After a great inaugural 2016 event, the 2017 US Junior Camp and Contest (JRCC) is GO!
The 2017 event will be hosted by the SSA Youth/Junior Committee at Harris Hill in Elmira, NY on July 1-8. Harris Hill is an incredibly unique flying site. Situated ~700 feet above the valley below, it offers a beautiful view on takeoff and some great east coast soaring weather. It’s also a good, place to learn XC techniques. If you miscalculate a final glide, you have 700 ft of margin to the auxiliary landing field below.
Though the weather tends to be good, every contest has a few challenging days. The fields in the soaring task area are still very landable.
So… how does the event work?
The event is separated into two groups: single seat (“sports” as it’s known on the SSA site) and two seat. The only requirement to fly in either class is that you will be 25 years old our younger on the first event day (defined as a “Junior”). If you will be over 25 but interested in participating, you are able to register and fly in Region 3 during the same week (Register at: http://www.ssa.org/Contests?cid=2379) and participate in the JRCC lectures.
- Single seat is intended for pilots who have some XC experience (either a silver badge or OLC 50km flight) and are interested in flying in an SSA sanctioned regional contest. The single seat classes is ranked and provides a score that can be used to enter national soaring events.
- Two seat class is intended for juniors new to soaring, student pilots, licensed pilots, CFI-Gs, etc. who do not have sufficient cross country soaring experience, confidence, or the ability to borrow a glider for the single-seat class. In two seat class, you will fly with an experienced mentor pilot who will coach you as you fly a cross country task. This mentor pilot will keep you out of trouble while sharing their racing experience.
Each day will begin with a pilots meeting where everyone will get a briefing on the weather and operations notes. After this meeting, we will give a short lecture on a cross country soaring topic and have a group discussion. The two-seat juniors will then be assigned their mentor for the day and the single-seat pilots will begin preparing to fly.
Lunch will be provided (paid for and prepared) by the JRCC and served in the Harris Hill clubhouse. Glider launches will begin at approximately 12:30 PM each day. The single-seat and two-seat flights will nominally be 2-3 hours. Depending on the number of two-seat gliders and pilots, each two-seat pilot will expect to fly at best, every day and at worst every-other day. On the two-seat pilot’s off days, we will have Condor (a glider racing simulator) setup for them to practice race techniques.
After flying is done for the day, there will be a de-brief for everyone to discuss their flights over dinner (also provided by the JRCC). Throughout the week, there will be several social events and a few soaring movie nights. Of course, there is also a campfire…
The JRCC has reserved the use of the Harris Hill youth camp and will have the camp site and shower houses available right next to the airport. As the event becomes closer, we will coordinate tents, sleeping bags, etc to make sure that everyone has a comfortable place to sleep and can make arrangements if you do not have the ability to bring them.
The entry cost for the event covers all tows/flight fees, the campground use fees, and all meals through the week. It is currently set at $200 for the event though there may be a refund at the end depending on the success of fundraising efforts.
You can register for the event at: http://www.ssa.org/Contests?cid=2379 If you are bringing a glider to fly in single seat (“sports”) class, please fill it out accurately. If you are flying in two-seat class, please fill it out as completely as possible and put “N/A” in any fields that are related to the glider.
If you have any questions or suggestions about the event, need help with anything, would like to help host or fund the event, or anything else… please do not hesitate to reach out here: http://juniors.ssa.org/home/how-to-help/
Thanks for reading, I look forward to seeing you there!
JP