| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 853.13 | 3 year old report moved here by moderator | K::FISHER | There's a whale in the groove! | Mon May 23 1988 16:02 | 151 |
| Well here's a report on the glider contest Sunday.
I left home at 5:30 AM and drove to Route 9. Stopped in
at the Big Boy restaurant and arrived on site just after 8:00.
The contest director was the only one there. Took a walk with
him to anchor the winch. Shouldn't have done that. Got soaking
wet from the morning dew. Changed shoes and rung out my socks.
The CMRCM is a Nice sigh tucked away behind civilization. I wish
I had brought a powered plane to play with in the morning while waiting
for the contestants to show up. By 10:00 we had a nice crowd (about
18 to 20 pilots). The contest director forgot the frequency board so
everyone took practice flights off the winch. I didn't dare cause I
didn't want to smash up the "Drifter II" before competition. I wore
a turtle neck sweater and was too hot all day long. At approx 10:45
the competition began. Buy then I was very nervous and tired. There
were two of us on channel 52 and 4 or 5 folks on channel 50 and all
the rest had no frequency conflicts. Before my first flight one guy
has flying a nice 2 meter pod and boom construction glider when this other
guy turned on his channel 50 radio and shot him down. Plane went inverted
and stayed level for a long time. I thought the guy was flying that way
on purpose then it rolled over and dove for the ground - splat. The
guy flying had the channel 50 frequency pin and the guy who shot him down
had a pin for 53.50 - he didn't understand why his radio could hurt any
other plane when his pin had a 50 on it - sigh. I didn't here him offer
to buy the other guy a kit. All in all that was the only frequency problem
all day and the guy who got shot down had a back up 2 meter glider that he
pulled out of his car and got the flight over. Nobody got two upset with
the fellow for wiping out the other guys glider so I personally told him
that pins be dammed you should always look at the planes in the air
when you turn on a radio. I think it went in one ear and out the other.
Several times later that day this guy would get his glider in to some
precarious spots and I was thinking justice would be served - but in the
end he made consistently good landings and got good flight times. He even
ended up in 3rd place in one of the events. Helmit Lemkle(sp) was the
last pilot to arrive and sign in. He is the one that the AMA article
was about last fall where in a national competition everyone was having
trouble with high winds but not Helmit because he had the electrostatic
sensors in his wing tips keeping his glider level. Most everyone there
knew Helmit and they constantly gave him a hard time about flying without
electronic aids like the rest of us mortals. This time he brought his
own design 2 meter straight wing plane. Wasn't done yet (Fuselage just
finished in Fiberglas over wood) and didn't' have spoilers in and no
electronic aids. He was probably the best pilot there - he had to be
to get landing points with his plane. It was easily the fastest landing
plane in the group.
There was a guy named Ray (who owns a hobby shop someplace in Mass.) who
had a beautiful "Bird of Time". It was metallic brown and orange. I know
it sounds awful - but it looked great. This plane flew very smooth.
It flew more like a hawk than a plane.
There were two classes:
2 meter
Open (Unlimited)
With 2 meter planes you could enter both classes. With larger than
2 meter planes you could only enter Open class. The price to register
was $10.00 for one class or $15.00 for both classes. Everyone with
a 2 meter plan entered both classes and a few had both 2 meter and open
class ships and entered both. A few only entered open class because
they only had the larger birds.
I think there were 13 entries in 2 meter and 19 in Open.
I should remember the numbers cause I took last place in both
contests.
I fell off the winch twice - that is I got up 100 to 200 feet and
had a premature separation from the tow line. My longest flight was
approx 3 minutes.
Both contests were 7 minute thermal duration. You earn a point per second
you are up and after 7 minutes you earn a penalty point per second you
are up. They had a 100 inch ribbon marked off in from 100 down for
the landing target. After you landed they would measure the distance
from the end to the nose of your glider and (if the ribbon reached that was
your landing bonus).
Several times there were landings within 3-5 inches. Several times
there were landings out in the fields also. If anything falls off your
craft the landing doesn't count. I had 3 landings that were within
100 inches but two scored zero because my wing snapped off the rubber bands.
So of the 6 flights I put in (3 for each class) I got one landing bonus
of 70 points. Most other gliders actually hit the ground harder than I did
and two pilots advised me to put longer downs on to hold the rubber bands
better. They really nose down for the target on landings. The Dobson
design planes (and some others) came with a ribbed rubber nose skid - to
help stop quick after the nose down. Looked sorta like knobby tires on
a bicycle.
Of the 6 rounds flown I was the lowest score in each round except the
first. In that round I scored higher than Helmit of all people. I'm
not sure but I think he had trouble on the winch.
The only other fellow on channel 52 was this young lad named Tommy something.
He ended up winning the 2 meter event and was ahead in the open class event
until the last round. He was helping me on the winch and timing each
of my attempts so I was routing for him. He was flying a "Birdi E-Z 1".
For those who are not looking at glider adds - that is one cheap plane.
When he put the spoilers up it flew really bad.
It was a perfect pilots day. There were thermals around during every
round but they didn't stay in the same place. Small winds would come and
go. It was skill that kept Tommy ahead of the others. The expensive
planes were nice but they didn't influence the scores. There was one
"Dobson Windsong" there and everybody was really eyeballing that.
There have been several articles the last few AMA magazines about this plane.
It's chief claim to fame is the flaps and Ailerons can both be pushed up
a few degrees and it goes real fast. The landing configuration is both
flaps down at 90 degrees and the Ailerons up like spoilers. Looks
neat and lands very slow and with good control this way.
One guy had a plane with 128" one piece wing. The center spar was
a single piece of aluminum that came out the bottom and fastened to the
tow hook. These huge planes fly nice but they get hard to spot land.
You can make a pass over your head but in order to make a turn around
you want to dip the wing tip almost to the ground.
Buy the end of the day I was getting the hang of the winch but by then
event the experts were having problems finding thermals.
I learned a lot. I was very tired - mostly from starring at the sky
for 5 hours. At 4:00 they awarded prizes. There were plaques given
for 1-3 place in each class. 1st place also received a glider kit.
The one for the 2-meter winner an Airtronics Cumic - that is worth
about $120 thru Tower. I didn't notice the kit for open class.
Everyone got some building supplies - yes even me from last place.
At the end of the scoring there was a mad frenzy of pilots giving the
contest director "League of Silent Flight" vouchers to sign off.
I was glad to see this and know that LSF is alive and well on the
East coast. I'll put more about LSF in the glider main note.
Two DECies showed up as promised. Dave Busch came and talked to
several pilots at length - especially Helmit about electronics gadgets.
Dave also took my picture coming off the winch with his 35mm camera
with a stereo adapter - looking forward to seeing that.
Jim Cavanagh showed up with two gliders but I couldn't convince him
to enter competition. Jim is the one who brought the nice glider
to the last DECRCM show and tell meeting. Jim did I get the name right?
So I hope I haven't bored most of you too much - just trying to give
my biased reporters eye view of the contest. Some pilots referred to
this contest and the up coming contest in Salisbury as more of a fun
fly than a contest.
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
================================================================================
|
| 853.14 | IT HAS TO DO WITH THE KIND OF CONTEST WERE TALKING ABOUT | PNO::CASEYA | THE DESERT RAT (I-RC-AV8) | Tue May 24 1988 15:06 | 40 |
| Ref: last couple,
The self-policed system Kay describes is [apparently] quite common
at the more laid-back contests like those for sailplanes and R/C
assisted old-timers.
In the several oldtimer meets I've attended, a similar, self-operated
impond setupwas used. I think it may have something to do with
the nature of these meets where duration is the bottom line. Rather
than schedule formal "rounds" of competition which would force some
fliers to fly in less favorable wind/weather conditions tha others,
you are simply instructed that you need "X" number of official flights
before closing of the meet. It's now _your_ responsibility to get
in the needed number of flights, accepting the risk that if you
play it wrong, you may miss out.
What you'll observe at these type meets is pilots carefully watching
wind/thermal patterns and, when things look promising to them, getting
their transmitters and making a flight. Everything, including the
impound system is EXTREMELY casual but entrants are expected to
be knowledgeable enough not to cause a problem.
Normally, you don't see uninformed novices in these type events
or, at least you didn't _used_ to; I know this is a verrry rare
occurence at oldtimer meets. However, it may be becoming more common
in glider meets and, if so, a controlled impound system may be necessary
to prevent such accidents as Kay described.
BTW, out here it's not the option of the guy who committed the offense
to decide whther or not he'll offer some compensation when he shoots
another airplane down through negligence. It's a well known _given_
that the offender _WILL_ replace the aircraft he shot down, no ifs-
ands-or-buts! The standing order is "Shoot it down, you buy it!"
That causes folks to exercise all possible care when operating their
radios.
|
| | 00 Adios, Al
|_|_| ( >o
| Z__(O_\_ (The Desert Rat)
|
| 853.1 | How did the Fiesta Fly? | USRCV1::BLUMJ | | Tue Jan 24 1989 11:22 | 10 |
| Mark,
My father has his Multiplex Fiesta 90% completed. We have never
seen one fly(or any German Sailplane of this type). How did the
one at the contest fly? Can you tell me anything about it's flight
characteristics(fast, unstable, etc).
Thanks,
Jim
|
| 853.2 | German style Soaring! | NEXUS::PAGE | | Wed Jan 25 1989 12:49 | 14 |
|
Hi Jim, Im Bob Page, I flew with Ben all day Saturday and during
the contest sunday, the fiesta is a real screamer! and although
I didnt get any stick time myself the plane appeared very stable.
The narrow wing cord and H.P. airfoil mean the plane likes to fly
fast and would take a little practice to thermal, although Ben said
he got a 5 min. flight after I folded a wing on the winch. I wasnt
paying much attention after that!!.
To see that big bird doing all the fancy aliron turns standing on
one wing tip is really impressive! I'm sure your Dad will be challenged
flying it. I dont know if the spoilers are standard or not but this
plane sure looked like it needed them for landings, otherwise it
seemed like it would have been tough to stop.
|
| 853.3 | Thanks for the info | USRCV1::BLUMJ | | Wed Jan 25 1989 14:59 | 11 |
| Bob,
Thanks for the info on the Fiesta. My father received his as a
Christmas present 3 years ago and has procrastinated on getting
it ready, but this year it will fly. He doesn't like fast ships
so he probably won't like it(he has terrible eyesight). Thanks
again for the info, sorry about your folded wing!
Thanks,
Jim
|
| 853.4 | Yo....Jim???? | CSC32::M_ANTRY | | Mon Feb 20 1989 14:46 | 7 |
| re: 853.3 by USRCV1::blumj
Jim, did you get the mail message that I sent you regarding the
Fiesta that was for sale and questions on how the Algebra is going.
Mark Antry
|
| 853.5 | State of Affairs | USRCV1::BLUMJ | | Fri Feb 24 1989 11:33 | 9 |
| Just read my mail, I have been at school in Bedford, Mass. The
Algebra has come to a temporary halt. I have recently bought a
house and have had to do some remodeling, however I hope to continue
with it soon. IRegarding the Fiesta, I currently am not in thre
market for any new gliders. Why is it being sold?
Regards,
Jim
|
| 853.6 | Its gone now....Get back to that sailplane!! | CSC32::M_ANTRY | | Fri Feb 24 1989 12:14 | 5 |
|
The Fiesta (now sold) was being sold because the guy is a habital
trader and has two of them.
Keep us posted on the Algebra and your Dads Pantera!!
|
| 853.7 | Pikes Peak Soaring Society Feb Contest Announcment | CSC32::M_ANTRY | | Fri Feb 24 1989 12:19 | 12 |
|
The Febuary contest will be held at the Clubs Sod Farm field located
about 22 miles east of Colorado Springs on Judge Orr Road. The
format will be 2 rounds of T4 precision duration which is 2 minute precision
duration with L4 precision landing. Then it will be followed by
3 rounds of T5 precision duration of a yet to be determined time.
The time will be depending upon how the temps are. It should be
pretty warm.
When: Febuary 26, 1989 Pilots meeting 9am flying starts 9:30am
Any questions please contact myself....
|
| 853.8 | P.P.S.S Febuary Soaring Contest results | CSC32::M_ANTRY | | Mon Feb 27 1989 12:06 | 54 |
| The Pikes Peak Soaring Societies Febuary contest was held on Feb.
26, 1989 at the club sod farm located about 20 miles east of Colorado
Springs.
Let me first start off by saying that Saturday we were out at the
field and had a great time with the nice weather. There were even
a couple of beginning flyers yelling "Hey I cant get my plane
down....HELP!!!!!" and they were just flying 2m planes.
So Sunday I was looking for some great weather so I took the Canopy
for shade, a full compliment of Lawn chairs, lunch, the wife and
kid and headed for the field. We arrived about 8:45 and it was
dark, cold and windy. I thought OH BOY GREAT DAY! We assembled
and had 13 flyers, 7 Sportsman and 6 Open.
The tasks for the day were going to be 2 rounds of T4 which is 2
min. precision duration with a L4 landing (which is a 25' tape scored
as minus 4 points per foot from the center,100 points max) and then
we flew 3 rounds of precision duration of 6 min. with the same L4
landing.
I managed to get in the first two flights pretty good but was in
second place (sportsman) after the first two rounds. The first
6 min. flight went pretty well, I even managed 6 mins with my ragged
Gentle Lady. The 4th flight I only managed 2 mins of sink and the
5th and last flight I could only milk about 3 1/2 mins. I really
need a bigger plane!!!!
The Results:
OPEN Points
=================================================================
Barry Welsh, HP'er, flying OLY II 1st
Jack Dech, DECie, flying a 100" I dont know what 2nd
Duane Thomas, flying a 10' scaled up OLY II 3rd
Dave Kurth, HP'er, flying OLY II 4th
Manny Hammilton, flying a 100" something 5th
Sprotsman Points
==================================================================
Ron Watts, DECie, flying a Gentle Lady 1st
Bob Avery, Honeywell'er, flying a Gentle Lady 2nd
Mark Antry, (ME), flying the ragged Gentle Lady 3rd
Paul Mead, DECie, flying a Gentle Lady 4th
Myron Klingensmith, flying a Gentle Lady 5th
Ron Watts did make a hard landing and had to fly Barry Welsh's OLY
on the last round and his score for that round showed it.
