US Soaring Team WGC Reports & Results

Yesterday was another long day as the organizers assigned a 327 K course going to the north and south of Husbands-Bosworth. Mike came in 20^th with a speed of 102.4 and Garret was 21^st with a speed of 102.2. Although they were down in the placings they had a good flight and were only 158 points off the winner. Both were on course for over 3 hours and 11 minutes and I think it is amazing that they were able to complete such long tasks in conditions that are weak and where the ceiling is seldom over 4000 feet. Add to that the most complex airspace that I have ever seen. It makes me realize how lucky we are in the USA to have such open skies to fly in. I don’t think I will ever complain about the control zone near Stewart Air force Base that we Wurtsboro pilots need to avoid. I have attached a trace of both of their flights. Mike's log. Garret's log.

In terms of overall scores Garret is in 17^th and about 800 points out of a podium position. We know that can’t be made up with only today remaining but both Garret and Mike want to win another day. As before the first three places are held by our hosts, the British Team, and they have a substantial lead on the rest of the field.

Today the weather is more of the same confusion. We had heavy rains and thunderstorms last night and now the sky is completely overcast and a uniform grey. That said, Hugh Brookes, our unfortunate weather expert, has said that it should clear a bit and there ought to be some bubbly (I assume he referred to lift, but maybe Champaign). I think being the weather prognosticator at an English contest must be the most ego deflating job in the world. The weather changes so quickly that the odds of getting a forecast right are very small. I admire Hugh’s courage to take on the job.

Today’s task is an assigned area task and we are cautiously optimistic since we have won both days before when they gave the fleet an assigned area task. It is a minimum distance of 105 K and a max of 313 with three pie shaped sectors. Two of the pie slices look rather thin as they are squeezed in between two major airspace restrictions and the one to the south is fat and includes the usual parachute jumping zones.

As usual there are pranks at a junior Contest. Yesterday, someone rearranged the briefing tent so that all the chairs, tables, etc were opposite their correct orientation and today someone has stolen the FAI flag. Ron Bridges, our CD has threatened that unless it is returned there will be capital punishment.

UPDATE!

We waited out the weather, but the weather won. At 1445 they scrubbed the day. Tomorrow at 11:00 is the closing ceremony.

Cheers from the UK,

Bob Leve

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

Captions for photos: From top to bottom: 1. Captain and Crew at launch 2. Curious George, Mike's co-pilot 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		17th 6342
Junior	Mike Westbrook	ASW-28	C6		24th 6008
				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!
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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.