This blog is about POWER GIRLS in SOARING!
During the WGC in Uvalde I was pretty busy. Frauke Elber asked me to write something about the 3 ladies representing their countries during the 32 WGC in Uvalde for her  News letter “Hangar Soaring.” This newsletter shares the news from the Women Soaring Pilots Association in the USA.
By the way the next WSPA will be in 2013 in Moriarty [New Mexico] from July 8/12.
And…as I heard from Frauke,
“Moriarty is one of the primere desert soaring sites in the Western United States. 30 miles east of Albuquerque. The soaring conditions are outstanding but tourist attractions are also nearby.
To find out more about it go to http://www.womensoaring.org/or contact Mara Djurisic at djurisic@stanford.edu  ”

Back to the girls. Would have loved to write the article,  but unfortunately I missed out on time to do so trying to keep “the world “informed minute by minute , so I asked her if it was OK if Andreea , Miss Daisy, would do that.
No worries,  so here you are it is published in Frauke’s Newsletter and I was allowed to share with you the story about and behind the ladies; Susanne  from Germany, Alena from Czech Rep. and Lisa from Australia.
THANK you to Andreea for a GREAT  story on 3 GREAT girls and the very nice pictures!
ENJOY!!!!!

 

—“Uvalde, WGC 2012 – not the typical place for a lady, especially in the summer. Dust, wind, heat, sun, excellent soaring conditions and a great aviation event – all these brought together over 100 pilots with their crews and a large group of volunteers to make the 32^nd WGC edition happen.

 

I arrived there right before the competition start and was lucky to have a great job that allowed me to meet everybody involved and work with them closely. This way I met the worlds greatest soaring pilots and among them 3 amazing women that share the passion for flying sailplanes.

 

Lisa Trotter, representingAustraliaflew in the WGC together with her husband, being the first husband-wife team competing in the WGC.

I noticed Lisa a few days before meeting her because she was flying Karl Striedich’s glider, KS, the same one he flies with us in the Seniors.

Next day after meeting her we had the International Party (great fun event) and the two of us got a chance to sit down and talk. She told me the story of her starting flying, about 27 years ago, when she had a surprise glider flight for her father, an airline pilot. The result was a not very impressed father, but a very impressed daughter that realized the challenge and reward that flying gliders can bring to a pilot. She described the flight actually as an “adventure and challenge”. Since then she continued to fly gliders and trying to get better and better at it, flying competitions like the Women’s Worlds inGermanyand others. The wonderful story continues as Lisa and her husband meet through soaring and plan on taking the challenge of both making it for the National team and fly the Worlds as the first husband-wife team – and they made it!

Flying in Uvalde for Lisa feels familiar and she was not stressed about the location, as it resembles flying in her home country. She has a feeling of belonging with the rest of the pilots, even if it is a mainly male community. Lisa was looking at this competition as a great occasion to work on endurance and skills and was happy to representAustralia, considering this a privilege given to her.

 

Lisa and her crew and Lisa with more Aussie team members AND with the white T-shirt her husband Peter also competing during the Uvalde WGC.

 

That same evening at the International Party I got a chance to sit down and talk to another woman pilot, Alena, fromCzechRepublic. I met Alena earlier that day on the grid and ask for her permission to have a short interview together. That evening she found me in the crowd and said “Hi! I have a few minutes now, I can answer your questions”. I did not recognize the beautiful lady sitting in front of me, so different from the pilot I met earlier on the grid. When this crowd is close to their gliders getting ready to race you can not recognize them – and not because of focus or concentration, but because the flying conditions they have to bare through are so different from what we are used to – heat, dehydration risk, body endurance sitting in the cockpit in the same position for hours, etc..

Alena discovered soaring in high school, at a young age (15y), through a high school ad. She is only flying competition and flew inSouth AfricaandAustralia, but not Uvalde before. She feels no different among all the others (men mainly) flying gliders and Uvalde was for her an interesting experience, well organized and a chance to prove herself and aim for more. In her daily ordinary life Alena is running a printing house in her home country.

Alena

I met Susanne, one of the German team pilots, at the mandatory pilots meeting one morning. I had to look for her for a while, as her team was always around her, making her invisible. We had to try and meet for several times, but always the timing was bad, as she had team meetings to attend and preparations for the competition to make.

