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Local flier soars for Team USA

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By Karen Brainard

At the recent World Gliding Championships in Finland, a Ramona resident was one of seven on Team USA.

To qualify for the team, Garret Willat won the 2013 U.S. Club Class Nationals in Mifflin, Penn.

“That got me enough points to make it on the team,” he said.

In Finland, Willat, 32, competed in the Club Class — a class for older glider models. He flew a Glasflügel Hornet from the mid-1970s that the team had rented for the championships.

His best daily finish was second place on with a speed of 96.2km/h, beat only by his teammate, Sean Franke of Rancho Cucamonga. Overall Willat placed 20th out of 38 competitors representing approximately 19 countries.

“It all depends on the speed,” he said.

Willat found the racing to be challenging in Finland due to the weather conditions.

“We did not have very good weather,” he said, adding that there were several rainy days in which they could not fly.

The event in Räyskälä, Finland, ran from June 19 to July 7 with two days of practice, seven days of competition and several cancelled racing days.

While it is an individual sport, scores are compiled for the team.

“You have an objective -- you want to place on the score sheet. You also want to place high for the U.S.,” said Willat. France, he noted, is known for getting its teammates on the podium.

For the team cup, USA came in 13th out of 21 teams with 4,737 points. Great Britain won the team cup with a score of 6,494, and was followed by France.

It was Willat’s first time to Finland so he made a 48-day trip out of it, doing some sightseeing with his young daughters, and allowing time to pick up a glider for Franke by transporting it on a 27-hour ferry ride from Northern Germany to Finland.

Staying in a log cabin in Finland, Willat found the country to be beautiful, but said, “It was cold, really cold.”

The people were very friendly, he added.

For Willat, soaring is a family sport and one in which he made history on his 14th birthday by flying solo in 18 different sailplanes.

His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. at Warner Springs Airport since 1979. Willat works full time there as a glider instructor.

“I love teaching,” he said. “I like taking students who have never flown before.”

He has 10 to 15 students who are in all stages of flying.

“I really enjoy the freedom,” Willat said of flying. “I like the challenge of it, especially with gliders. Power flying doesn’t have the same appeal...especially with racing.”

Willat began teaching the day after his 18th birthday and represented the U.S. junior soaring team in 2003 and 2005. In 2009 he won the U.S. Open Class national gliding competition. His brother, Boyd, is a member of the U.S. junior soaring team.

In addition to instructing, Willat, who earned a bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle University, is a contributing writer for AllThingsAero.com, and assists in technical service at Wings and Wheels, a company in Rancho Cucamonga that he co-owns with Franke.

The next world gliding competition will be in two years in Lithuania, he said.

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