Summer Travels By: Keith Willis Posted: September 3 2003
In June this year, I was booked and preparing to go to Poland to the 28th World Gliding Championships, as Team Manager for the Australian Team, when I received an email from an unknown glider pilot from the USA, to see if I was interested in crewing for him for the “The Return To Kitty Hawk“ event. I checked with my travel agent and found it was going to cost me a few hundred dollars to cancel and change my air ticket, so I contacted Aland Adams, from Fort Collins, Colarado and told him, I was not prepared to lose those dollars. Aland emailed back and said he would cover the cost of the change, so I converted my ticket to around the world.
I flew out of Australia on June 16, and met Aland that evening. The next day we were with the 44 gliders that departed from Crystal gliderport, in California. My job was to crew for Aland and drive his mobile home, with the glider trailer, from the west to the east coast. We covered over 6000km and went through 12 States. To keep me company, Aland's 11 year-old ( going on 19 ) daughter kept me supplied with cold drinks and plenty of food. She was excellant on radio procedures and reading road maps and directions.
The weather was good, particually in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where we though it would be the best. The pilots probably flew half the planned distance. The gliding clubs en route were fantastic with their hospilitality. Also to be able to camp on the area of the fields, that the Wright Brothers operated, from 100 years ago, was a special feeling, making the whole trip worth while.
We all arrived at Kitty Hawk on July 4, and that evening was splendid, with the firework displays all along the coast line, in the Kitty Hawk area. At this point, I would like to thank John and Linda Murray and Jackie and Jim Payne, for making for making it all possible, and special thanks to Aland for inviting meto cew for him.
After Kitty Hawk, I spent three days with Frauke and Wolf Elber in Virginia, then flew from Washingtom DC to Vienna, where I spent nine days at Wiener Neustadt, later hitching a ride with an Austrian glider pilot who was soon to become the 18 Metre Class World Champion - Wolfgang Janowitsch. From there I went to Nitra in Slovakia for the last couple of days of the Worlds for the Juniors and the PW-5 Class. The next I hitched a ride again, this time with the Polish Team returning to their home land.
We had a convoy of seven cars and five glider trailers, and when we were about one hour into Poland, we were stopped by a fire truck, thinking there must be a serious car accident ahead. We were escorted slowly for about 10km with lights flashing and sirens and horns blearing, into a small village of Zar.
We were welcomed by TV crews, a brass band, the Lord Mayor and about a hundred people. The reason for the celebration was for one of our convoy - Sebastion Kawa, a doctor in that area who had just won the World Championships in Nitra, in the PW-5 Class. Then about 30 of us, including Paul Schofield from New Zealand and Dick Bradley from South Africa, were given a dinner and gifts, also a tour to the top of a 6000ft mountain, were they used to fly gliders 70 years ago, W spent almost three hours at Zar (the possible site for the next World Air Games ), and then continued for another seven hours to Leszno, arriving there at midnight.
The next day, I met the Australian pilots and crews, and we started the paper work for registration, etc, then had the gliders in the air, within two hours.. The 28th World Gliding Championships was a well run event, with 128 gliders and 134 pilots from 31 Nations. On Day 1, they launched them all in one hour, and as the days went on, they improved it to 43 minutes. There were no accidents, apart from two or three wheel ups. The Swiss Team rolled a glider tralier over on to its side, with no damage to the glider. There were plenty of good parties, during the three weeks, and the temperature was a pleasant 28 to 32 degrees C.
After Leszno, I went with South African pilot Uys Jonker and we returned his glider to its owner at Selm in Germany We had two days there, then I went to Munich for three days, then flew back to Australia, via a stop over at Singapore. I was away for two months and two days.
I’m a member if Bordertown-Keith Gliding Club, South Australia and have 3770 hours in gliders, including over 1000 hours in a Std Cirrus, and at the moment have 870 hours in a PW-5. I did hold three world records in that Class for a couple of years and flew the first (and second ), FAI 500km triangle in that Class.
