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World Class Soaring Association
The World Class Soaring Association (WCSA) aims to grow the sport of soaring worldwide and to carry our sport to the Olympics. It is an activist organization appealing to pilots and supporters who want soaring to become popular and highly visible in the media, our educational system, and in the minds of ordinary citizens. We like to make things happen and have fun in the process.
The International Gliding Commission created the World Class to provide safe, affordable and challenging flight in a new, one-design glider. Thus, the World Class became the second one-design class in the world (after the 1-26 Class) and the first sanctioned in all FAI countries.
IGC selected the PW-5 as the official World Class design. Created by Warsaw University of Technology, the PW-5 features fiberglass construction, benign flight characteristics, 32.5 performance, and 13.5m wings. The university licenses the design to any company which wants to manufacture the PW-5, and manufacturers may not alter the shape, weight, or balance of the aircraft.
A small group of pilots, builders, and friends, including Paul Schweizer and Oran Nicks, established WCSA at Elmira in October 1994. Its first purpose was to motivate manufacturers to take up the challenge of building the PW-5 and selling it around the world. In its first two years, WCSA produced a university market study for the World Class and served as a communication center for pilots, manufacturers and others interested in the class. WCSA fielded inquiries about the World Class from every continent.
WCSA became a division of SSA in 1995, though it also solicits worldwide and currently has members in twelve countries on four continents.
As companies around the world began to move toward PW-5 production, WCSA shifted its focus from motivating manuacturers to promoting growth in soaring. WCSA sees the PW-5 as the "entry glider", the affordable first step for new pilots looking for a handsome ship, recreational and cross-country challenges, and high-quality contests. Many of those pilots eventually will migrate to the more exotic classes with higher performance. Thus, we believe that growing soaring strengthens all classes while promoting the World Class in particular.
For its members, WCSA publishes a quarterly newsletter and, beginning in 1997, will host sanctioned World Class contests in the US. We have inherited the 1-26 attitude that soaring should contain a large element of fun and camaraderie.
Most importantly, WCSA offers its members an organization for taking action at the local, national and international levels. With a team structure which provides a strategy and tools for advancing soaring, WCSA members can satisfy their desire to promote the sport. We work in cooperation with SSAs overall marketing goals in the US, and abroad we look for leaders in each country to give them support and encouragement.
On the contest front, in 1997 the US will send a pilot to compete in the first World Class World Competition in Turkey. In 1998, WCSA will host the first US World Class Nationals. In subsequent years, WCSA will host regionals as well.
We know you love soaring. If you want to share that love, then you belong in WCSA. Annual dues are $20.00 for North America, and SSA membership is required for US residents. International dues are $30.00. Join by contacting WCSA at the address shown in each issue of Soaring magazine.
For more information, visit the World Class Soaring Association web site at: http://www.wcsa.org/
