Meet the US Soaring Team - Open, 18-Meter & 15-Meter

Heinz Weissenbuehler (46) started flying gliders at the age of 14 as a Junior on Harris Hill, Elmira, NY where he flew his first solo flight in a SGS 2-33. Since then, he accumulated about 4000 hours in gliders and flew many contests, including 19 Nationals. Heinz works as a 767 pilot for American Airlines and lives and flies on Harris Hill where he has been a member of Harris Hill Soaring Corp. (HHSC) for 33 years. Instructing and working with the many Harris Hill Juniors is as important to him as soaring itself. Heinz’ wife Karin and father Heinz Sr. are also active soaring pilots at HHSC. He will be flying his Nimbus 4 at the WGC in Lüsse-Berlin, Germany in 2008 and Karin will be crewing for him.

Open Class
Garret Willat

Garret Willat (26) soloed on his 14th birthday. He did so by soloing 18 different gliders. Growing up on Sky Sailing, a glider flight school, owned and operated by his parents he now works there as a full-time flight instructor while going to ERAU part-time. He has been active in the OLC in which his club took first in the OLC League, and second in the OLC Classic for 2007. Garret started flying open class with George Lee at one of his Junior Camps at Plain Soaring, Australia. Then was a ‘hired-gun’ to help get the minimum number of pilots competing at the 2005 Open Class Nationals. Little did anyone know it would lead to selling his "kiddy" glider, and purchasing a Nimbus 3. He has crewed in one Junior World Gliding Championships (JWGC), competed in 2 JWGC, 11 Nationals, 4 US regional’s including 1 win and was a Competition Director for a Region 12 contest. Currently he is serving on the US Competition Rules Committee. Garret is very active in soaring from introductory rides to racing. Renee and Leena will be crewing for Garret.

18-Meter Class
Richard Walters

Richard Walters has been soaring since 1972. He has logged over 3000 hours and has been racing US Nationals since 1985 with four wins in four different classes. Germany 2008 will be Rick's fourth World Championship. Rick's father, Fred, and uncle, Carl, were both glider pilots during the formative "Bishop Wave Project" and Southern California scene during the 1940's and 50's. A refugee from Silicon Valley in 1990, Rick gave up an engineering career and started a general contracting business in Minden, Nevada specializing in green building. Soaring related duties include a term on the SSA Rules Committee, Minden-Tahoe Airport Advisory, Airsailing Trustee, and Competition Director for a Nationals and several Regionals. Rick will be flying the Preworlds in 2007 along with Heinz Weissenbuhler.

18-Meter Class
Doug Jacobs

Few pilots have had the racing success of Doug Jacobs. This 59 year old retired financial executive from Providence, Rhode Island has won the US National Championships eight times and the prestigious Hatcher "Top Gun" Trophy in 1994, 1995, and 2003. Internationally Doug became World Champion in the 15-Meter Class and was awarded the Umberto Nannini trophy at the 1985 World Gliding Championships in Reiti, Italy. Overall Doug has represented the United States in eight previous World Gliding Championships, finishing as the 15-Meter Bronze Medalist in both the 1987 and 1991 Championships. Most recently he was won the Seniors contest twice and placed fifth in the Standard Class World Championships in Sweden in 2006. Beyond US National and World Gliding Championship success, Doug has competed in the Hitachi Masters of Soaring three times, winning the event in 1986. Doug also was a participant in the 1995 Takikawa Masters of Soaring in Japan and a Bronze Medalist in the 1998 Samedan Jubilee Competition in Switzerland. Having soloed at age 27 in 1973, Doug flew his first Nationals at Elmira, New York in 1980 and has earned Diamond badge #478. He has approximately 5000 total soaring hours. A strong supporter of the sport, Doug is the current Chairman of the US Team Committee and served as past Treasurer and Director-at-Large of the Soaring Society of America. He is also a Lincoln Award winning contributor to Soaring Magazine, a member of Sugarbush Soaring Club (Vermont), and the Greater Boston Soaring Club (Massachusetts). Doug was elected to the US Soaring Hall of Fame in 1990.

15-Meter Class

Karl Striedieck

Port Matilda, Pennsylvania is the address for 70-year old Karl Striedieck, a pilot who has flown in 62 U.S. National Championships winning an incredible seventeen along the way. Karl has logged over 7500 hours in gliders since his start in soaring in 1964. He has represented the United States in 12 World Gliding Championships taking the silver on two occasions. In addition to World contests Karl has flown in three Smirnoff Derby's, one Hitachi and two foreign nationals. Karl is an accomplished cross-country pilot setting nine World Distance records in out & return, goal and triangle categories from his magnificent ridge top Eagle Field. Karl will be flying an ASW-27 in 15-Meter Class at the 2008 Worlds. Crewing for Karl will be his wife Iris and brother Walter. Karl enjoys the flying challenge of competitive soaring and is an accomplished falconer.

15-Meter Class
Gary Ittner

Fifty-one year old Design Engineer Gary Ittner calls Los Angeles, California home. Gary soloed in a 2-33 in 1983 and has added over 4900 soaring hours since then. Before taking up full scale soaring, Gary flew radio control gliders competitively and his experience translated well as Gary has been a tough competitor since flying his first full scale contest in 1985. Since then, Gary has flown in 44 US Nationals, becoming 15-Meter US National Champion in 2007. As a US Team member for the sixth time, Gary looks forward to the possibility that he and his team-mates could bring home medals from Luesse. Gary plans to fly a Ventus 2 in Germany and says he competes for the sheer fun of competitive soaring.

