Modernizing your Crew

It has been a long time since I have crewed for anyone, actually I was 17 crewing for Sean Franke and Dan Ladd. I just spent almost a month crewing for ZR at the JWGC 2015. It was very hot, dry, and dusty in Narromine. But I did learn a few things. Your crew has to stay hydrated all day, flying you at least get to cool off at altitude, but it was relentless on the ground. You have to make sure your crew has the proper tools to stay hydrated. It turns out beer does not hydrate you as well as it should for containing mostly water. When I am flying I make sure I drink enough to go pee every 45min, which is easy to monitor as it is somewhat of an event to do in the cockpit. But on the ground it is much easier to forget. Your body can only absorb water so fast, so it is always best to drink throughout the day.

The best thing we had in Australia for the car (ok the cooler of beverages may have been the best) was a good antenna. We were easily hearing the boys talk while they were 70km away. A large pole with antenna ontop would be better but having a good antenna on the car was really nice, it also allowed us to move the team camp around (between the A/C and pool). The overall best thing while crewing was the tracking system. We had live tracking, some of you may have stayed up most of the night watching the boys fly. Since we don't really have this system in-place in the US we can use our InReach for something very similar. Watching where your pilot is and when they are heading home, rounding the next turn point, low, high and cruising fast, it completely changed the game of crewing.

 Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.