US Soaring Team WGC Reports & Results

The US team continues to do well during the official practice period. The scores from yesterday were revised and both Mike and Garret moved up. Garret is in 4th place from yesterday with a speed of 93.7 K/hr and Mike is in 5th with a speed of 93.2 K/hr. Not bad flights for a day that was supposed to be non-flyable. Lets hope they continue that kind of flying when the competition begins tomorrow. I have attached three SeeYou traces from yesterday and the day before. Two are Garret's flights and one is Mike's.

Garrett Log 1, Garrett Log 2, Mike Log

Yesterday's WX report for today was supposed to be grand as the front was to go through last night and clear today. We did get rain last night, but today is cloudy and the 10 AM pilots meeting has been postponed until 12:00. We will attend the pilots meeting, but we have decided not to fly today even if they launch. Mike has flown for the last four days and Garret for the last three. As this is a long contest I want to be sure they are not getting fatigued. They'll need energy for the last few days as that is the time when the competition is likely to be won or lost. So today we relax. We caught up on some shopping and and we may go off to see an interesting English Canal with a set of multiple locks and a canal tunnel.

Being the coach of the Junior Team has some interesting twists that I had not anticipated. I am unfortunately listening to music not to my tastes and the guys seem disappointed that I am not familiar with groups named Bright Eyes and Cake and some others that I ought not to repeat on any self respecting website. One certainly realizes one's age when hanging out with a bunch of Juniors. At this point I feel like someone's great grandfather who is kindly tolerated by another generation that might as well live on another planet.

The American flag, on its rather inventive flagpole that Ryan constructed, is still standing through the UK winds. We had a moment of fear when the organizers placed a huge water tank nearby and as it filled the ground on one side collapsed and it fell over spilling hundreds of gallons of water. Fortunately, it missed our guy wires (really thin rope) and they have now stabilized it with wooden footings.

The briefing today was informative as Ron (the CD) reported that someone from the town Sibbertoft, a kilometer away from the finish line, called to complain about gliders flying too low over his house. His complaint was not given much importance as he was told that so long as he could read the wing numbers that was all right, but if he began to read the pilots names off their polo shirts he ought to call again.

Actually, the finish line has a set of power lines nearby and pilots were asked not to fly under the wires, but to go over them. Having seen the height of those electric lines I hope that it was said tongue in cheek.

Tonight all of the teams are invited to be part of a parade in the town of Market Harborough so we will be there marching in our uniforms. After the parade there will be a short ceremony and then they have provided THREE rock bands for entertainment. I think I will skip the entertainment.

Cheers from the UK,

Bob Leve, Team Captain

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

Captions for photos: From top to bottom: N/A 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.