As you can see from the sportsman category, you might get a good
idea on what a good beginning sailplane may be!!!!!!
Cant wait for march!!!
|
| 853.9 | P.P.S.S March Soaring Contest Results | CSC32::M_ANTRY | | Mon Mar 20 1989 11:16 | 63 |
| The Pikes Peak Soaring Societies March contest was held on Mar.
19, 1989 at the club sod farm located about 20 miles east of Colorado
Springs.
Well as I mentioned all of the beautiful weather we have had so
far as finaly come to a end on Sunday, the day before the first
day of spring. (This morning it is blowing and snowing)
We all get to the field and park the cars and then the CD arrives
and we anticipate moving because of the wind. So we drive to another
corner of the field and unload planes, winches, etc. We have the
pilots meeting and then happen to notice that the wind is not quite
right infact it is down wind. For a thrill sometime try launching
a 120" 5 lb sailplane downwind. So we rotate the winches 180 degrees
and manage to get the first round off without much of a hitch.
Then about midway through the second round we rotate the winches
180 degrees again and then before we can finish the second round
we are faced with about a 90 degree crosswind. I think a downwind
launch is actually better than a strong crosswind. We were plagued
by a stuck turnaround that frayed one winch line pretty bad and
it ended up breaking on about 5 different launches (Accckkkkkk).
By the time the third round rolled around things were getting pretty
crummy. I tried to launch my 120" Pantera in that cross wind and
as I threw the plane it immediately went crosswind for about 100
yards and then popped off, I just could not straighten it out.
I landed uneventfully and to the disappointment of the crowd would
not try it again!.
The contest was supposed to be a 15 min addem up with 1 final round
of 2 min precision duration otherwise know as the destruction round.
But we only flew the 3 round 15 min addem up and cancled the 2 min
round. In fact some of us including me didnt get to fly the 3rd
round because of the poor weather and decided to just bag it so
we could have the awards ceremony and get out of there.
The results!!!!!!!!!
OPEN points
==================================================================
Byron Blakeslee (M.A. Soaring Column Author) Windsong 1150
Jack Dech, Decie 1120
Duane Thomas, flying a 10' Oly scaled up 1118
Milt Woodham, flying his TFB 1039
John Papas, just in from Daytona Beach (races bikes) Antares 1021
Sportsman points
==================================================================
Ron Watts, Decie, PPSS editor flying LJMP 120" Pantera 1002
Pat Haley, flying gentle lady 993
Larry Norris, flying a Sig Riser 100 970
Myron Klingensmith, flying a gentle lady 676
Bob Page, Decie, flying a Sig Riser 100 672
I only finished with 572 points and did not fly the third round
because of time and weather but I just know I could have placed.
I only needed 1 min and 41 secs to beat Bob out of 5th place but
OH well we had a good time and that is what is important!!!
April contest will be held April 23rd and will be the SLOPE BASH
where the CD has announced that Speed and Survivablity will be the
name of the game!!!!!
|
| 853.11 | Salisbury Glider Contest Report | IGUANO::WALTER | | Mon Jun 19 1989 00:31 | 82 |
| This summer's Cape Ann glider contest is now history, and DECRCM made a
remarkably good showing. As in past years, it was held at the club field in
Salisbury, Mass., a field which seems to be as kind to gliders as a tornado
is to a butterfly.
But before the stories, here's the final outcome:
Kay Fisher 3rd in Standard class
3rd in 2 Meter class
Kevin Ladd 2nd in Unlimited class
Dave Walter 2nd in Standard class
This year there were 17 contestants, down from 25 or so last year. I know
several people from CRRC who decided to go to the contest at Syosset, NY for
the weekend, so I think that affected the turnout.
The events were 2 Meter, Standard, Unlimited, and Power Pod, and prizes were
given out to 6th or 7th place. All flights consisted of 7 minute duration,
with a 100 point bonus for landing inside an 80 foot circle. Two winches were
set up, each with a powered line retriever. One was a 12 volt winch, the other
was 6 volts and was used strictly for launching 2 meter planes.
So what was it like? It was brutal! The prevailing wind whenever YOU stepped
up to the winch was right on your back. That's tolerable when using a strong
winch, but the 12 volt one was just adequate, and the 6 volt winch was useless
for downwind launches. But because the wind was constantly changing direction,
there was a lot of sandbagging and opportunism going on. Basically, the wind
was from the west, but the field runs north-south, with a hill just west of
it, so there was a virtual maelstrom swirling above our heads. Just like last
year.
Scores in general were very low. The strong winds simply blew the thermals
downwind where we couldn't follow them, so you just had to keep your nose
down and hope for a bubble here or there. The better flyers seemed adept at
finding ridge lift, but the turbulence made it awful hard to fly in. And that
80 foot circle shrank down to a postage stamp when you were trying to guide
the plane through numerous invisible tornadoes. A popular technique for those
with pointy noses (on the plane, that is) was to come in high and auger it
into the circle at the last moment, leaving the plane quivering with its
tail feathers pointed to the sky.
I brought my Topflight Metrik and Sig Riser, both 2 meters. I had a terrible
time with the Metrik; I had retrimmed it last week, removing lots of weight
from the nose, and it ended up so light that it would come off the winch and
proceed to fly backwards over The Forbidden Road. I had better luck with the
trusty old Riser, which is the plane that got me 2nd in Standard.
Speaking of the trusty Riser, once again that plane bailed out a fellow flyer,
and this time lifted him to a medal position! Yes, Kevin Ladd, recent convert
to the world of gliding, found himself in need of a plane after his Oly II
bent the wing rod on its first launch. He can tell you more about that. I
offered him the use of the Riser, and he accepted with some trepidation. I
said, "What can go wrong?". Wellllll..... he approached the landing circle
too high, and made a heroic downwind turn to come back into it. It was a
magnificant save, but the cartwheel at the end separated the tail from the
stab, the stab from the fuse, and a wing spar from itself. Not to worry,
just troop on over to Kay Fisher's Glider Reconstruction Center, flow in
some CA, dab on a little epoxy and just like new again... well, OK, no worse
than before anyway.
It took some coaxing to get Kevin back on the horse to finish the round
("C'mon, Kev, what else can possibly happen?"), but he did, and it was worth
a medal. Now that's the difference between Kev and Kay: last year, when Kay
folded the wings on his Drifter trying a zoom launch, I cautiously offered the
Riser, which he cheerily accepted. I had one eye on him all day.
Kay's new Sagitta, which has also been to the Reconstruction Center, was
perfect for today's conditions. It's a lead sled: there's more lead in the
nose of that plane than in the 3 Mile Island containment building. He had
a couple of long flights, and stuck quite a few landings in the circle, thanks
to the nifty spoilers. He also had a few flights where he demonstrated how to
launch into a massive Sink and lose 200 feet in seconds. In spite of that, he
had two third places today, which is quite an accomplishment, I'd say.
It was a good contest overall, and it certainly challenged our flying skills.
But next time I'll settle for some nice quiet thermals, thank you.
Dave Walter
|
| 853.12 | Westboro CMRCM glider contest | K::FISHER | Stop and Smell the Balsa! | Mon Jul 10 1989 14:17 | 95 |
| So how was your weekend - WONDERFUL.
Saturday I flew both Berliner-Joyce P16's. One was flown in
Phoenix last march but much has happened since then and it flew
with the wings from the other one in March because I had messed
up one wing the day before packing.
Thanks to Kevin Ladd for taking the first two hops in the .45 powered
BJ. It was really hard to get the elevator set right - just like
Phoenix.
Anyway thanks to Jeff Friedrich for lending me his K&B 60 needle
valve one BJ flew.
We had a couple of anxious moments when the K&B .61 threw a prop.
Three times! Each time the engine is screaming as I fumble
for the throttle trim on the transmitter.
Sunday I attended the Westboro CMRCM glider contest.
There were only 2 classes and I finished with a 4th of 14 in
2-meter and a 12th of 16 in open. Most importantly I did OK on
the winches with consistently OK and safe launches.
It was a three round contest with 15 minutes max for all 3 rounds.
7 minutes max on each round. So if you could get two good flights
then you could just have a 1 minute timed landing on the third landing.
Only two guys managed to do this tho. The idea was that the winner
would not be certain until the last round. Worked pretty good.
Landing was a graduated tape and the landing zone was in the center
of a V where there was a winch on each side.
The only broken wing was when Helmit Lelke zoomed his custom build
into parts. Les Gearheart was standing near the landing zone as Helmit's
fuselage came down and drove into the ground about 6 inches. Les was
watching the fuselage about 40 feet from him when the battery pack landed
about 5 feet from Les - woke him up!
Some older fellow was there with a brand new Lovesong. He was a nice
guy but what a botch job he did on this plane - it looked awful. He
was consistently cartwheeling it and missing the runway grass and dumping
it in the weeds or popping off or something amaturish all day. Sign
Ray was there from "Rays Hobby" again and still had his beautiful
Bird of Time.
Lincoln Ross won one 1st place and one 2nd place with his Sagitta.
There were prizes for everyone and the 1st place winners both received
an Airtronics sailplane kit. One Olympic II and one Olympic 650.
One second place to Jim Tyre was a Duraplane. This created a lot of
laughs since Jim has zero interest in powered planes and even the
power pilots there didn't respect duraplanes. So the conversation
turned to Dura spoilers, Dura Starts, Dura flaps, etc...
I have to say that is was one of the most relaxed and fun glider
competitions I have been two - mostly because I only had two classes
and I didn't spend every spare moment in the parking lot repairing something.
I missed one landing cause as I was running out of air so were two other
planes - we all hit the landing zone within 1 second of each other.
I was behind Helmit (before his wing fold) and was scared I would slide
into his tail feathers. Later on another landing some guy slid into
my plane. I didn't think anything of it at the time but after I got
it home I noticed the hit on the side of the fuselage and paint chip
and a wrinkled trailing edge. Now to fix the fuselage right I would
have to sand it down, Fiberglas, sand, primer, sand, paint. That
would take several days. The trailing edge is also hard to fix
cause to do it right I have to recover the wing (I'm not going to do that)
cause when ZAP touches MICA file it eats the color off - sigh.
So I have something negative to say about glider landing zones.
There ought to be a rule (maybe there is?) such that aircraft
on the ground have the right of way. That is if you tag another
glider on landing you should not get any points - in fact a 100 point
penalty would be suitable. I don't want guys sliding into my plane
just cause they want a few stinking landing points. If you think about
it when you are landing - if you hit another plane it will be your nose
and your leading edge that hits - pretty sturdy stuff - but what part
of the other plane are you going to hit - tail feathers maybe?
Never the less - I had a great time. I only caught one good thermal
and I took it up for 5 minutes then deployed the spoilers and made
my landing in 6'58" out of a max of 7 minutes. Unfortunately
I missed the landing points cause I was so hyped about getting a max
flight.
Next weekend is the scale masters qualifier in Westover AFB. Kevin's
Jug and my two P16s will be there. Our goal is to get Kevin qualified
and for me to just make a safe flight.
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
================================================================================
|
| 853.10 | Harris Hill Glider Contest | IGUANO::WALTER | | Tue Oct 17 1989 13:05 | 33 |
| Harris Hill Soaring Event
-------------------------
Date: November 4&5
Place: Painted Post, N.Y.
Event: Two day contest, multi-task (slope and thermal
duration)
Fee: $20
Glider guiders take note:
Here's an opportunity to do some slope soaring in the East. I was given a
flyer on this event by John Nilsson of the CRRC club, who indicated that
several members were thinking of attending. Painted Post (what a name) is
somewhere near Rochester. The headquarters for the contest will be the Holiday
Inn on Route 15, located just south of the intersection of Route 15 and Route
17.
Sounds like an interesting contest. The information is too lengthy for me to
reproduce here, but it is worth mentioning that Channel 34 is not allowed due
to strong local pager interference, and there are weaker pagers next to
channels 12,24 and 40 (they suggest that 1991 qualified receivers should not
have a problem). Also, the weather can vary from 30 degrees to 70 degrees, so
be prepared for that.
If anyone is interested, send me a note and I'll mail off a copy of the flyer.
It includes an entry form, directions, general info, and a chart explaining the
"Novathon Scoring" method.
Dave
|
| 853.15 | Results of 1991 CRRC Soar In | HPSPWR::WALTER | | Mon Aug 12 1991 00:37 | 112 |
| Here are some words on the 1991 CRRC Soar-In this weekend.
We had two tremendous days of glider flying. Saturday morning it
looked like it might be a repeat of last year's Float-In, but the
lousy weather slowly faded away and left us with bright overcast
and reasonable lift. Sunday was just picture perfect, with
hat-sucking thermals booming all around us.
The Charles River contest is part of the ESL (Eastern Soaring
League) circuit, and as such draws pilots from the east coast as
far south as Maryland. The launching apparatus consisted of 4
winches which operated virtually flawlessly all weekend, and two
mopeds for retrieving the lines. This allowed 41 contestants to
fly 7 rounds Saturday and 6 rounds Sunday.
We had a sizable armada of local helpers to run the contest, many
of whom also flew. Most of the time I wasn't flying, I was doing
something to keep the contest moving: tending the winches, timing
for contestants, riding the mopeds (my favorite job, great way to
cool off!), manning the walkie-talkies. I find this stuff as much
fun as flying!
Considering the large number of total flights in the two days,
there were very few destructive events. Les Gerhardt somehow lost
control of his launch and wiped out his contest plane early
Saturday, but he had a backup (which he eventually put in the
woods). Ray M*mumble*sky crashed his beautiful Bird of Time due to
gossip on the ham band. He said it was the first time he had ever
had interferance with that radio. And Fritz Bein folded the wings
of his Allegro on launch today, the resulting missle returning to
Earth in near proximity to Jim Reith's Volvo (but, Hey, those
cars are safe, right?) And for the second time this year, I had a
mid-air collision with Helmut Lelke. He lost his fin and went
spiraling into the trees; I kept flying seemingly unscathed. Helmut
retrieved his plane just after mine landed (just short of the circle)
and found a cracked nose along with the separated tail. When I picked
up my plane, I discovered why he cracked his nose: it centerpunched
my fuse, putting a huge hole in it and ripping the side out. We were
both able to effectively field repair our planes, and we were given
the round to fly over again.