Reserve Pilot
Bill Elliott

Bill (WE) is a 49 year old pilot and rocket scientist (really!) who hales from Huntsville, Alabama. Bill parlayed degrees in finance and engineering into a 25-year career in the defense industry. In 2006, Bill left the high tech world and became self-employed as a property investor. While in college, Bill earned an airplane rating, but by 1989, he was looking for a new challenge, and the lure of motorless flight induced him to join the Huntsville Soaring Club. In 1995, he won the Region 5 South Sports Class championship, then took a 5 year hiatus from soaring to spend time with his kids. With the acquisition of an ASW-27 in 2002, Bill’s competition soaring career moved into high gear. A succession of wins in the Region 5 North and South 15 meter championships was followed by finishing 10th in the 2005 U.S. 15 Meter Nationals. A 4th place finish at the 2007 15 meter nationals earned him a slot as reserve pilot for the 2008 U.S. Team. Bill has served in various roles on the Huntsville Soaring Club Board of Directors and was recently appointed Alabama SSA Governor after a five-year stint as SSA State Recordkeeper. He was a founding member of the Georgia-Tennessee-Alabama (GTA) race series, and has begun development of a Wiki-based Web site, www.GliderPilot.org , that he hopes will become a one-stop shop of soaring information serving the global soaring community. Bill holds many Alabama, Tennessee, and New Mexico State soaring records and has a claim pending for a U.S. national multiplace record. When asked what areas Bill felt were important for the US Team Committee to focus on, he replied, “I would like to see the Committee work to grow and enhance the fund raising that supports the Team and to continue moving our focus toward becoming more competitive at the World level by challenging our pilots to embrace international rules and team flying in future US Nationals.”

Team Captain
Sam Zimmerman

Sam is a 68 year old retired Neurologist currently splitting time between Greenville South Carolina and Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The flying bug started for Sam early in college when he soloed a J3 Cub after only 7 hours. Flying went on hold until medical school and residency could be completed. The US Army took Sam to Germany in 1967 where he discovered soaring and joined a local German soaring club. He soloed in a Berg Falke, and soon transitioned to club L-Spatz. He later bought an L-Spatz and flew it 150 hours, earned a Silver C badge mostly from winch launch while in Germany. After returning to the US, Sam spent several years in the Atlanta area where he made acquaintance with competition soaring in an SH-1. He attended his first Nationals in 1976 at the 1st 15M national in Bryan, Ohio, winning one day. Since 1976, he has flown numerous national and regional competitions, earning a few regional wins, and some top 10s in the nationals accumulating nearly 4500 soaring hours in a variety of gliders including PIK, LS3, ASW-20, LS-4, LS-6, Discus, LS-7, LS-8 and, currently a Ventus 2cx. Sam was team MD and crew for Ray Gimmey at the 1981 WGC in Paderborn, Germany. He functioned as captain for the 2006 US team during the winter organizing phase, but was eventually added to the team as pilot in 18M class, and finished the '06 WGC in Sweden in 17th place. As a charter member of the Airscapes glider club located in Spartanburg South Carolina, Sam has been actively involved in supporting the sport and is a former Region 5 Director. He has performed weather duties for several regional and national contests, Sam continues to find the sport of racing gliders irresistibly fascinating and challenging. Since retirement he has ramped up participation to typically three nationals a year and could not do this without the unflagging support of his wife Leigh.

The view the calendar of WGC and U.S. National events see the team calendar... If you would like to learn more about prior U.S. Teams view the team archives here... For more team links see the links page.

Multi-Class Background

This event started it all. The first World Soaring Championships was held on Germany's Wasserkuppe in 1937 making this event the official grandfather of all World Soaring Championships. Up until 1950 all competitors flew in the open class regardless of glider type. In 1950 the two place class was added. In 1958 the two place class was replaced with the Standard class. In 1978 the 15-Meter class was added to this event creating what most pilots think of as the three traditional FAI classes. The 18-Meter Class was added in 2002. Recently new FAI classes have been added including Junior, World (PW-5, Women's and 18-Meter championships.

There are currently four classes making up the Multi-Class including the Open, 18-Meter, 15-Meter and Standard. The Open Class is the "unlimited" class, home to the world's highest- performing and most expensive gliders. There are no design restrictions placed on the open class so wingspans range up to 100 feet in length. In the 15-Meter Class the wingspans are limited to 15 meters (49.2 feet) with no other design restrictions. This is the class that, worldwide, includes the greatest number of gliders. The 18-Meter Class grew out of interest in sailplanes that fit between the Open class and the 15-Meter class and could easily carry a motor and is the newest FAI class. The only important restriction is on span, which must not exceed 18 meters (59 ft). This class is the only one to admit motorized gliders; some models include an engine that can be extended to launch and retrieve the glider or stowed away for pure soaring flight.

See how the US Teams have done over the years or view the list of World Champions.

NOTICE: These pilots are those selected to US Soaring Teams using the US selection procedure. The final number of team members may be limited by the organizers or by funding availability. Team members selected before their respective Pre-Worlds have the incentive to participate or re-qualify for their team position in the year prior to their WGC. Confirmation will be made through the US Team Committee as pertinent information is available.