 

We got to sit down and talk at the Farewell Party, after the last competition day. The story of Susanne flying started with her doing windsurfing as a hobby. Then she, together with her dad, saw gliders flying and that got her interest. She went for a ride during a school vacation and she fell in love with it. She started flying competition at the end of the ‘90’s, made the German Women Championship and then qualified for the Nationals and then the Worlds. An impressive and quick ascession for Susanne, proving her love and passion for soaring.

She is working as a volunteer instructor in Germany training new pilots in her club and she is looking at Uvalde and competing in gliders in general as a way to prove that women in aviation can be just as good as men, especially that there are so few women involved in this sport compared to men.

The day before we sat down and talked, Susanne was one of the eye witnesses for the mid-air collision that happened between the French and Austrian pilots. As Peter’s glider was falling in a spiral right through the thermal Susanne was flying, she saw him releasing the canopy and bailing out. Right away she quit flying the race and contacted the airport to report the accident and position, as well as making sure Peter made it safe to the ground. She actually was thinking of landing, but wasn’t able to find a safe spot for that. Everybody was impressed with the way she handled this situation and she got to be congratulated next day for being an excellent fellow pilot, oriented towards safety above all things.

After 2 weeks of practice and 2 weeks of competing, flying for the whole time, Uvalde seems to her better thanNamibia, quite exceptional for soaring.

Susanne is an Executive Director for a Non-profit Breast Cancer detection and support organization inGermany.

  
Susanne during briefing and with Andreea cq Miss Daisy.

A month has passed since the WGC in Uvalde, but meeting all these great ladies and actually all the pilots, are wonderful memories still very present in my mind. If you look overall, the wonderful sport of soaring is understood by few and practiced by even fewer. I got to be among the few lucky ones to meet all these wonderful pilots and share with them the joy of soaring and it was a wonderful experience.

 Miss Daisy

 

Of course there was one more interesting lady not flying her glider in Uvalde, but she will in the “other “32d WGC in Chaves;
Sarah Kelly Arnold, “our” WGC tuggie in Uvalde and the only female between the “cool, but all very experienced,  dudes”. Sarah is , as you know the owner operator from Chilhowee Soaring Association as well as a glider pilot, power pilot , tuggie and…works in her own workshop on gliders and tugs and on top of that is a real “female” young lady.
She studied Aviation maintenance technology on the Portland Community College.
A very popular lady as well as lot’s of friends supported her financially to be able to go to Chaves and to Issoudun in 2013 where she will fly the WWGC and I hope to catch up with her there,  as I plan a short visit to ALL ladies.
One of the former UK world champions is going to make his Libelle available for her , as I heard from Frauke and somebody else has donated his soon to expire frequent flyer points , enabling her to fly to France and she has her ticket already.
What about that for FRIENDSHIP in our great sport!!!!!
Will keep an eye on her in Chaves, even from Tocumwal in Australia, where it was 34 dgr. last week!

    

pictures courtesy Andreea.

And,..not to forget another very interesting lady was Andreea Alexandrescu herself. A lovely out -going young woman, invited by the organisation to support the Press. And…I can tell you she did a fantastic job!
She now is also involved  with the SSA as she signs with ;volunteer development committee chair. She will organize the convention and other events in the future and they could n’t find a better one for those jobs.
As she is from Rumania, where she is on a holiday, she speaks fluently Rumanian but also English Italian and Spanish.

Andreea.

Enough interesting  ladies and all young,… so in the future we will certainly hear more from all of them.
The future looks bright!
—“We need more people, people with energy and enthusiasm like they have , to support soaring.—“[Frauke Elber]

For all the other news from last week ,by an old lady , you are welcome to go to www.soaring.eu

AND…I received the story written by Tony Tabart with pictures from Jo Pocklington about that SUPER phenomena THE MORNING GLORY. This once-in-your-live-time-thrill will be published in Soaring Cafe.
This is what it is all about;
—“Then at the convergence point between the primary and secondary there appeared to be total cloud cover, with great lumps of cloud being ripped upwards and illuminated by the red morning sun.  As I reached the convergence area, I felt the first violent bumps of this turmoil, as if explosions were going off underneath me.  This was very different from any turbulence I’d ever felt in gliding.–“

Cheers Ritz