No, not too many crashes, but Saturday we stuffed a LOT of planes
into the woods. I would guess at least 10 to 12 were lost during
the day, requiring the formation of some impressive search
parties. Jim Reith dragged me in to find his modified Gentle
Lady, and we started about a mile away from it, just to be sure
we didn't pass it accidently. Someone eventually found it sitting
on the forest floor, completely unmolested. There were so many
people wandering around in the woods I thought I was in the
middle of an orienteering contest. Unfortunately, Mark Dufresne
appears to be the only one to go home without his Aquila. It
didn't seem to go in very deep, but we just couldn't find the
blessed thing.
Which brings me to the subject of beepers. If I had an aural
locating device I probably could have sold a dozen of them
Sunday. Once you have crawled through the woods for an hour
wondering if you will ever see your baby again, $20 seems like
cheap insurance compared to the price (and building labor) that
goes into a glider. I had people begging me to sell them one ("I
can't! It's just a proto, it isn't in production." "OK, I'll buy
the proto." "No, I need it." "SO SEND ME THE SCHEMATIC" "Ok, ok,
calm down...")
I wasn't able to get the scores for Saturday's events, but I did
copy down today's results. For my own part, I absolutely
dominated the middle third of the Sportsman class, earning 7th
place both days. I think my flying could be characterized by
long periods of mediocrity punctuated by brief flashes of
brilliance. But this I can say for sure: flying my little
handlaunch plane has improved my landing scores 300%. A year ago
I missed the landing circle 2/3 of the time; this weekend I got
landing points in 11 of 13 flights.
In all, I rate the weekend an A++.
Dave
################################################################################
Sunday's Results
----------------
(3000 points max)
Expert Sportsman
1. Keisling 2854 1. McKeever 2617
2. Ross 2838 2. Weiderkehr 2533
3. Luchenbach 2736 3. Schuck 2522
.....
7. Walter 2220
8. Berg-Sonne 2178
9. Nilsson 2018
.....
17. Fisher
19. Miner
21. Reith
23. Ellison
26. Ryder
Overall Winners (over two days)
-------------------------------
Expert: Lincoln Ross Sportsman: Chris Schuck
Being an impartial reporter, I should point out that if we had a
tradition of handing out Being Last Sucks t-shirts, Al Ryder
would have won it today! Hmmmm, is that the same Al Ryder that
won the Biddeford contest recently....? In Al's defense, all he had
available to fly was his Chuperosa, which is tough to winch
launch, and gives away some performance (and long distance
visibility) to the bigger airplanes.
|
| 853.16 | a certain purity in the term, "last" | ABACUS::RYDER | perpetually the bewildered beginner | Mon Aug 12 1991 09:22 | 17 |
| Yes, 26th out of 26, or 44th out of 44 with expert class included. Not
something mediocre like 25th out of 26; what I do, I do solidly.
But Dave didn't mention that Gentle Ladies didn't have a chance either,
and I was beaten by a Gentle Lady
flown by a 7 year old child,
albeit the child of Jack Buckley. ----------------
My showing was not the fault of the Chup. The plane is capable of more
than I can yet get out of it. My 3d and 4th placings at the Downeast
contests were with a glider that I had come to know. I think it was
either Thornburg or Frank Deis who said it was more important to know
one glider very well than to know several less well. My unfamiliarity
with the Chup was exacerbated by my changing its flight characteristics
the day before the contest. In the hands of, say Terry Sweeney, that
bird would have been a threat yesterday.
|
| 853.17 | Super Kid | HPSPWR::WALTER | | Mon Aug 12 1991 22:41 | 19 |
| Let me TELL you about that 7 year old child. I was timing for one of
his flights during the 7 minute duration task. His dad, Jack, launched
the plane, gave him the transmitter, then gave him a few suggestions
punctuated with an occasional shove of the sticks. The kid complained
that he needed sunglasses, so Jack took off to get them. While Jack was
gone, I looked down and noticed the kid DIDN'T EVEN HAVE HIS HANDS ON
THE STICKS! I asked him why he wasn't flying the plane, and he
commented somewhat matter-of-factly that it was doing fine without him.
Sure enough, the Gentle Lady was circling in lift all by itself and
climbing at a good clip.
Now, this occurred just after I had finished a disappointing flight in
which I had fought a heroic battle with my Prophet. I was ALL OVER the
sticks, and still couldn't eke out a 5 minute flight, and here this kid
was climbing for the heavens seemingly by mental power alone. By the
way, his time was 7:06, with a 92 landing (he flew it toward the circle
and his dad hit down elevator at the appropriate moment).
|
| 853.18 | CRRC Contest rambling | KAY::FISHER | Stop and smell the balsa. | Tue Aug 13 1991 13:52 | 204 |
| Yes - I think the kid beat me also.
Saturday it started out very wet and I didn't want to get the
Lovesong wet - even tho I had assembled it and it was already wet
I elected not to fly it in the haze and drizzle. For the first
2 or 3 rounds this was probably a good decision. As it turned out
I was flying the Hobie Hawk and getting a few maxes and most landings.
At the end of the 5th round I was in 3rd in sportsman by just a few points.
On the sixth round I got a max and a good landing - so I knew I was still
sitting in good position for a 3rd place trophy. As it turns out in
retrospect (the scores weren't posted before the 7th round) I only had
to earn less then 100 points in the last round to take 3. So what did
I do.
Well first I time for Jim Reith and he gets a nice thermal but it goes
down wind over the trees - I remind him that Thornburg says "never leave
lift". Next thing you know Jim is landing in the forest. Then 2 or 3 others
land in the trees - including Tom Keisling! So up I come for the 7th
round and I get suckered into following a thermal downwind over the
trees. Wouldn't you know it - I can't get back - wind comes up and
it won't penetrate. So I get a zero for the round and the opportunity
to join Jim Reith and Mark Dufresne searching the woods. Fortunately
Shane Ellison went with me and he found it right away by the sound
of the cycling servos.
Speaking of radios.
The club acknowledged non-dual conversion and tested two non-dual
conversion receivers. Shane just purchased a Futaba Attack AM (no
I would never have told him to purchase this - in fact I am encouraging
him to send it back to Tower) and another fellow had an old wide band
receiver. In both cases with an odd channel 23 away from an even channel
(11 and 34 in one case and another pair in another case) you could demo
the radio hit. So they did not allow channel 11 out at the same time
as channel 34. This time there were only 2 or 3 of us on channel 34 and
my frequency was still backed up because we had to not fly if channel 11
was out.
I blame the AMA for this as much as Futaba - after all they wrote a spec
that doesn't include this kind of interference testing. All they have to
do is update the spec.
Anyway - after I dump the Hobie Hawk in the woods I want to take the
radio and go look for it - but they won't let me check my radio out
of the frequency impound. Why - because channel 11 hasn't flown.
It didn't matter to them that channel 11 was the only plane out finishing
the 7th round. The old wide band Rx and Shane's attack were all done.
Only one guy left to fly - and I have to sit around the transmitter table
instead of searching for my plane - yes I was getting impatient.
Well anyway we found the plane and it had "NO" damage - but I missed the
awards because I was allowed to search only after channel 11 landed.
Then they would not give me the pin that I had to wait for because the
instantly announced that frequency control was not over!
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Anyway the 0 on the last round put me in 4th place.
Sunday was no rain so I flew the Lovesong. The first launch was kinda
exciting - I dived off the hook too steep I guess because I managed to
get the winch line wrapped around the wing and stab. So I had to
circle and drop the flaps and land in the center of the winch lines
and Jim Reith who was timing for me ran out and untangled the mess.
Lucky I had a plane after that. I experimented with using my dual rate
and changed my differential in an attempt to fly smoother. But
it was real windy and I only managed to find 1 or 2 thermals in 6 rounds.
And I did not fly smooth at all.
Also Sunday Al Ryder shows up with a new Poly E214 Chuperosa for the
contest and he let me hand launch it before the contest. I had a lot
of confidence that I could handle it and I did a terrible job and even
managed to fly into Fritz who was on a moped at the winches. But he
got even - on his first launch Fritz folded a wing and the fuselage
landed in a spectacular crash just a few feet away from my wife who
was sitting reading a book in her lawn chair. Everybody was yelling
but she was up wind and didn't hear a thing until a few feet away from
her BOOM! She was ready to kill me. Anyway I tried Al's chup and I
was never comfortable with the way it turned. It seemed to want to
drop a tip on me. Also I have never successfully winch launched
my Chuperosa although I have tried many times. But I must admit Al
did nice launches and managed to put it in the landing circle better
than I would have guessed. But it was breezy and gusty so perhaps
the wind was making by hand launches and bad landings less scientific.
I must say that Saturday was a day for floaters - with the exception
of the last round. But even then if you launched a gentle lady into
the wind and didn't go down wind you should have been able to get more
points than a lot of experts who went down wind and got a zero.
Lots of planes went in the woods on the last round
Sunday was a day for the high performance ships tho. Because 90 percent
of the thermals were all down wind over the trees. Also they turned
the winches around between Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we launched
down wind (but is was a wimpy wind) and followed the thermals away from
us over a large field before the trees. Sunday we stood with our back
to the trees and after walking in the woods till my legs and feet hurt
looking for Marks glider Saturday and my own I was very reluctant to
follow anything over the trees. But on my last flight I did and the
wind came up and I reflexed the wing on the Lovesong and it made it
back - but not with a large margin.
Sooooooo
Speaking of high performance ships (well higher than gentle ladies
anyway (hey - I'm not casting aspersions on Jim's gentle lady because
we all know it is highly modified (a rude bitch)) anyway speaking
of high performance ships you will note Chris Schuck (didn't he win
sportsman both days?) ran away with all the marbles flying a Camano -
Jim did you order yours yet?
Anyway Chris's Camano looks like it is 10 years old. It is beat up
beyond all recognition. And that is the reason he did so well. He does
not hesitate to chase a thermal over the tree line at tree top height.
He has climbed many trees for planes and for his risk taking he frequently
makes it to the winners circle. Another case of pilot skill more
than the airplane - but I do like those Dodgson planes.
Soooo last week in the mail I received the latest issue of 2nd Wind
(the Dodgson newsletter). If you submit an article and it is published
you can receive a 25% discount. So I had been wrote a few letters to
Dodgson and this time he published my last two. There are a couple
of typos and I was surprised that he printed everything without editing
anything out - but the results are the same - I now have (or had) a
25% discount coupon.
This issue announced the Anthem. It is the replacement for the Lovesong.
It has a SD7037 I believe (whatever is on the Saber) with the Lovesong's
planform and obechi sheeting and bigger (Saber sized) wing rods and
optionally the Aerospace Composites Products build spar system. He claims
the fuselage is easier so I assume it is a new mold and doesn't have
the taco shell format - but I don't know that for a fact. You can order
it with wings pre sheeted for more bucks.
Soooooo Windsong -> Lovesong -> Anthem.
Also they changed the airfoil for the Lovesong stabilator and you
can order retrofit kits.
If anybody wants more detail I encourage you to send Dodgson two bucks
for your own second-wind and a catalogue.
He is raising Camano and Pixy and Lovesong prices a few bucks on 15-Aug-91
so in order to take maximum advantage of my gift certificate I just
ordered a Camano this morning. But when it arrives I won't be allowed to
look at it until Christmas - hey - I can live with that.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to the CRRC contest.
I have mixed feelings about the frequency control system. I know Fritz was
not too happy slowing things up because some radios weren't dual conversion.
He was more than a little upset with the guy who had an old wide band
receiver. But what is the right thing to do. You'd like to say - Hey
welcome to 1991 folks but you can still purchase a non dual conversion
receiver today that meets AMA specs. I think the AMA frequency committee
and the president of Futaba should share the same jail cell!
What about lunch.
CRRC supplied the lunch as usual but it wasn't up to last years standards.
Both days they ran out of stuff in the middle of lunch and sent a lady
out shopping. Saturday there were donuts and coffee and bagels first thing
in the morning (went good in the drizzle). But Sunday there was only cold
(luke warm) coffee and no donuts and the cream cheese for the bagels had
been setting out all day the day before so it looked sick.
Lunch Saturday was cold cuts but Sunday was hamburgers and hot dogs on the
grill. Should have had grill stuff Saturday as well. Saturday evening
after the competition they had a nice session with the grill.
Sounds like I'm complaining. Really - I appreciate the effort and want
to encourage it for the future - but there were areas that could use
some improvement. Seems to me last year they had one of the generators
keeping the coffee pot hot. Hmmmmmmmmmm
For the amount of the registration fees I'd like to see the Simsbury
people come up with a Coke and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!
The CRRC event has the best supplied lunch going and I hope they
didn't lose money on it. But it could be streamlined and improved.
What about trophies and prizes.
Sure would like to win at CRRC some year. They gave one kit away.
It was to the Junior Winner - Mitch Buckley. He was awarded a Sagitta 600
kit. When they called his name he was walking back to the crowd with
his dad and was about 40 yards away. It was funny to watch him running
back to collect his prize. It was after all the end of a long hard
day and the rest of us weren't moving too fast. We asked Mitch afterwards
how long he thought it would take him to put the Sagitta together.
Walking with has dad he says "Wellllllll - if we start it tonight maybe
by Tuesday!"!!!
Oh - speaking of Sagitta's - on Saturday we had more spare time
for hand launches before the contest started and one fellow had a
shrunken Sagitta to 1.5 meter size for a HLG. Flew and looked GREAT!
