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U.S. Soaring Team Day
Reports & Results

2005 4th FAI Junior
World Gliding Championships
Husbands Bosworth, United Kingdom, August 6-20, 2005

Tuesday, August 9th, 2005
Competition Day 4
Assigned Area Task:
3:00hr (150-340 km)
[Preliminary results Westbrook 1st, Willat 2nd for the day! - Ed]

REPORTS

LATEST

JUL 19

AUG 1
Getting settled

Click the dates!

WEB LINKS

Meet this
Team

Time in
UK

Official Web
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WGC Calendar

SCHEDULE

Unofficial training
30th July - 2nd

Registration
3rd - 5th

Official training
3rd

Official Team
Captains 4th

Civic Reception
5th August

Opening
6th August

Contest 6-19
August 2005

Farewell party
19th August

Closing
20th August

NEWS BRIEF - August 9th, 2005

The contest went better for the team yesterday, much better than landing out as we did the day before. Garret took 5th flying a speed of 98 K/hr which earned him 965 points. Mike took 11th at a speed of 96.7 K/hr for 937 points. Both were able to carry about half their water on a very tricky day when many of the other pilots dropped their ballast before the start and that really helped them on their final glide against the wind. They started early in a group of gliders including the Swiss, French, and Austrians, but Garret was the first glider to land and Mike shortly afterwards. At that point I set my stopwatch and waited hoping not to see other gliders for a good long time. The scores were very close with Garret's 98 K/hr only 1.8 off of the winner speed. At this point we are trying to make up for the Day 2 landouts and are beginning to move up in the overall standings with Garret in 19th and Mike in 22nd. Garret is 542 points out of 1st place and Mike is 591 out. Garret's log. Mike's log.

Today is an interesting day as at the briefing they thought we had only a 50% chance of flying, but they launched and the guys were on task at 1422 with a 3 hour assigned area task. The sky is very strange with almost no Cu's, but there is a good bit of wave Lennie's and bands of alto stratus. The wave is too high to reach as the contest has a ceiling of 8000 feet. Because the day is confusing they set an unusual three sector assigned area task. Pilots were sent south into a pie shaped sector with a 30 degree angle having a depth of 40 K. and the apex is a turnpoint names Towchester. Being used to our assigned area circles these sectors are interesting especially as there is a parachute jump circle just outside the sector and directly on the course to the second sector. The second wedge apex is at Enstone with a 50 degree angle and a 60 K depth. From there they come home hitting another wedge area as the control point and the final glide to the A/P. Our local adviser, Adrian Hatten was very helpful in orienting Mike and Garret to the best lift areas and the strategy for getting around the parachute jump zone.

At the briefing two pair of clean undershorts were won by the French pilots. One just made it over the Flax field at low energy and the other was close to the finish line and seemingly trying to ridge soar a tree. Observers said he finally dumped into a field when they couldn't see much distance between his glider and its shadow.

As I am talking to other team captains I am learning about the support their teams receive and it is more than adequate to develop competent Junior Competition. The British have a sports lottery and much of the money goes into paying for practice gliders, tows, contest fees, contest expenses, and almost anything else they need. The French train at their national soaring school at St Auban where they have their choice of the latest gliders, and dormitory and food facilities. They also bring the schools gliders to competitions. Both are flying LS-8's for the contest. The Danes provide their pilots with two modern gliders for the season so they can practice for competitions. Not a bad way to support their National Teams.

I have attached the SeeYou traces of both flights from yesterday. I am amazed that they were able to fly the distances on such a marginal day, especially considering that they were flying around 4000 feet most of the time. Also I have attached a picture of Ryan's towrope art work and another that shows what the Junior Team Captain has to endure from the crew.

I am pleased that we have become a team in the best sense of the term with everyone working toward the same goal and each one proud of the others accomplishments. That is difficult to do with USA teams as they are not used to team flying or cooperating as our contests pit each pilot against the other. Perhaps we ought to experiment with teams flying in competitions in our country as it is more fun and would better prepare us for International contests. Whatever we accomplish in this competition we will come away with a special sense of having shared a wonderful experience and each will have a feeling of camaraderie and friendship with the others. I'm not sure that winning is more important that that and I doubt that a team can win without that.

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: 1. More of Ryan's tow rope art. 2. "Did I really volunteer for this?" 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	2nd 948	14th 2795
Junior	Mike Westbrook	ASW-28	C6	1st 1000	13th 2798
				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.