event. 

But for now all in all things are looking good for Applegate Open 2020.

Dan and Mary Beth Wells

Just a short update and thank you….

Thanks to all who participated in the event this year. 

It was a lot of work with 172 pilots competing in the races or attending the clinic plus another 35 or more volunteers helping.   Mary Beth and I were very happy with the way things went overall .  Eight days of flying.  Generally fast retrieves for the pilots.  And best of all, no serious injuries.  Now if we could just do something about all those pesky CBD hemp grows and all the dirt blowing at the HQ tent.

Believe it or not we are already looking at 2020.  We plan on submitting a sanctioning application to USHPA for June 13-20, 2020.  So mark your calendars.

Hopefully we will see many of you back next year.

Dan and Mary Beth Wells

Happy Memorial Day everyone and thanks to those of you who have served.

Just three weeks till the first day of racing. Over the last month there have been a few additions and a few subtractions but overall the Open and Sprint races have stayed pretty much on target of 160 pilots total for both races.  The SuperClinic is now full with 20 participants.  Pilot ID numbers have been assigned for those who have confirmed their registration with a payment.

I’m still holding spots for foreign pilots and we could probably take a few more U.S. pilots in the Sprint and Open races. Check out the pilot pages to see your pilot ID number who your competition is.

Cheers,

Dan Wells
Event Organizer

Hi Pilots,

Just in case you have looked at the registrations and given up…

We’ve had a number of pilots on the waiting lists since we hit our initial target of 160 pilots total confirmed for the Sprint and Open races a while back.  As a result we have decided to allow a few more pilots to enter the races. 

The pilots on the waiting list have been notified and given a chance to confirm a slot with a payment so now I’m announcing the availability to all.  Here’s the link to see who’s flying in the events and slots still available: https://wingsoverapplegate.org/pilots/  You can use the pull down to see the individual events.

If you have applied and are on the waiting list or you have not applied and are now thinking about it you still have a chance.  Just follow the menus to apply and/or pay. 

If you are thinking about it don’t delay.  Late registration starts and fees go up May 4.

Cheers,
Dan

It looks like we are going to fill up this year.

I have adjusted the split between the Open and Sprint races based on the relative number of applicants.  We will keep the total of both races at 160 pilots to make sure we can get everyone off the hill when conditions are less than ideal.

So far:

The Sprint Race has 59 pilots confirmed out of 74 who have applied for the  65 available slots.  6 more payment confirmations and the race is full. 

The Open Race has  90 pilots confirmed out of the 104 who have applied for the 95 available slots. Because of FAI sanctioning requirements we can only confirm foreign pilots for those last 5 slots until the end of May. U.S.  pilots who apply are being put on a waiting list.  If there are any slots left after May 31 they will go to the first pilots who confirm with a payment.

The SuperClinic has 6 of the 14 pilots who applied confirmed for the 20 available slots.

I’ve ordered a bigger tent!

Dan