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.19 | Get the plane in the thermal and let it follow it upwards | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Tue Aug 13 1991 14:41 | 40 |
| I guess I should ramble a little bit myself. After running a simple
fun-fly myself, I was impressed with the organization of the meet. I
hope to get to that point after 20 years of practice 8^)
The winches performed well and they did change out the low batteries as
the day went on. The moped retrival system seemed to be the best method
I've seen so far. At Biddeford, several of the high performance guys
have broken the retriever lines and it takes quite a while to get set
back up. Having 4 winches helped too. I was quietly hoping to find the
meet cancelled on saturday due to the weather but it turned out well.
I've been pushing myself to go farther downwind with the lift but I
outdid myself in that 7th round. A lot of good my 3:17 did me in the
trees. Two planes lost in three days really had me talking to myself
walking around in the woods. I'm still not convinced you can really
spot a plane in the woods. I didn't see/find a single one personally.
The guy that spoted mine was walking along the road and happened to see
it while looking for a different one. It was much further out than I
thought and it went out of sight headed back (and was pointed towards
the field on the ground) My only complaint with sunday was the food
being at the wrong end. I was timing for several people and trying to
fly my rounds and never made it to either the pot-o-potty or food at
the other end. The grab bag on saturday and the raffle on sunday
managed to just about break even my pre-registered costs. I was very
happy to find the HobbyPoxy Smooth and Easy in my bag. This will be
used for my vacuum bagging experiments over the next couple of weeks.
I had fun and enjoyed timing for lots of much better fliers than
myself. It was a mostly different crowd from Biddeford so there was
more to learn. I found three upwind thermals on sunday so I'm getting
better there and I'm finally getting comfortable with my plane (albiet,
the wrong plane by some people's standards 8^) Seeing the gliders in
action helps with the decision for what to get for next year. Yes, I
watched Chris. Timed for him one round. I'm convinced he could double
my score if we exchanged planes. This will come with practice,
practice, practice. I keep telling myself that I'm much improved over
last year. I'm convinced it's more the pilot than the plane. After all,
I beat John Ross's Lovesong 8^) Getting beat by 7 year old Mitch with
his Gentle Lady that he hadn't flown before the contest sure took me
down several notches. Back out into the fields and another read through
the Old Buzzard's should sooth the wounds 8^)
|
| 853.20 | More on CRRC contest | HPSPWR::WALTER | | Wed Aug 14 1991 00:10 | 42 |
| Regarding the last two replies...
Chris Schuck won Sportsman Saturday, and took third Sunday (behind Bob
McKeever and Hans Weiderkehr). Yeah, his plane looks relatively ratty
(he covered it with auto spray paint in about a half hour in a hurry to
make the NATS). But how about Lincold Ross's Cumic? He won the whole
shebang for the two days with a plane that is possibly more hideous
than Helmut's legendary 2 meter with the "happy face" stickers for
patches. Then there's Tom Keisling, who won Expert Sunday and probably
would have taken first Saturday if he hadn't dropped it in the trees in
the last round. His plane isn't hi-tech at all; he put his own 2 meter
wing on a Prophet fuse. It has spoilers, and he ballasts it up to 3
pounds. And he flies the hell out of it.
I still think the best strategy is "Know thy plane".
I agree that having the lunch tent at the far end of the field was
inconvenient, but I don't recall anyone offering to help tear it down
and set it up closer. And no one was complaining about launching
directly into the wind either. There's only so much we can do in the
time before the contest gets started. I still think it's one of the
best run contests in this area. And you get a lot for your $12. Our
intention is to only break even on the contest; I could swear the
Simsbury people try to fund their club for a year with their contests.
One thing about the winning pilots: they really dork their planes into
the landing circle. Both Chris and Lincoln routinely javeline it in
with no regard for the fuse. I refuse to do that, but by sliding it in
I rarely get really close to the spot. My average score was probably
around 60 points. I intend to add "sharks teeth" of some sort to the
Prophet when I fix the mid-air damage. I understand that a fan belt cut
to a serrated edge works well.
The guy who really impressed me in this contest was Terry Luckenbach.
He flew a beautiful scale ASW-20 to third place in Expert class Sunday.
He's one of the smoothest pilots out there, seems to always find lift,
and guides that big plane in to a majestic landing right on the spot
with such control that there's no need to mumbly-peg it. He is involved
in producing some real hi-tech new plane, but I didn't see it there.
Dave
|
| 853.21 | Those planes aren't beat, they're just broken in! | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Wed Aug 14 1991 11:44 | 14 |
| Dave, don't get me wrong. Being to busy to wander to the food was the
ONLY and WORST thing I could say about the contest. I don't think I
suffered any for it 8^) 8^) 8^)
I wish every contest out there ran as smooth and had as much effort put
into it. It takes a lot of club participation to man 4 winches, food,
frequency control and the computer for scoring along with the other
ground support issues and spelling people in all these positions so
they could participate. I was amazed that you could run 7 rounds with
40 some odd contestants on saturday and 6 more with the additional
"fair weather" fliers on sunday.
It's nice to know that there's a local club that take gliders seriously
and supports an annual contest like that for 20 years
|
| 853.35 | Downeast results for the August contest | ABACUS::RYDER | perpetually the bewildered beginner | Wed Aug 21 1991 00:45 | 43 |
| Here are the results of Sunday's Downeast Soaring Club contest in
Biddeford, Maine. There were three classes, two flights per class.
All were 6 minute duration with a zero score for flights over six
minutes. Landings were 25 points or zero depending on your landing
within 25 feet of the target.
The wind was stiff all day. Enough so that I put 5 ounces of lead into
my 19 ounce Chuperosa. Maybe *that* was my problem :-) I took dead
last in the two classes I entered. The wind didn't stop Kay from
taking third in two meter.
We had three generations there of the Bryant family. The eldest still
builds, but he no longer flies. The youngest, Garrett, took first in
standard, near last in two meter. His dad, Jim, took first in two
meter, near last in standard. Sounds like a script. Both did poorly
in unlimited. The two pilots shared the same individual model, a
Spirit, for all three classes.
Anker and Kay both smashed planes. Kay broke up his Lovesong rather
badly, but he will fix it. Anker tossed his Easy Eagle into the trash.
(One of the pilots was pulling off the control accouterments with the
aid of my knife; later I saw the youngster, Shane Ellison, salvaging
the carcass; damn, I felt rotten for aiding the scavenger when a kid
could have make better use of a more repairable plane.)
Two meter Standard Unlimited
--------- -------- ---------
1 Jim Bryant Garrett Bryant Preston Heller
2 Lincoln Ross Jim Tyrie Jana Anthony
3 Kay Fisher Art Faria Chris Schuch
4 Ken Baker Jim Armstrong Walt Rady
5 Walt Rady Lincoln Ross Jim Tyrie
6 Jim Tyrie Preston Heller Lincoln Ross
7 Preston Heller Shane Ellison Les Gerhart
8 Les Gerhart Walt Rady Don Gilchrist
9 Shane Ellison Steve Savoie Steve Savoie
10 Jim Armstrong Les Gerhart Shane Ellison
11 Garrett Bryant Kay Fisher Ken Baker
12 Mike Treadwell Jim Bryant Jim Bryant
13 Alton Ryder Alton Ryder Anker Berg-Sonne
14 Art Faria
15 Garrett Bryant
16 Kay Fisher
|
| 853.36 | 9/14 New Boston Glider Contest results | ABACUS::RYDER | perpetually the bewildered beginner | Sun Sep 15 1991 01:07 | 39 |
| Here are the results of the New Boston contest 9/14/91. There were two
events, a brief HLG fun thing and a conventional contest. The later was
an unlimited class (all sizes) International Precision (T1) with Spot
Landing (L4) (one penalty point per second for missing the time, four
points per foot for missing the mark). We flew five rounds with 5, 5,
5, 7, and 7 minute target times for a possible total of 3240 points.
UNLIMITED
Jim Tyrie Falcon 880 2029 1 (expert)
Ken Baker Legend 1844 2
Art Faria Schommer design 1659 3
Jim Reith Mod. Gentle Lady 1589 4
Steve Schommer own design or a Mariah 1540 5 (expert)
Alberto Vasquez Bird of Time 1528 6
Harry Newman Oly II 1503 7
Shane Ellison Tyrie special 1453 8
Les Gerhardt Gentle Lady 1401 9 (expert)
Fred Backhaus Bird of Time 1367 10
John Backhaus Sagitta 900 1349 11
Richard Roelke big mother "HLG" 1344 12
Kay Fisher Hobie Hawk 1284 13
Ken Hanson Spirit 1257 14
Terry Sweeney Chuperosa 811 15
Ollie Yates Spirit 339 16
Greg Granville Drifter II broke his wing
HAND LAUNCH: 5 tosses in ten minutes, total of two rounds
Richard Roelke Gnome 285 1
Jim Reith Gnome 259 2
Kay Fisher Chuperosa 234 3
Terry Sweeney Chuperosa 231 4
Steve Schommer Chuperosa 212 5
Greg Granville Gnome 190 6
Ken Baker Spirit 82 7
(the plane could be any size, but it had to be tossed)
Alton, who hadn't repaired his Chup in time to fly
|
| 853.37 | AMA Nats results | ABACUS::RYDER | perpetually the bewildered beginner | Sun Sep 15 1991 10:44 | 8 |
| The October '91 issue of RC Report has the results of the Nats.
Do I read this correctly that Brian Agnew swept the glider meet with
firsts in 441 open, 442 open, 443 open, and 444 open! For 445, F3B
Sailplane JSO, he slipped to seventh --- must have overslept that day.
Selig took 5th in 444. Robert Wargo took 4th in 443; Wargo is in a
group that competes *every* Tuesday and every Thursday year around;
lucky guy.
|
| 853.38 | Busy weekend - two contests. | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Mon Sep 16 1991 12:07 | 73 |
| A full weekend of flying started with a rainy drive to New Boston. It
cleared as the day went along and turned out to be a great day for a
couple of reasons. My son had to go bowling in his league that morning
and play in the band at the school football game so I was without a
timer. In the second round I asked the peanut gallery if someone could
time and to my surprise, Jim Tyrie volunteered with a comment "Let's
see what this thing can do". He gave me some pointers on how I was
turning too tight and, due to the lack of wind, I was willing to
venture out into the edges of visibility. I maxed most of my flights
and got a few landings but blew a few also. I also timed for Jim a
couple of times and he likes to talk his airplane around. He's dead
serious about landing points and wanted a count by ones the last 30
seconds. I learned a lot in those flights.
The HLG events were interesting. Kay decided to fly straight out to
maximize his time in the zero lift conditions. I decided to see how
efficient I could turn (I didn't have Shane to chase mine 8^). First
round I got a 1:38 to Kay's 2:02. Conditions were much better
afterwards. I managed to hook up with a thermal briefly on my third
flight and threw back into it on my fourth and climbed some. I got the
edge ot it on my fifth flight but it was over the pits so I headed out
and didn't find anything. About 2:45 this time so I definitely found
better air. My sixth flight was bouncing all over the place and landing
near the pits purely for Kay's benefit since he was walking back 8^) I
was very pleased with getting a 2nd in this event. I hope to be equally
blessed in Biddeford next month. I was also pleased with my 4th
overall. I was 3rd in sportsman and beat the 2nd place expert. I've got
to go for the landings and forget about "one more turn". The landings
are 1:40 in time if you hit them and the one I blew early on kept me
from being higher. Time to make a tape and bring it to Acton.
Great contest, Al. Have another one soon.
Sunday was Simsbury. The only familiar faces were Shane and Tom
Peghiny. It wasn't raining when I left but the fog socked in the field
and they almost called it off. Shane made several "ceiling check"
flights along with some others. The ceiling was LOW. I managed to
finish Jimmy's GL and got in the maiden flight under the low ceiling.
It flys great. He didn't get to try it until his first competition
flight. Funny little smile on his face while he says "I guess I'm
ready". He flew 2 meter with the Gnome and the special 2x2 flights with
the GL. He doubled his total time with the GL and got good landing
points. He's VERY happy with the new plane. The florescent green showed
up well in the fog. We both flew his GL in the 2x2 event and he ended
up beating me on time. I flew my second flight over near the impound
and kept getting radio hits (although it might have been moisture).
Shane's first competition flight winched the wings off the Tyrie
special and it broke the fuselage on impact. I felt real bad for him
since he seemed to be doing quite well with it saturday. His dad had
brought him down and he disappeared almost right away. Several planes
were eaten by the winch yesterday and a few others were hand launched
into the ground before things started. Tom Peghiny let me fly his HLG
Kestral before the contest and it was wonderful. He's got a nice
floater there. I managed 5th-6th place across the board and Jimmy got
to see the difference between his two planes. It started raining half
way through the first round and they called it after two rounds due to
the rain. They didn't buy lunch and the sodas were for sale ($.50). No
port-a-potty and they had a PA system but the generator was placed up
near the parking (everyone kept their stuff in the car all day) so we
never heard the announcements. They kept people moving on the (one)
winch but they didn't keep track of who was flying and I was called for
my 2 meter flight while flying my 2x2 (different channel) I flew every
class and Jimmy flew two so we were in the rain all contest. There was
one guy flying an Easy Eagle (I think) that popped off every launch. He
was in the rotation so that I was walking back from the landing circle
every time. We finally figured out that he was throwing the plane
before the tension caught up and stalling every launch. He was
dangerous. First round was 3 minutes and second was 4 minutes and I did
manage to remember most of Tyrie's pointers 8^) Tom Peghiny took first
in 2 meter and standard and 2nd in unlimited with his 2 meter Kestral
and was the overall champion (nice plaques). I thought Al's contest was
more fun but that might have been due to the weather and more "buddies"
to fly with/against.
|
| 853.40 | A few more thoughts | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Mon Sep 16 1991 18:38 | 15 |
| Just a couple of other comments about saterday (reply .36)
It was nice to put faces with a few more noters. I met Terry Sweeney
(after talking electronically quite a bit last year) and Ollie Yates,
who's been in here asking questions lately.
I also wondered what Ken Baker's stratagy was. The day of the Biddeford
contest that moved to Amherst, he showed me his poly Chup but on
saturday he used a Spirit as a HLG. He happens to be the CD for the
Biddeford HLG contest next month. A little pre-contest psych perhaps?
