50th Annual Hang Gliding Spectacular Recap

Thanks for making this year’s competition the most SPECTACULAR one yet!

108 Pilots were registered to fly in the Spectacular, the largest number of pilots to date. With so many pilots on one sand dune, we could only complete 2 rounds of flying. Which meant our competitors had to make every flight count! Congratulations to all of our competitors this year for their flights. And congratulations to our winners below!

This year, the Rogallo Foundation inducted two members into its Hall of Fame. Rick Jacob and Vic Powell.

Rick Jacob discovered the sport of hang gliding in 1981. And in 1988 he co-founded the Sequatchie Valley Soaring Supply – a hang gliding school – in Eastern Tennessee. In 2011, Rick was introduced to paragliding and brought the sport to the Sequatchie Valley. He was instrumental in this foot-launched aviation renaissance and is affectionately referred to as “The King” by the local paragliding community. The free-flight community has and will continue to benefit from the tireless efforts and selfless service of Rick Jacob.

We can all thank Vic for founding this event originally, as the tactile flight meet 50 years ago. Kitty Hawk Kites took over the Tactile Flight meet in 1974 and Vic continued to do everything he could to promote it and hang gliding. He was a great ambassador for the sport. Vic went on to become president of USHPA and established good working relationships with the FAA and the National Park Service. Vic was a founding member of the Rogallo Foundation in 1992 and enlisted a friend of his to design the Rogallo Foundation logo and the Rogallo print given to the honoree(s) each year.