US Soaring Team WGC Reports & Results

The USA Junior National Team has arrived at Husbands-Bosworth, the site of the World Soaring Championship. The contest is hosted by the Coventry Glider Club and the facilities are first rate as this is a large English club located on a huge airfield that was a left over American Bomber base from World War Two. At this point we are in the unofficial practice part of the contest, but so far the WX has been less than a fine cross country day. Mike Westbrook flew locally yesterday to get a feel for his ASW-28 and he managed a 45 minute flight which was likely the second longest flight of the day. Today we are taking care of details such as registration and fixing unexpected glitches like getting the flight recorders validated for Garret Willat's LS-8. The weather looked promising this morning and the organization planned a 200 K task. No sooner had they done that then the clouds filled in the sky and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. Now we don't expect any cross country flights, but Garret and Mike will try to fly while I drive somewhere to the south to have the recorders validated.

We have settled into our somewhat cramped but charming accommodations in a farm cottage in the town of Arthington which is about 10 K from the Airport. Obviously there are aspects of UK life that take getting used to like driving on the left side of the road. That can be especially unnerving especially when navigating roundabouts. Unfortunately, the Dutch team had some difficulty on the road just outside the airport which resulted in a serious accident, injuring both pilots and sending one to the hospital with a broken arm.

The team is very grateful to Jaguar and Land Rover for providing us with our autos at no cost to the team. That was arranged by Diane Black-Nixon and "thank you" sincerely Diane.

Although we expected the Land Rover to be a rugged vehicle what we received went far beyond our expectations. It is one of the largest Land Rovers I have seen and with 4 wheel drive I doubt there is anything that it cannot get through or over. We have decided to call it Gandolf the Grey from Lord of the Rings because it seems the most powerful car on the road, will protect us on any journey, and intimidates every other vehicle. Our other auto is a Jaguar X-type and is very nice and a dream to drive. Since both cars have a hitch we are covered for any landout (curse the word) that might occur.

Bob Leve, Team Captain

. See the Junior Team web page here and the WGC official site here.

Captions for photos: From top to bottom: 1. Junior Team pilots Mike Westbrook and Garret Willat 2. 'Gandolf the Grey' sponsored team vehicle About the pictures. Images are taken by the U.S. Team Captain and other U.S. Team Members. Some of the images used here can be found on the official website and were taken by one of several excellent contributors.
U.S. Soaring Team Standings
Class	Pilot	Sailplane	Contest Number	Day Place & Points	Overall Place & Points
Junior	Garret Willat	LS-8 18	L58
Junior	Mike Westbrook	ASW-28	C6
				See the official scores here
Points of Interest
ABOUT DAY REPORTS The U.S. Team Day Reports are brought to you by the US Soaring Team and hard working volunteer Frank Whiteley. Thank you Frank!
YOUR TEAM SUPPORT All US team members would like to thank those of you who have contributed to make participation in these international events possible. If you have not contributed to the team please consider making one! To see how, visit the U.S. Team Funding page here and the Robertson Trust Web here.
U.S. TEAM COMMITTEE The U.S. Team Committee has been working to establish a more stable management structure and better resources for our soaring teams. The objective are more transparent, accountable, sustainable and competitive United States soaring teams. See the full information on the new U.S. Team Committee here.
U.S. TEAM E-NEWS Sign up today for the U.S. Team E-NEWS. This electronic newsletter is sent out roughly quarterly and covers all the team news. The sign up process is simple - start by clicking here.
TEAM NEWS, HISTORY & ARCHIVE To catch up on all the news for the U.S. World Soaring Teams see the U.S. Team News. See the U.S. Team Archive for team background since 1950. As part of the Archive tour see the U.S. Team History page for a complete listing of US Teams since 1950 or the World Champions page for a complete listing of champions since 1937.
2005 Junior Team Sponsors & Helpers

The Junior Team would like to thank their sponsors who are providing products for the team's use.

Roy McMaster, as the US distributor for SeeYou, the flight planning, analysis and in-flight software is personally is sponsoring copies of SeeYou for the Junior Team. Contact Roy directly via email by clicking here.

Kevin Brooker of Peetot Pants is supplying the team uniforms and several pairs of his innovative pants. See Kevin's web site for more on these pants that allow you to watch your P's and Cu's here.

Many thanks to the Jaguar and Land Rover Engineering teams in England for arranging crew vehicles for the US Junior team. This went a long way toward helping the junior team finances.

Country and Contest Site

In 2005, The Soaring Centre, in association with the BGA, will be hosting the 5th Junior World Gliding Championships. This will be the first International gliding championships to be held in the UK in over a generation. The Soaring Centre, has with 400 members and a large fleet of modern glassfibre sailplanes.

Situated in the heart of the Midlands, the airfield is only 3 miles from the major motorway networks, and 1/2 mile from Husbands Bosworth village, making access easy from any part of the country.