Dave Walter,
If you had come with the Predator and you arm warmed up, you could have
walked away with it. Shame on you 8^)
|
| 853.41 | Thoughts on the New Boston Contest | KAY::FISHER | If better is possible, good is not enough. | Mon Sep 16 1991 19:41 | 143 |
| A few more thoughts about Al Ryder's contest.
So far it ranks as one of the most fun contests I have been at this year.
I don't know how Al made out on the money. They charged a flat $10
for entering and if you flew HLG or Unlimited or both it was the same
price. I liked that and would support any raise necessary in the price.
I much prefer that as to charging per event like the Simsbury guys do.
Also Al like the Biddeford and CRRC guys furnished lunch as part of
the registration fee - nice touch.
On the way to the contest I told Shane about my hair brained scheme
to win the HLG proportion. I figured since it was cold and damp and
overcast that there would be no thermals. So since turning was not
efficient if he could stand the run I would fly straight and he would
return the glider. Five throws in a 10 minute window. I figured that
he might not have enough stamina. As it turned out I overestimated
my ability to get truly far away and we still managed to put in our
5 flights well within the 10 minute window on the first round. I would
throw it as best I could then glide down hill till I ran out of altitude.
Then Shane would shag it back in the tall wet grass and throw it after
he got close enough. Worked pretty good and I would have been ahead but
for one guy that had a gorilla arm. Rats.
On the second round which occurred later in the day when some thermals
were out I changed my strategy and just did normal HLG stuff. Turns
out that was a mistake - I should have kept flying straight down hill.
The guy with the gorilla arm won and I came in third. My best flight
was when Jim caught a little sustainer over the field and I threw into
it. All in all Jim should have one since he came the closest to actually
thermaling but I have to admit the guy with the gorilla arm also flew
pretty well.
I was the first one up in Unlimited with my Hobie Hawk. No thermals
but in dead still air with a 5 minute goal I managed over 4 minutes
and a good landing. I thought I would lead round one but I ended up
in 4th or 5th place. During the next 4 rounds I only found 1 thermal
and even in that one I didn't get a max.
The flying field is not a great glider field. Too many trees too close
for comfort. Three planes ended up in trees. Had there been any wind
we would have had lots of guys looking for their planes in the woods.
There were two winches and at the end of the day neither one could
launch any planes for fun flying. The big one broke a hub and the little
one killed it's battery. Anyway they were both taken out of commission
just when the sun started to come out for an hour or so.
So we threw HLGs for a bit after the awards.
About that order of flight business. All in all I haven't seen too much
real sand bagging this year. I think you can say strict flying order but...
If the winches are free and your frequency if free you can go. As long
as somebody yells out "FREE WINCHES" at regular intervals there will be
flyers getting up to fly.
I kinda liked the physical layout. The landing zone would have been difficult
if there had been any significant wind. As it was half the landings
were down wind (when there was any).
Worked out great for keeping the pilots and spectators in the pits and
chewing the fat.
Sooooooo - what could be changed to make it better for next year?
Hmmmmmmm - if you changed nothing I would still recommend it.
But - since you have a year to get ready now perhaps some well placed
letters to hobby shop owners and manufactures could yield some more
prizes. I also favor plaques for prizes and kits for raffles.
But if you do make any efforts in this regard let me warn you about
the "Discount Coupons". If any manufacture gives you some gift certificates
be sure to just throw them in a shoe box and offer them to anybody who
wants them. Usually they offer less discount than Tower gives so that
they are just a scheme for them to generate more sales. In other words
they are usually not worth the paper they are written on.
But if you send a letter to some kit manufactures and you noted that you
were getting ready for the 2nd annual HLG contest (first one in the north east)
you might be able to pry some HLG kits from their hands. Especially if
you made a official notice of this years winners and what they
were flying and where they purchased them. For instance a little publicity
about the Chups coming from NSP copied along with your soliciting might
yield a Chup kit for next year. Or a copy to the Gnome folks, etc...
Anyway with a little creativeness and some investment in stamps you might
be able to increase the gold. In the past the CMRCM (Jim Sabrogna(sp) guys
are the only ones that spend any significant time acquiring these goodies.
Also the timing of the contest might be improved. Having two glider
contests in one weekend is not easy to make. As it turned out I could
only make this one and couldn't make the Sunday Simsbury contest this
year myself. But if it hadn't been for the Digital Canobie day I would
have went to the Saturday contest and if I wasn't wiped out attend
the Sunday contest. A lot also depends on the travel time. If the Sunday
contest was at Biddeford I would definitely not do it on Sunday if I
had just done another contest on Saturday. Kinda hard to face 6 hours
of driving after a full day in the sun.
Well - all in all it was a great fun day.
Oh yah - one really funny thing happened. After my last round flight
I wanted to fun fly the Sagitta a bit so I checked out my channel
and was waiting for a free winch. I was going up at the same time
as Steve Shoelmer(sp) and I told him that since I was just fun flying
that I would watch out for him and try not to interfere with his
ability to get a good flight score. So we launched together. A few
minutes later I still hadn't found a thermal so as I approached the landing
zone Steve found a little sustainer thermal about 50 feet up just over
the landing zone. So I started following him. We were standing about
15-20 feet apart so I told him that I would watch close so that I didn't
hit him and I would yield so he should just fly as though I wasn't there.
So we managed to get almost a minute out of this nonsense and finally he broke
off for a landing so I broke off and went way down the field and was telling
Steve - "Don't worry - I'll get well out of your way!" so I started walking
in the deep grass and flying away. Still my Sagitta is only about 25 feet
up now and my back it to Steve when all of a sudden out of the corner of
my eye I see this black flash and POW! His Mariah's starboard wing hit me
right in the belly. I was laughing so hard I was having a hard time
flying the Sagitta to the ground. Steve feels real bad cause he hit me
and I felt real bad because he missed his landing points. He said he would
never have gotten back to the circle anyhow and that when he turned it stalled
and he just completely lost control of it. I thought at first that it must
have broken up bad but it appears that he had no damage.
I didn't know that the B in F3B meant Belly!
Oh yah one more thing the guy with the Gorilla arm was flying a Gnome in the
HLG contest but when just playing he was flying a Pivot-Plus so I was real
excited to take a close up look at this. His was about 18 ounces as I recall
and looked great. Since I've got one in the box I was anxious to see it
fly and see it. I thought it flew great but Shane thought it was tip stalling
when he watched it.
Oh yah - Shane put his newly acquired Jim Tyrie Special thru it's paces
Saturday. Jim launched it for him several times and kept showing Shane
how to really put the peddle to the metal. He had some awsome launches.
Sunday evening I get a call from Shane - "How do you repair a fiberglass
fuselage?". Sigh.
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.53 | results at Cape Ann 9/22 | BRAT::RYDER | perpetually the bewildered beginner | Mon Sep 23 1991 02:32 | 44 |
| Dave Walter is one fine hand-launch sailplane pilot! He took first today
at Cape Ann. He didn't just take first; he put it into a thermal on the
second or third throw of the second round and flew away. Really rubbed it
in by his action. [He is too much of a gentleman to ever flaunt his skill,
but staying up was what he was supposed to do. So were we, but we didn't.]
Kay took second, beating out Steve Schommer, Ken Baker, another guy, and
Myself, who took third.
My taking third should not be mentioned in the same paragraph as Dave's
first --- the skill levels did not differ merely in degree. I'm a hacker
who gets lucky.
Dave also took first in open.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The HLG round was a set of five tosses in ten minutes. The thermal classes
were five minute simple duration flights (no landing points, but you had to
get down before the eight minute mark). In both cases, all landings had to
be made in one end of the runway for the flight to score.
The first three places were:
HLG (6 entrants): Dave Walter, Kay Fisher, Alton Ryder
Two meter (11): Jim Tyrie, Steve Schommer, Preston Heller
Standard (13): Art Faria, Preston Heller, Steve Schommer
Open (14): Dave Walters, Jim Tyrie, Ken Baker
The winch process was remarkably smooth. They only had one, and it was not
overly strong, but the winch/retriever pair functioned well all day with
few problems (one of which was an inadequate battery --- they had to bring
out a car to supply power). I believe their throughput was better than 2.6
minutes per launch. The Saturday-at-the-field style of frequency control
and flight order contributed to the throughput. The only regulation was
that all flights of a round had to be within a window of about an hour.
There was one wing folding --- by Robert Rondeau, I believe. I tried to
destroy my Chup by turning off the transmitter just before a winch launch.
Impressive! Straight down from about 400 feet; the hole measured 5.5 inches.
But Chups are indestructible, and it flew in the HLG fifteen minutes later.
|
| 853.54 | Salisbury contest | UPSENG::WALTER | | Mon Sep 23 1991 15:14 | 31 |
| Good contest. After the first round of handlaunch, two people
approached me, shoved money in my face, and insisted that I
send them the plans for the Predator. I think there's
sufficient interest in it that I will redraw the plans on
a single sheet of paper that can be more easily copied (I've
been sending out the plans on 11x17 sheets, to be taped together).
Steve Schommer (the wild man with the black Chup) has created a
fiberglass Chup fuse that he claims weighs 1.5 oz and is stronger
than the stock fuse. He said he would send one to me (I didn't
ask him for it, he just insisted that I NEED one!).
Speaking of Steve, he and I were involved in a midair collision
during the handlaunch event. That's the sixth midair the Predator
has been involved in. There must be a magnet in it. The collision
ripped the dowel right out of the wing, but I was able to effect
a field repair. Considering the utter lunacy that prevailed on the
field during the handlaunch event, I'm surprised nobody was speared
by a glider.
Oh, speaking of collisions, Kay tested the strength of his Chup
wing by flying it right into a windsock pole on the edge of the
field. All it did was sheer the wing bolt and put a small dent in
the leading edge. Amazing. The funny thing was, just before he hit
it I said "Kay, watch out for the pole...*WHAP*". After that, the
CD wisely decided to take the pole down. I must say, those Chups
are rugged. Al's Chup killed a groundhog that was 8" under the
ground. It took all my strength (admittedly, not much) just to
yank it out of the ground. It was back in the air again soon after.
Dave
|
| 853.55 | More Salisbury tales | KAY::FISHER | If better is possible, good is not enough. | Mon Sep 23 1991 19:26 | 48 |
| >Dave also took first in open.
Let me amplify on this a tad.
This was the only perfect score in the contest. Out of a max
of 300 points per round and 3 rounds in 3 classes Dave got the
only perfect score of 900!
It was great weather - clear blue skies and thermals all the time.
I caught a thermal on nearly every flight - 2 or 3 right off the
winch. My first two rounds were max flights for which I scored
zeros because I missed the landing. I'm not complaining because
the rules were the same for everybody and I had a ball.
Steve Schomer(sp) had hurt his arm a couple of weeks ago so I was
throwing for him in the HLG class. Talk about an edge - throwing
for your competition! After the mid air with Dave his fuselage was
ripped open on the side but holding together - he insisted that
I still throw it. On each subsequent launch more balsa parts would
fall out. The finger hold fell out put we just crammed it back in
and did another launch. The fuselage was a mess by the time we
finished that round.
Originally the CD was going to have the HLG rounds be "ONE" throw.
I kinda liked that idea but the pilots convinced him to go to 5 throws
with cumulative time. Again - each throw was a zero if you missed the
landing zone. So timers were stopping their watches and keeping the
cumulative time. Then someone would land out and the timer would be confused
about what the time was before the last throw. It was flat dangerous
in the HLG area - with 5 or 6 in the air at once all having to land in
the same area plus timers mixed in plus the CD. Every 20 seconds someone
was yelling "HEADS UP"!
But great fun. On my 2nd round when I launched the Hobie Hawk the battery
was dying and I managed to get the retrieval line wrapped around the wing
and made a emergency landing in the winch lines - wow!
The plaque I received for HLG 2nd place is the nicest one I have received
from a contest so far. I sure don't mind coming in runner up to Dave
Walter in HLG. It is nice to note that in HLG it was a clean sweep
by DECRCMers.
If you weren't there you missed a great day and some hat sucker thermals.
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.56 | CRRC Hand Launch Contest report | UPSENG::WALTER | | Mon Oct 14 1991 11:59 | 72 |
| I'll give a report on the CRRC hand launch contest, and I'll expect to see
a report on the Biddeford one by Kay or Jim!
Anker Berg-Sonne was the CD for the contest at the Drop Zone Saturday. The turn
out was a bit small, just 8 people. I think the uncertainty over the
availability of the Zone might have kept people away. But we 8 had a grand
time!
Weather was pretty windy, with brief periods of sun and lots of dark, puffy
clouds floating around. The lift was sporadic and very unpredictable, and when
you were in it, it took some guts to stay with it and get blown downwind over
the trees.
We were split into two groups of 4, timing for each other. One group had the
true 1.5m HLGs, the other had gliders that perhaps weren't meant to be hand
tossed (like Anker's 100" Oly!). John Nilsson brought his 19 oz Dodgson Pivot
in which he had cut a finger hole the night before. That finger hole in the
fiberglass fuse turned into a Vegematic as it sliced and diced through John's
finger. I think a number of people discovered the importance of a nice, smooth
finger hole Saturday.
The "HLG" group consisted of me, Tom Peghini, Kay Fisher, and Lincoln Ross.
The "open" class included Anker, John Nilsson, Bob and Paul Doppler, and Neil
Kaufmann (OK, so there were 9 people...). We flew 6 rounds; each round was a 10
minute window in which we were allowed 5 throws. Anker originally called for 8
rounds, but after 6 we were all ready to pay a visit to our chiropractors.
Within each flight group, the highest time received a score of 4 points, the
second highest 3 points, and so on. Points were totaled over the 6 rounds.
Strategies were as varied as the choice of gliders. Anker took 2nd place in the
competition by using the Kay Fisher Gambit: fly straight into the wind and
don't turn! With an Oly II on a windy day, that sometimes means going backward.
