US Soaring Team Junior Camp

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2004 U.S. Team Sponsored Junior Camp

See the 2004 Cross Country & Racing Experience Camp

1st U.S. Team sponsored 2004 Junior Camp held in Moriarty, New Mexico. Sunday, July 11 to Friday, July 16.

The 2004 U.S. Team sponsored Junior Camp was the first attempt by the team organization to provide a venue to encourage interest in and train junior pilots for cross country and competition soaring with the ultimate goal of building the Junior Team. This camp grew out of the hard work and influence of Garret Willat (22), Orion Kingman (23) and Mitchell Hudson (28). In addition, camp organization was accomplished by Junior Team Program Coordinator Tim Welles, with funding from the U.S. Team and Team Committee.

Preliminary Camp Highlights

Moriarty, New Mexico is a nearly perfect place to host a camp of this type. The airport is low traffic, there are good off field landing options, a very supportive local club (Albuquerque Soaring Club) and fixed base operator (Sundance Aviation). The weather cooperated with excellent soaring interspersed with thunderstorms on most days. Most of the nine participants had the opportunity to fly dual cross country flights with experienced contest pilots and to fly solo cross country in single place gliders. The members of the Soaring Society of Boulder provided their new DG-505 for the event which was flown by John Seaborn as did the Albuquerque Soaring Club with their Twin Astir flown by Billy Hill. On several days two cross country flights were accomplished by the twins. In addition, the Albuquerque Soaring Club provided their excellent club house and facilities that served as lodging and home base for the camp.

Chip Garner provided excellent lead and follow training to the more advanced pilots with glass gliders and flew a 1000km flight on the last day of the camp accompanied by Garret Willat.

There were approximately 70 tows accomplished by camp participants through Sundance Aviation, plus many firsts at this camp including several first cross county flights, silver and gold badges, longest flights, first off field landing, fastest flights and most fun flights. The longest cross country dual training flight was just under 300 miles taking in Santa Fe and points south.

The day started at the 10:00 am pilots meeting in which we had a short weather briefing, talked about the previous days achievements, reviewed any house keeping issues, planned tasks and typically discussed short weather, performance and contest topics. After flying the days flight logs would be downloaded and analyzed using SeeYou and a laptop projector. In addition short video and longer PowerPoint presentations were given. Dinner was barbequed at the field normally by Garret and friends.

The improvement in the cross country skills of the participants was dramatic even from day to day.

Financials

Team member Garret Willat (22) raised just over $1,700 in the form of direct contributions for the U.S. Team Sponsored 2004 Junior Camp. The U.S. teams supplied another approximately $800 brining the total camp funding to approximately $2,500. These funds were used to pay for direct flight costs only (tows and rentals). The camp finished up on budget. A full financial accounting has been osted on the U.S Team Committee web page under disclosure and is available here. See the Junior Camp financial accounting in PDF here...Thank you for your contribution to the Team sponsored Junior Camp.

Special Thanks

First and foremost Garret Willat (22) deserves a lion share of thanks for doing much of the organization and raising most of the funding for the camp. Mitchell Hudson (28) and the Albuquerque Soaring Club (ASC) deserve a very big thanks as the local sponsoring club and for loaning his personal Discus for use by camp participants. Mark Mocho of the ASC provided a good deal of help as well. The ASC allowed the juniors to use their club house for meetings, bunk house and dinner location. In addition ASC allowed several of the camp participants to use their Astir and Libelle gliders.

Sundance Aviation supplied the towing and were helpful in their support. Billy Hill and Chip Garner volunteered their time and considerable expertise as camp mentors. The members of the Soaring Society of Boulder provided their DG-505 as a high performance cross country trainer.

John Seaborn

See the 2004 Cross Country & Racing Experience Camp

	Sponsoring Clubs Albuquerque Soaring Club Soaring Society of Boulder Gliders used by participants DG-505 (Soaring Society of Boulder)` Discus (Mitchell Hudson) Astir (Albuquerque Soaring Club) Libelle (Albuquerque Soaring Club)	Mentors Billy Hill John Seaborn Chip Garner Critical help from Mitchell Hudson Mark Mocho Sundance Aviation

Junior Pilot Resources
JUNIOR PILOTS INVITED TO SIGN UP If your under age 26 and interested in soaring, click here to get on the U.S. Team Juniors List to receive the latest junior soaring news including alerts about next years Junior Camp. This page includes a many links to additional team sponsored Junior Resources... USA Junior pilots get on the list!