US Soaring Team 2013: Chaves

Update on Preparations for Argentina                                  

Heres an update on our extensive preparations for the big contest - just 10 days now until we depart!

Gliders

Club and World Class are able to rent gliders in Argentina (Sean and Sarah fly rented ASW20’s in Club, Tom and Bill fly rented PW5’s in World) but there are no competitive standard class gliders available.

This is why Phil and I had to ship two gliders to Argentina.  Adding to our transport complications was our significant separation just within the US – I am in San Francisco while Phil is in Boston – We had four  options;

• Ship Phil’s glider to Oakland and ship our gliders from CA
• Ship my glider to Boston and ship from NY  
• Find a loaner glider in CA and ship that and my LS8a ‘2T’  
• Find a  glider in Boston and ship with Phils glider ‘PG’

We ended up settling on option 4 due to the great trust and generosity of Allan Adams, a member of Phil’s club in Boston, who loaned us his newly acquired LS8-a ‘YG’ – all I had to do was pay the extra insurance – a great saving over the transport costs for my own glider – Thanks Allan!!

Next, we had to get these 2 gliders with their trailers into a container somehow – it became obvious that to make things fit the wheels would have to come off – you can see pictures of the packing process in Boston in Phil’s earlier posts- A big thank you to Ian Clark who was instrumental in getting our container packed – Thanks Ian!!

Housing, transport, logistics at the Port, crew etc.

The airfield at Chavez has an excellent campsite and facilities , though for those who don’t relish the idea of camping, hotel accommodation can be patchy.  I was able to locate a farmhouse for rent while I was at the PreWorlds in January (these are like Hens Teeth – ie very rare) but not large enough for the whole team - we are planning on housing the Standard class and support team there , while Club and World are in other accommodation we were able to find in town during the PreWorlds.  Team captain Rick Sheppe decided to camp at the airfield in order to be available for early team captain meetings. We have a team office in a portable trailer which Tom McKnight has graciously organized at the field.

We have been able to arrange a set of pilot and glider transportation from Buenos Aires, to the port at Zarate, to Chavez and back again. The World Championships has been a bonanza for Argentine clubs as about 50 gliders have been made available for rent in the Club and World classes from the profusion of Argentine gliding clubs.

The Airfield

This aerial photo shows the large grass runways and the camping are in the trees near the hangars and swimming pool and tennis courts.

Cars and Crew

Phil is going to Chavez with veteran pilot, crew and past team manager John Good, while I am relying on the generosity of the Argentinians for crew – my original paid crew could not make it due to expecting his 6^th (!) child in January.. but we are delighted with the cooperation we have been able to achieve with the Argentinian team in helping us with cars and crew in exchange for the loan of gliders to the Argentinian team for the Uvalde World Championships earlier this year.  Collectively, team USA should not be lacking for crew support during the contest.

Pilots

Tom and Mimi McKnight and Bill and Nancy Snead are representing both the US and the great state of Texas in World Class in Argentina – we have 2 California pilots in Sean Franke in Club, with his Dad,  Manfred,  as crew,  and yours truly in Standard class.   From  Tennessee ,  Sarah Arnold  in Club class, ably assisted by husband Jason , and from Massachusetts we have team mate Phil in Standard class.

Schedule

We are all arriving in Argentina shortly after Christmas – Phil, John, Rick and I all depart the day after Christmas Day to arrive on the morning of December 27^th – and will depart immediately in 2 cars for the port in Zarate to unpack the container – Club and World class teams arrive a few days later as they are renting and their gliders are being delivered to the airfield. We hopefully arrive in Chavez with 2 gliders on Dec 29^th in time to register, finish glider scrutineering and then up in the air for orientation and practice flights.    The first contest day is Jan 6^th, last day Jan 19^th – Wish us luck!!

 A good day in Argentina – last day at the PreWorlds