John Nilsson's strategy seemed to be more like a fight for survival; that Pivot
is a real handful in the air, but he managed a few good flights. Neil Kaufmann
is still a little unclear on the concept of the hand toss: he consistently
threw his Riser straight up, achieving zero airspeed with the nose aimed
skyward at about 20 feet of altitude. He eventually dropped out of the
competition with a sore arm. The Doppler Bros. had pretty good luck with their
Gentle Ladys, although wingtip landings did break the wings a few times.
I thought Kay was doing pretty well with his Chuperosa, but he did have a few
high energy impacts (I'll let him discuss that...). Lincoln's little Tercel was
sporting a brand new foam wing, and I thought he would be tough to beat, but
his plane didn't penetrate well enough to allow him to ride those therms
downwind. So the battle for first in the competition was between Tom Peghini
and me. Both of us had at least one killer round. For me it was the first, in
which I posted a 6:10 flight time; Tom had high score of the day in the third
round with a 6:48. We were watching each other like hawks, ready to steal a
found thermal. Tom even tried faking a throw to get me in the air first! It
didn't work. Tom's scaled down Kestrel (his own design, more on that later)
floats better than my Predator, but I was able to get about 10 more feet of
altitude on the toss, so we were pretty even.
In the fifth round, in which there was essentially no lift to be had, I beat
Tom's time by 2 seconds. In the sixth, Tom and I were about even when we both
launched into the same airspace. Somehow, I stayed aloft and Tom found the
sink, and that pretty much iced the contest for me. Actually, Tom ended up in
third place because Anker's No Turn strategy piled up points in the other
flight group.
The contest was a real blast, and Anker did a great job organizing it (his
first AMA sanctioned contest!). I went home a happy man with a sore arm and a
new Gentle Lady kit.
Dave
Addendum: Tom Peghini showed me a copy of his plans for the 2M Kestrel. His
design is being kitted by Culpepper Models (of Chuperosa fame), and the
plans were drawn by Leroy Satterlee. Looked pretty nice. Tom was as
proud as a new father! Coming to a hobby shop near you.
|
| 853.57 | A.S.A. MTS report | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Go ahead...make my plane. | Mon Oct 14 1991 12:53 | 47 |
| Our MTS contest yesterday came off pretty well. 13 entries, 4 winches,
temp. 80 degrees, and light wind.
We flew in flight groups of three, man-on-man, with normalized scoring,
winner in each group gets 1000 points, others get percentage of
1000 based on their scores.
First two rounds were distance and duration. We had a light tailwind
<5 mph so launches were ok but not optimum.
Classes were aileron, non-aileron, and F3B. Tom and Phil were the
only F3B entrants, Buzz opted to fly his Falcon 880 rather than
his Omega or Comet 89T. And your probably thinking, did he decide
to drive his Porsche or Ferrari to the contest? Sorry, Ford wagon.
We had a rash of reflights for several rounds due to various problems.
Fred and Brian the father and son team always good for a heart stopping
display, were in fine form, as Fred struggled to control his home-brew
F3B and Brian landed in the pits miraculously missing all the planes.
My Legend got adequate if not optimum launches and was able to eak
out 6 laps on the distance course, middle of the pack stuff.
On the 6 minute precision duration I got 5:58 but landed far short
of the tape doing one of my patented "approach straight in from
3 miles out with full flaps, being careful not to exceed 5 mph."
On the speed run we had great fun, Fred showed his design is durable,
at least, Brian folded his wing, after straightening his tow hook
on launch, 3 times.
Tom humiliated himself with a 40 second run with his Omega,
Phil took first with 24 sec., Omega, Phil just aced me out with
a 35.75 with his Westwind and I sneaked in with a 35.99 for 3rd.
When the carnage was over, I had inexplicably taken 1st in aileron
class and 2nd overall, Norm taking home overall honors with his
2 channel Cumic and a perfect 3000 point score.
It was interesting to note that in the speed runs when the wind
had risen to 10+ mph, only the F3Bs, the Falcon,the Westwind
and the Legend
could make runs that bore any semblance to speed. Some guys were
over 1 minute, and the lone Oly didn't even attempt it.
Now that all my trims and presets are where I want them, it's time
to optimize the balance, I think I can get rid of an ounce or two.
Terry
|
| 853.58 | Biddeford contest report (sorry I don't have the final standings) | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Mon Oct 14 1991 13:05 | 43 |
| Sunday was the Biddeford contest and turnout there was light also. The
wind was blowing and the contest was split between HLGs and an
unlimited cross country event. The day was planned as 2 rounds of HLG
from 10-10:30, followed by 2 rounds of cross country, (until 3:30) with
two more rounds of HLG. This made for a long cold wait for those of us
not doing the cross country (we could fly but Jimmy and I had XC guys
on our channels)
Lincoln Ross, Kay Fisher, Steve Schommer, Rick Rohlke (sp?), Jimmy and
myself were the contestants. There was a seventh guy but he totalled
his ship in his trim flights. All rounds were 10 minute windows. First
round was best two flights, 2 minute maxes, unlimited launches. Second
round was seven launches to a 5 minute add-em-up (closest to 5
minutes). Third round was total of best 5 out of 7 launches and fourth
round was highest total of seven launches.
Biddeford is a sod farm and the usual landing area has a west facing
slope. It wasn't a great slope site but the wind was enough to sustain
you while you waited for a thermal. A few thermals came through but
none during competition. Everybody got damaged (broken wing bolts, at
least) and it turned out to be a durability contest. I broke my wing
bolts in each of the first three rounds and loosened the bolt plate in
the fourth. I flew my last 5 flights with an iffy wing holddown so I
couldn't even throw hard. Lincoln took first (I believe) and did well
but Jimmy and I rounded out the field. The sad part of the day was that
most damage was from a gust of wing flipping planes on the ground as
you went to pick them up after landing ok. Jimmy got taken out of the
third round when the Gnome cartwheeled down the field after landing.
Steve Schommer was flying a little fiberglass fuselage polyhedral plane
of his own design and snapped the fuselage a couple of times. He thinks
that with his new Cannon micro system he can get the weight down to
13oz. This is an incredable little plane with a nose cone and
everything. He builds them on a cherry male mold and splits the bottom
to get them off it. I talked to him a while about it and started eyeing
my woodworking stuff last night... we'll see 8^)
On the XC side, Jim Tyrie flew his Comet and made the course in under 2
minutes. Kay was the only other to complete the task and it took 5:45 to
do it. Kay also broke his Lovesong fuselage into three pieces. I'll let
him evaluate how bad that really is.
The November 2nd Biddeford contest is unlimited class only and
precision thermal duration with spot landing. See you there!
|
| 853.59 | HLG/HLG/Cross Country | KAY::FISHER | If better is possible, good is not enough. | Mon Oct 14 1991 17:40 | 222 |
| If you think you read this before - I reposted it from the glider topic 399.*
to this more correct topic.
So here goes again...
This weekend we had a HLG contest in Sudbury MA and a combo HLG/Cross Country contest
in Biddeford ME.
1st by Sunday my finger was killing me. Fortunately I didn't strain a finger but it
was close. I don't know how many total launches I had in the last two days - but it
was a bunch.
Saturday's contest - CDed by our own Anker Berg-Sonne was 5 rounds all the same.
Each was a 10 minute window with 5 launches max and the highest cumulative
time. If you landed off field (in the trees) you got a zero for the entire
round - not just that particular hand launch.
Gotta comment on the weather - the weatherman predicted rain - it never rained.
But the sun only popped out occasionally (usually between rounds) and it was
windy with some bad ground turbulence.
Anyway Anker made two flight groups - one with true HLG's the other with
gliders larger than HLG size. The exception was one fellow in the large
group who had a real HLG.
So what kinda planes were there. Well - Lincoln Ross brought his own design
HLG with a very short wing (low aspect ratio) which flew OK. I say OK even
though he scored well because Lincoln is very good.
Dave Walter of course won the contest with his own design Predator. I flew
my trusty Chuperosa, Tom Peghiny flew his own design shrunken Kestrel. His
2-meter Kestrel design is in the process of being kitted by Culpepper Models.
I think there were two Gnomes.
I was timing for Bob Doppler who was the only guy in the group with the large
sailplanes. His brother Paul was also in this group with a Gentle Lady.
He managed to break two wings on his Gentle Lady and still repair one and
keep flying. With the wind someone was cartwheeling all the time and running
for the Zap. Anyway Bob was flying this beautiful shrunken Gentle Lady.
Looked great and flew nice. Unfortunately during a round when he was not flying
a tent blew over and a couple planes were damaged. His broke a tail off so
he swapped the radio into a beautiful Gnome. He flew this for the rest of
the contest and only had to repair it once.
I ended up 8th out of 9. I would have probably been 9th but the guy who took
last place came in late and received no score for the first round.
I did manage to thermal out a couple of times but once was my first throw in
a round and the wind took me over trees right away so I managed to get back
enough so that the flight counted but it took quite a run to retrieve the plane
and hike back to where I dared throw again. The only other significant thermal
I caught was just after I dorked it in once I ran to do a repair in the parking
lot and managed to be ready for another throw just as the 10 minute window
closed - so I just threw it for fun and thermaled out.
All in all it was a lot of fun and the best pilot won.
In the first round Dave Walter, Tom Peghiny, and Lincoln Ross were all in
a nice thermal that took them over the trees. In fact twice during the
contest we had 3 HLG's in a thermal and with only 4 people in the flight
group - that left me being the only one still holding a glider - rats.
Anyway during the first round they were all going into the danger zone.
Tom, left first and returned safely. Lincoln left next but didn't make
it back. Fortunately he parked his HLG high enough where we could
all see it :-)
Lincoln is a very good tree climber.
Dave had thermaled up higher and I think his Predator penetrates
better than Lincoln's so he made it back - by the skin of his
teeth.
Later Tom was the one making it back by the skin of his teeth.
I'll let Anker, and Dave fill in the missing details and correct my errors.
============================================================================================
Sunday was Biddeford ME.
The HLG schedule was 4 rounds - two before the Cross Country and two after.
I had messed up my elevator trim during repairs Saturday evening and forgot
so my first round I wasted several throws by having to add down trim on
every throw. I never figured out why it needed so much down till I got
home and thought about it again. I had meant to adjust the Rudder centering
and loosened the wrong screw on the servo horn. I thought I put it back
where it belonged but guess not.
Anyway - what a wind and cold. The wind was really howling at times and
we almost canceled the last two HLG rounds.
The wind was coming perfectly up the little slope at Biddeford so basically
the HLG contest was HLG rules with slope soaring techniques. Really
fun but the slope is not very steep - you can run down and up it - I did
several times.
Anyway all rounds were 10 minute slots and we had two flight groups because
Steve Schommer and I both had channel 34.
Speaking of Steve Schommer - everybody fell in love with his beautiful hand
laid fiberglass fuselage on his own design HLG. Looked like a micro ASW.
Round 1 was unlimited throws and the goal was (2) two minutes flights. The
best two flights counted.
As I said it took me 3 or 4 throws to get my elevator right. With too much up
I would throw it into the wailing wind on the slope and do a loop into the
backfield - yell heads up and attempt to set it down.
Round 2 was 5 minute cumulative flight time with 7 throws max. I got a perfect
score on this one.
Then we Cross Country raced - I'll talk about that later.
Round 3 was as many 2 minute flights as possible with up to 7 throws and the best
5 counted. I didn't think I did very good in this but wind was really tough
and blowing everybody back over the slope a lot so apparently nobody did very good
on this round.
Round 4 was the highest cumulative flight time with 7 throws. I think I got
over 6 minutes - the wind was cooperating.
During all these rounds I was constantly running down the slope to retrieve the
plane then running back up the slope to throw. The transit time was counting against
my flight window and I was one fatigued pilot at the end of each round.
Fun stuff though.
Lincoln Ross won 1st place and I took second. For this I received another $15 gift
certificate for Composite Structures Technology, a nice plaque and a set of precision
cut gray foam cores for a S3010 Airfoil in HLG size. Jim Reith also received a set
of these - Hmmmmmmmm - what will we do - hmmmmmmmmm.
======================================================================================
Cross Country.
There were two classes of cross country. They were called sportsman and expert
not based on expertise but distance. The sportsman was 2,000 feet (right guys?)
and the expert was 3500 feet. The short distance was from the winches down the
valley to the first row of trees - pretty far. The long distance was as far as
there was clear land to a second row of trees. They positioned an observer
at each goal and each had a flag and a two-way radio.
We had about 2 hours to take as many attempts at is as we wanted and the winner
for the sportsman distance was Art Farer(sp) with a time of approximately 1.5 minutes.
2nd place was a guy flying a BOT and he was just seconds behind Art - in fact
they exchanged places several times during the day. When one would better the
time then the other guy would fly a faster course. Eventually the guy with
the BOT gave up because the wind was hard on airplanes. He brought two BOT's
and was down to his last one and having a hard time getting it back in one
piece.
In the expert distance to my knowledge only 2 finished the course. But for
a brief time there was some flights where the far flagman must have been sleeping
so they were near the goal but couldn't raise the guy on the radio and get
a confirmation.
Dan car started things off with a ROG winch launch - which I had never seen done
before. He and Chris Ordzie and I were all flying Lovesongs. I was fascinated
by Dan's launch and he said it was safer in strong winds - so I tried it and
every launch I made was that way - kinda fun - although on at least one
instance I did manage to get a little squirrley and pop off early.
The interesting thing is we were doing this with sharks teeth in place. Dan
said they don't dig in when the plane is sitting level - only when the nose
is down. Hmmmmmmmm - must admit - it zipped right up.
Jim Reith was timing for me and Jim Reith JR was holding the
Lovesong wings level just before every ROG.
Anyway it took me one flight to add some significant down trim to make
the plane fly decent in the wind. I hadn't seen anyone complete the course
and I wasn't convince you could see that far - at least not the sky blue
wings of my Lovesong. So I elected to walk down range with the plane as fast as
I could. As it turned out this was both a good and a bad decision. For several
launches I would just turn down range and hope to encounter lift en-route.
After several long walks this was starting to look like a loosing strategy.
