Surely there are more important things for folks to pay attention to than a glider pilots blog. However for those good souls who have wished me luck and offered support and good wishes of any kind during my first Worlds last year in Slovakia and since then with assistance in preparations for Argentina 2012, this is for you - a way to keep abreast of the targets I've set myself to represent the US as best I can and to grow and develop as a pilot between now and then.
The Standard class world champs last year were a huge milestone for me. First time on the world stage and I got my butt kicked. How could I fly so beyond my normal envelope and still come in 37th out of 48?? I came home psychologically bruised and did a lot of soul-searching afterward - the flight home from Frankfurt was particularly hard work, trying to piece it all together, and really analyze how much of it was me shooting myself in the foot and how much was just plain developmental as my first time at that level.
Without boring you with endless details about each flight, my conclusions, (with some helpful advice from one very experienced and accomplished gliding friend in particular) were that despite qualifying for the US team according to the rules of the SSA, I was under-prepared to compete at that level. It was a huge step up in commitment and required performance and I was competing against very experienced European teams with massive experience, local knowledge and superior training. The good news was that for many of the races I was on good contest pace for most of the flights - small mistakes at the world level and you could be in a world of hurt quickly. Big leverage was in small improvements. The really good news was that the small improvements would improve my scores dramatically.
The long story made short was that to get better at the Worlds level I had to fly more International competitions and make the financial and personal commitment to do this before my next World Championships in Argentina 2012. I'm starting this blog as a real-time record of the training plan and results as I go along.
My friends Ulrike Teichmann and Johannes Bick who I met last year in Germany suggested I apply to fly the German Nationals as a guest - Johannes had qualified for the 15m contest so I applied for the Flapped classes and after some email traffic and considerable help from them, and re-use of the contacts (like a tow car) that I made last year, I will be flying a LS10-st in 18m class at Lusse in just a few weeks time. Naturally I'm very excited about this!! It will be a great experience - I'm going with Johannes and Ulrikes club members who will be helping me with crewing support, I'll be camping at the field, with friends - total immersion!!
So the "International Training Plan" looks like this....
July 2011 - German 18m Nationals, Lusse, Germany (international guest)
December 2011 - Pre-World Championships , Buenos Aires, Argentina (US team member)
July 2012 - US Standard Class Nationals - Montague (TBD)
December 2012 - Un-Flapped World Championships, Buenos Aires, Argentina (US team member)
I leave for Germany on June 24th. Just 2 weeks away now..... More later as I think about it - I plan to post each day or so while I'm at the contest for friends and family....
Peter
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