Then when I had a bad launch and popped off I managed to catch some lift
right away and things were looking pretty good. I was making good progress
and getting to where we (Mike Pitoniak was walking with me) were watching
for the flag man. Then Jim Reith starts yelling from up by the winches
that I made it and to turn around so I pulled a quick U-turn. Seconds
later Jim yells - my mistake - keep going - so another quick U-turn.
Then I had to give up seconds later and turn back. No as it turned out there
was no lift on the way back so the false alarm did absolutely no harm.
But we were encouraged at this point thinking the strategy of just heading
out and hoping for lift had some merit.
A couple of flights later I got a good launch and came off the winch in lift.
I took up up and down wind for a minute or so (90 degrees to the goal but gaining altitude)
then turned into the course. As it turned out I never saw any sink air and
because the wind was really cranking I had to fly at approximately a 45 degree angle
to progress towards the goal even with my wing camber reflexed. Eventually
we see the flag man and everybody starts yelling - now I've lost a little
altitude but it looks like I might be able to make it back without any additional
thermals. So slowly I creep back with refex on - now I have a new problem. I'm
making pretty good time coming back but we walked too far and as the plane flys past
us we are running to catch up to it and we had walked down a big hill. I
can judge where the winch lines are that I have to cross to complete the course
and I have little altitude left. So as I'm running up the hill yelling
heads up the plane disappears over the lip. I think it had a 30 second lead on me.
Now I don't know how to land without seeing the plane so I decide the plane
can probably fly itself so I let go of the sticks. As I pop my head up over
the lip of the hill I first see Jim Tyre and said - "Did I make it"?
"Yes - but you have some repairs!"
Whew - LSF level 3 done. As it turns out the description of my landing
by Lincoln Ross was it came in low over the winch lines and suddenly pulled up
and did a half roll with the wing tip clearing the grass by 1 inch and landing
on it's back. Now I wish I knew if the pull up and roll happened because I
let go of the stick or if I did that before I let go? It was so windy and gusty
that the wind could have easily gotten under a wing and started the roll without
me watching to keep the wings level.
Anyway
|
| 853.60 | Biddeford Contest Report | 18199::WALTER | | Sun Nov 03 1991 22:00 | 43 |
| Went to the last of the Downeast Soaring Club's monthly glider contests
this Saturday. Had a great time, wished it was a little warmer. Wind was
steady from the south at 10 MPH or so, sun was nowhere to be found. This
is hunting season, and many hunters were seen skulking around, rifles
tossed over arms, orange hats rakishly tilted to the side. We spotted one
deer which evidently was flushed into the open; took the pitiful thing a
good full minute to cross the sod farm and find cover. Later, 4 hunters
converged on the stand of trees, but I don't know if they found their big
game or not.
There were 14 entrants in just one class, Unlimited. 6 rounds of 7 minute
duration with graduated spot landing.
And now the good news: The ASS's (Acton Soaring Society) took third through
sixth! The order was me (Prophet), Kay Fisher (Lovesong), Lamar Phillips
(Spirit), and Jim Reith (Rude Bitch). [I hope I got that order right.]
I was real impressed with Lamar's flying. He lead the contest for the first
couple rounds. Here's a guy who just started just a year ago, and he's already
flying smoothly, and shows a real talent for staying in lift. He just needs a
little more work on landings to really pile up the points.
Kay had probably the longest flights of the day, or more of them than anyone
else, but getting that big Lovesong to kiss the landing circle while in
Crow mode is still a challenge. I like the way Kay modestly insists "I don't
find lift, it finds me" after another 7 minute round. Yeah, right.
Jim and son were putting on a good show too. It seemed like regardless of
who had his hands on the sticks, both of them were flying the plane. Landings
were especially entertaining ("Why didn't you tell me to turn?" "I DID tell
you to turn!" "But too late!" "No, you're too slow on the sticks!".....)
For my own part, I couldn't buy a thermal yesterday. My longest flight was
6 minutes, my shortest 2:20 ("Excuse me, but is that a brick you're flying?")
However, I nailed every one of my landings, so it kept me in the running.
The contest was won by Jim Tyrie (a habitual winner) flying his Falcon 880,
followed by the CD Ken Baker flying his Legend. Jim T. must have broken
the winch line at least 3 times. After line breaks, he would dive the Falcon
and pull out about 30 feet off the deck at a bazillion MPH. Very impressive.
Dave
|
| 853.61 | Dave has the order of finish correct. | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Mon Nov 04 1991 11:15 | 16 |
| Very nice contest. As Dave said, the DECcies did quite well. Jimmy
ended up 9th out of 14 starters. I got off to a bad start with a
pitiful 3 minute flight and never really did recover. Like Dave, My
best flight was just over 6 minutes and the thermals were very elusive.
I got landing points on every flight (albiet 2 on one of them 8^) and
just didn't find lift. Kay and Lamar had two good flights where they
got good lift but it was one of those days where there was one thermal
out there somewhere at any given time and sometimes you did a lot of
searching and never found it. Tyrie had a 3:40 round and still placed
5th for that round. As we drove up we passed through clearing skys in
New Hampshire but they never arrived. During one launch while the
hunters were visible, a shout of "Pull!" was heard 8^) Jimmy got
landing points his last two rounds and he's going to give me a run for
my money (at the hobby store?) next season. I liked the single
class/more rounds format this time. I'm looking forward to next season
already.
|
| 853.62 | Aw shucks... ;^) | MICROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Mon Nov 04 1991 12:25 | 31 |
| Thanks for the kind words Dave. Flying with all the other A.S.S.'s has really
helped me a lot. Going into the contest, my only goal was to do my own winch
launches. This was only my second contest and I still had never worked a winch.
I was second in the flight rotation and decided this was the time. With a few
pointers from Dave(who was timing for me), I went for it. I did it!!! I got a
good launch with good height and went looking for lift. I bumped ;^) into just
past the launch area and started circling. Six minutes and 48 seconds I was
back down on the ground with 79 landing points. I was pumped! When the round
ended and I saw I was in first, I was REALLY pumped!
The next few rounds brought me back down to earth though. My times and landings
went down hill. I had a 4:08 time and 0 landing points in round two. Round three
saw a 3:45 time and 0 landing points. Things start to pick back up in round four
and I had a 4:44 time and 19 landing points. In round five, I had a 5+ minute
time and 0 landing points. In the last round, I had a 6:44 time and 67 landing
points(best score for the round again.)
It was great having the best score on the 1st and 6th rounds(6:48 and 79 landing
points and 6:44 and 67 landing points.) The third round was the killer for me
with 3:45 flight and 0 landing points(yech!) My biggest problem on the landings
was going too far down wind(and too low) and trying to milk it back upwind.
I really need that last flight to restore the ol' confidence back. I had to
fight to get out of the thermal, when Dave called out the six minute mark. At
6:30, I was still far from the landing zone. I dove to the field and set up for
a landing instead of making a couple of turns to chew a little more time. I
was also determined to get landing points as well and I did. It was also
great to hear Jim Tyrie say "Very nice flight" after I landed(and from you to
Dave!). Thanks for all the help Dave. Now to go practice those landings!
-Lamar
|
| 853.63 | DWIM - do what I meant 8^) | ZENDIA::REITH | Jim Reith DTN 226-6102 - LTN2-1/F02 | Mon Nov 04 1991 12:30 | 16 |
| Re: Who's flying the plane...
Jimmy timed for me and I timed for him. He asked me to explain why I was
doing what I did, so I kept a commentary going. After he missed his
first three landings, he asked me to let him know which way to turn to
get set up. Well, he was turning late so I told him early 8^) he came
in high and circled back and missed the circle. Next flight I explained
about a landing pattern and he set up a long final and made it. On the
last one he was too high again and I had him S turn and he got points
again. He kept telling me to deploy the flaps but with the wind it was
just a matter of flairing early.
It's been a good season for both of us and I think we've got a hobby to
share together for the years to come. Time to get the intermediate ship
and start practicing for next year 8^)
|
| 853.64 | Landing was a challenge | KAY::FISHER | If better is possible, good is not enough. | Tue Nov 05 1991 11:18 | 23 |
| For the benefit of those who are out of state I'd like to explain the
landings a bit more. Saturday in Biddeford the landing spots were on a
hill that was flat down wind but dropped 50-60 feet on the up wind side.
You could slope on the upwind side a bit so in my humble opinion landings
were very difficult.
There was a noticeable wind gradient as you descended and the mistake
most made (including myself is if you approached from a normal glide path
you stayed up in the wind and could barely penetrate. If you dove down to
the deck you could zip right up there. Most made a nice approach but fell
short. A they descended the wind at the lip of the hill was stronger and they
would not come forward. They you entered the still air and dropped out.
The faster planes had a slight advantage here I thought. It was easy for
me to get the Lovesong in what I thought was a nice approach but I always
blew the last 20 feet. Every landing I had was short.
Bottom line is landing points were well earned!
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.65 | The Chup Roolz ! | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Janine T., come fly with me! | Mon Nov 11 1991 12:17 | 15 |
| While flying at our small park on saturday, waiting for the bad weather
to arrive, which it didn't for 48 hours, Bill decided we should have
an improptu contest. Easy enoough for him to say as he was the only
one there with a 100" bird, while the rest of us had 2 meter, except
me with the Chup.
We decided on a 15 minute add-em-up. Max of 5 min. on first two
flights. Inside a 60" landing circle equals 25 points. Right on top
of the frisbee equals 60 points.
Hey, no problem, the Chup skunks them with a 13:57 total, over 2
minutes better than 2nd place place Lucas with his 2 meter pseudo BOT,
and Bill slulks off muttering about building a Magic.
Terry
|
| 853.66 | Got my Jan. flight in..yawn. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Dangerously close to mawkishness | Mon Jan 06 1992 11:52 | 32 |
| Got our Jan. contest off yesterday, in between weather fronts.
24 entrants, not bad for mid-winter.
A simple 3 round, 5 min. precision duration with no landing points
except that you had to land inside the fence for the flight to count.
I did a 5:03, 3:00, and 4:58, good enough for 6th place.
Lucas got first with his 2 meter pseudo-BOT, and one other full size
BOT finished 3rd. Thornburg was the CD, so at least we didn't have him
to contend with.
No incidents during the actual contests except that while I was timing
for Phil S., Buzz swooped down with his Falon 880 on landing and
both he and his timer thought he was inboard of Phil and I.
Consequently no "heads up" was shouted, and the bottom of one wing
whacked me smartly on top of my head, then skipped over and did the
same to Phil. Knocked both our hats off but no damage to us or the
plane. A few inches lower and I would have collected the l.e. up long
side de haid.
After the contest, Phil stuffs his Sagitta well and truly in a high
tree, and after 4 guys scrambling up, much thrashing and cracking of
branches, and catching it tail first as it falls out, it comes out
with only a small tear in the stab covering.
Bill W. wasn't so lucky, losing the radio in his Legend at launch
and having it arc over and javelin into the none too soft grass.
Damage to all parts except the stab, but repairable.
Thornburg is gradually whiping everyone into a frenzy about the
AZ. contest in Feb. We may wind up with the largest contingent there.
Terry
|
| 853.67 | Headin' out to the cotton fields of Gilbert. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Jan 29 1992 12:50 | 20 |
| Tomorrow morning we head out for the S.W. winter soaring contest near
Gilbert, Az. (Changed from Scottsdale, now ~ 15 miles south.
Looks like we'll have ~10 A.S.A. members going, ~60 total entrants
signed up so far. The Calif. big guns will be there, but when they
see us swagger up wearing our Turquoise Turkey T-shirts I'm sure
they'll just hand us the trophies and avoid further embarrasement. ;^)
The field is 4-5 miles due west of Williams AFB. Hopefully we won't
be collecting any T-38s up our intakes, or is that the other way
around?
We have everyone from semi-novices with Gentle Ladies (but no wives)
to grizzeled desert hardened veterans, their eyes mere gun-slits
as they peer into the cobalt blue desert sky. Flying everything
from Paragons to Alcyones. Quasoars to Legends. BOTs to Camanos.
A contest report late next week.
Terry
|
| 853.68 | I wanna see one of those T shirts. | QUIVER::WALTER | | Wed Jan 29 1992 20:23 | 2 |
| Good luck, Terry. Be sure to bring home the bacon. Or else you'll be
eating turkey sandwiches for a while.
|
| 853.69 | Mebbe they'll be eatin' 'ol buzzard ! | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Jan 29 1992 20:58 | 5 |
| I like turkey better than bacon so guess I can't go wrong.
We'll do our best to do something. ;^)
Terry
|
| 853.70 | Going to the S.W. Winter Soaring Contest | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Feb 05 1992 13:07 | 31 |
| Some of this may be Ramblin', but will put it all here for continuity.
We pulled out of Albq. at 8am, thurs. morning. My riding partner was
Col. Mike Havey of the A.F. Weapons Lab at Kirtland AFB, attending his
first out of town contest with his Gentle Lady loaded for bear.
An uneventful ~200 miles until just east of Springerville, Az. a B-1
crossed the road ~2 miles ahead of us at ~1000 ft.
Another ~100 miles and as we were in the Salt River Canyon north
of Globe, a B-52 comes down the canyon just even with the top of
the west rim. The road is below the east rim at that point. He's
about 400 ft. above the road to our right. The canyon is ~1/2 mile wide
at that point. The -52 proceeded down the canyon ~1 mile to where the
west rim curved back to the NW, forming a mesa. He banked >45 degrees
around the end of the mesa and headed NW. By the time we got down to
the end where we could look NW, he was gone, even the smoke trail.
Mike says,"That says something about 1940's U.S. engineering, or the
U.S. Congress, I'm not sure which."
Then he told a few stories about flying F-111's at Edwards as a chase
plane for the B-1 electronic systems developement. The stories mostly
involved barf bags and their use below 500 ft. I won't repeat them.
Next: The contest site.
Terry
|
| 853.71 | Friday practice. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Feb 05 1992 13:26 | 32 |
| Friday morning saw us at the contest site just south of Gilbert, Az.
A 50 acre mesa built up with fill dirt ~10 feet above the surrounding
terrain which was mainly farm fields.
The fill dirt had been placed on top of a former Little League complex
which had to abandon the site because the EPA wouldn't allow them to
water the grass due to perculation of the water through an old dump
site and on into the ground water. Since the site became useless for
most purposes, without grass, the Central Az. Soaring League rents
it from the city of Gilbert for $1 a year.
Along the west side is a road and a row of ~6-12 ft. Palo Verde trees.
These have 2 in. thorns and are not nice to land in.
Along the east side are power lines and a ~15ft. wide irrigation
canal. Both parallel the long axis of the field.
We flew until sunset friday getting used to the approach path (over
or between the Palo Verde trees) into the landing spots which
were 50-60 beyond the trees. Planes without flaps or crow capability
were having to come between the trees because they couldn't come down
steeply enough over the trees to make the spot.
It was obvious that of the 12 Albq. Turquoise Turkeys at the contest,
only three of us would have competitive planes in the spot landing
portion. Camano, Alcyone and Legend.
The air was heavy and calm. No well defined lift. 77 degrees. Clear.
Next: The contest starts.
Terry
|
| 853.72 | Saturday's contest | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Feb 05 1992 14:51 | 66 |
| Sat. morning dawned clear, calm, nearly dead air.
81 contestants were on hand for three rounds of precision duration,
3, 5, 7 minute. Followed by three rounds of 10 min. triathlon with
spot landings. These were considered two separate contests. The final
7 and 9 min. prec. duration rounds to be flown sunday.
Most people with the heavier flapped ships were making the 3,5,7 okay
due to getting enough launch height to simply glide around in the
dead air. The poly floaters had trouble with the 5 and especially
the 7 min. and were further handicapped by not being able to get
out and search for lift far out to the east. I was at the limit of
visibility several times but was able to get back okay, getting
a 3:03, 4:57 and 7:10, the last being excessively dramatic. Landing
points totaling 27 on the 3 min. only.
Two Falcons mid-aired 1/2 mi. east at ~1000ft., separated cleanly
with no apparent damage. Both pilots attempted to fly the
same plane back to the field. Only one succeeded. The one that augered
in unattended was out with a broken fuse. and heavy wing damage.
On my 5 min. flight I hit the top of a P.V. tree and fell tail
first to the ground. The rudder hinge pins popped out of the
fin post L-brackets cleanly, no other damage, I popped them back in
and was ready to go in 30 seconds.
The poly fliers without out-of-town contest experience were receiving
a rude welcome to the real world, and even Thornburg was heard to
opine as how the BOT had about reached the end of the contest trail,
although I did see him make a 100 point landing, albeit with judicious
use of the single wheel he had mounted in the fuselage, in order
to roll up to the spot.
On the 7 min. round I was too high and too fast over the trees and went
around between the landing zone and the trees to kill some speed.
Coming down at ~6 ft. high and rolling 90 degrees into the spot, I
reached for the flap stick and , BOOM, instantly dived vertically into
the ground, sending the wings flying off. I thought I had a radio hit
but glancing down saw the alt. mode sw. in the alt. mode position.
I had hit it going for the flap stick. The Alt. position revealed that
I had full down elevator dialed in on that menu. I hadn't used the
alt. mode for several months, since before I sent the Xmtr.
to CSL for the upgrade. The only difference between the modes had been
more crow in alt. Still can't figure out how full down elev. got
programmed in.
Anyway, it took 4 of us about 45 minutes to get the Legend flyable
again. Ripped off the right tiplet, crunched the tiplet t.e. and the
right aileron t.e., Sheared the wing l.e. hold down dowel flush with
the wing l.e., ripped out the lower rudder hinge pin, and a few smalls
rips in the bottom surfaces.
The guys did a great job of getting me into the air again just
in time to make my slot in the triathlon round.
It took a lot of CA and vinyl tape, and luckily Bill H. had a cordless
drill. It didn't look too pretty but it flew okay.
The three triathlon rounds were flown without incident, everyone was
having trouble making 10 min. in the dead air. All mine were in the
5-6 min. area with a few more landing points.
The Legend wanted to pull right on launch and left in cruise, but
rudder trim was able to keep things under control.
Next: Sunday precision duration finale.
Terry
|
| 853.73 | Triathlon, demystified. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Feb 05 1992 17:51 | 29 |
| Time out from the continuing Sonoran Desert Saga while I explain
what a triathlon is, per Dan Miner's request.
A triathlon is basically the same as a precision duration event,
usually with a 10 minute duration, and spot landing.
The main difference is that you must land only on the even number
minutes in order to get max points. For example, a 2 min. flight is
worth more than a 3min., 4 min. is worth more than 5 min. etc.
Obviously the points do not increment linearly one per second. A
complex, possibly logrithmic progression between minutes determines
your points total for a given flight time. Off the top of my head,
I think the break even point is 37 seconds past the odd minute.
In other words, If you flew past 2 minutes, you would have to fly
for 3 minutes and 37 seconds before equaling the score you would have
received for landing at 2 minutes. Of course if you made 4 minutes your
score would be twice as good as the two minute score. The same ratios
apply as you progress toward the max score of ten minutes (plus spot
landing points). The chart in the AMA rule book must be used for
scoring. The trick is to predict how far beyond 2 minutes you'll
be able to fly. A good conservative, non-greedy attitude is essential
for this type of contest.
The CASL club loves this event. I've never encountered it elsewhere,
for good reason IMHO.
Terry
|
| 853.74 | Sundays contest | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Feb 05 1992 18:17 | 40 |
| Sunday dawned with a high overcast, dead calm, and even deader air.
I was in an early to launch flight group in the 7 min. round.
This was my most memorable flight of the weekend, from my viewpoint.
The air was so smooth and dead that after launch you simply didn't
have to touch the sticks at all, except to prevent a fly-away of
course. I flew a simple race-track pattern back and forth perpendicular
to line of sight, just in case a bump did show up. Never had to touch
the sticks except to turn which explains why I got a 6:15 time. The
plane flew itself more efficiently than I could have. I bailed out
for landing ~30 seconds too soon. By being more aggressive I could
have possibly eked out 7:00, but I'd had my fill of tree dodging.
Bill Wilson had dunked his BOT in the irrigation canal on sat. and
a dry-out seesion had not cured his erratic servos. He switched
to his back-up Southwind, and by mid-morning had managed to dunk
it in the canal too! No one else managed even one dunking.
When he got home he strapped some foam floats on the BOT, put on
swim fins and face mask and had his picture taken.
John Ihlein had an excellent 8:35 on the 9 min. round, (Alcyone)
the highest of the round.
The lift had appeared, barely, by mid-morning and he was able to milk
it perfectly never rising above launch height.
One odd display occurred out near the powerlines. An unidentified
plane was suddenly seen to auger in from about 500 ft. Just as it
reached power line height it straightened out, did a half-loop,
rolled off the top and augered on in. It looked like a case of radio
interference where the pilot recovered control just before impact.
But no, we later learned that he had been flying another plane right
into the landing zone, and his own planes' loop had been caused by
his flaring the other plane for landing ! He actually went over and
picked up the other plane, then the real pilot came up and said,
"that's my plane". Duhhhhhh ! Wish I had been over by the landing
area to hear that little episode. At least it wasn't one of our guys.
Next: Summary, and what we learned.
Terry
|
| 853.75 | What we learned | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Feb 05 1992 18:37 | 35 |
| When all was said and done we ended up 4th out of 4 in the team
competition. Thornburg had a 11th o.a. in the precision duration event
and John I. had a 20th in the triathlon; our two highest finishes.
Dave could have done better with a more competitive plane, and John
could have done better with more experience, but he flew a calm,
disciplined contest, more than I can say for most of the rest of us.
I finished 34th out of 72 in the P.D. and 46 out of 81 in the Tri.
Although too many low flight times put me way out of contention early
on, it was the brain-dead landing decisions that I kick myself for.
What we learned was that our local contests need to be harder in terms
of landing tasks, more guys need to switch to modern, competitive
designs, N.M. thermalling conditions have a tendency to spoil us,
and I am going to hang a small tape player on my belt with a
pre-recorded 2 min. countdown, and go out and practice my approaches.
The Airtronics team aka the George family (father and two sons)
took the team award, John Mangino from CASL took first o.a., all flew
Legends. 5th was a modified Falcon.
Legends and Falcons accounted for ~75% of the entries. There were two
Thermal Eagles, 6-8 Love/windsongs, one Saber, one Anthem, and a gaggle
of assorted types rounding out the field.
So it looks like we have to buy watermelon at the Springerville contest
in July. But, Dave presented the CASL CD with the Bronzed Turkey Leg
award, a real turkey leg sprayed with bronze paint and mounted on a
plaque. It was real and smelled like it. The CD was impressed.
But doggone it, we shore had a good time and I think that's what
it's all about, isn't it ?
Terry
|
| 853.76 | Couple more observations. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Feb 05 1992 20:41 | 45 |
| I was timing for Bruce T. on most of the rounds. On his first
triathlon round the right stab half on his Camano slipped outbd.
on the wires. The front wire was about 2/3 the length of the rear wire.
When the stab cleared the front wire it could still pivot on the rear
wire. It did, perpendicular to the airflow. This all happened just as
he came off the launch.
There was so much drag from the perpendicular stab that the plane went
into a semi-inverted flat spin which gradually steepened. Bruce had no
effective control all the way to the ground. Damage was a long
span-wise split in one wing and the rear fuse. split like a piece of
bamboo.
The moral is to use equal length stab wires. That way if the stab does
slip off it will leave cleanly, and the remaining stab half will
probably give enough control to land safely. Also, relying solely
on a bend in the wire for retention is risky. A little belt dressing
smeared on the wires is extra insurance.
The Legend pilots from Calif. had a new (to me) device.
A plastic or nylon U shaped saddle that was attached to the bottom
of the fuselage with two screws, below the t.e. of the wing.
Hanging down from the saddle was a 1-2 in. long skag, skeg, whatever
you call it, like a small sailboat center board.
On landing, the skag would raise the tail and force the sharks teeth
landing skid down into the suface. On the carpet landing surface this
was really effective. Even if the sharks teeth didn't grip 100% and
stop the plane within 1 in., the usual results, the skag would still
catch and the plane would simply pivot about the skag contact point.
This insured that the planes' nose was never more than half a fuselage
length away from the scoring stripe.
A side benefit was that the flaps were held clear of ground contact
even when full down, meaning that they could drive right into the
ground without having to think about when to raise the flaps to prevent
scraping the trailing edges.
I didn't have a chance to ask where they got the saddles. It was
a molded one piece item, not likely home-made.
If I discover the source I'll pass it on.
Terry
|
| 853.77 | keep these reports rolling, those tales, too.... | KBOMFG::KNOERLE | | Thu Feb 06 1992 08:22 | 13 |
|
Hahaha - still laughing about 853.74 "Sundays contest". The poor
guy must have watered in the channel for the same reason one hit
the only tree in a mile radius - miracle.
The other one was a boomer, too - flying so else's plane and
even picking it up, too ! - awsome
I like your report very much, Terry, keep'em coming.
Bernd
(currently not much flying sailplanes but finishing the CAP20B)
|
| 853.78 | Really good stuff! | OLCROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Thu Feb 06 1992 11:17 | 3 |
| I second Bernd's comments, your reports are great Terry!
-Lamar
|
| 853.79 | Just goes to show you, it's always something. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Thu Feb 06 1992 12:53 | 13 |
| Well, thanks guys. If it's odd aerial shenanigans you want to hear
about, hardly a week goes by without something to write about.
This weekend is a local club contest at the soccer field with plenty
of fences, trees, and people walking dogs. Always a hilarious
combination. Weather permitting (which doesn't look promising)
maybe I'll see something worth reporting.
BTW, I've spent 7 hours so far restoring the Legend to original
condition. Another couple of hours tonight to finish up the rudder and
she'll be ready to go.
Terry
|
| 853.80 | The acton A.S.S.'s know about soccer goals! | OLCROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Thu Feb 06 1992 13:25 | 4 |
| We A.S.S.'s up in Acton can tell you about soccer goals! Right guys! It's an
informal initiation to "score a goal" in becomming a "real" A.S.S. :^)
-Lamar "holding_on_to_last_place_in_the_building_race!"
|
| 853.81 | I knew it all along! Software to blame again! | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Fri Feb 07 1992 20:22 | 22 |
| Investigating the cause of my full down elevator in alt. mode, last
night I examined the print-out that CSL sends back with each Vision
that they update.
Right there in setup #3 (my choice for the alt. mode) it said,
DnElev 33%. A-ha!
In setup #1 (normal mode) it says DnElev -28%.
What this means is that in normal mode I had neutral elevator trim
at -28% (+/- 100% is the range). When switching to alt. mode I suddenly
had 33% DOWN elevator, or actually 61% of total elev. travel in the
down direction ( the % difference between -28 and +33).
The Legend elev. linkage puts a 180 degree reversal on movement between
servo and elev. horn which is why a positive number travel value
equals a downward control surface movement.
Still don't know when/how the disparate values got in there.
Terry
|
| 853.82 | The shame of saturday morning wetness. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Mon Feb 10 1992 13:18 | 49 |
| Saturday was our monthly club contest.
17 lunati....er, stalwart competitiors showed up to brave heavy,
low, scudding clouds with several moments of drizzel which mercifully
ceased half way through the contest. Dead calm of course.
The contest consisted of 4 rounds of 4 minute precision duration,
well suited to the conditions.
I reinstalled my shark's tooth landing skid on the Legend after several
months of the smooth skid. The Az. experience leaving me determined
to plant it on or at least within walking distance of the spot every
time.
An extra fillip, the C.D.'s brainchild, was 'scale' landing points.
If you landed smoothly, straight ahead, no ground looping, etc.
you got an extra 25 points in addition to your spot landing points,
if any.
This was a rather subjective judgement with a few wrangles over
whether a landing was sufficiently scale like. We probably
won't try this feature again.
I managed to get landing points on all four landings and scale points
on the last three. The first being a javelin into the sod.
Got my four minutes, +/- 10 seconds on flights two & three and was
short 30-45 seconds on the other two. Good enough for 6th place.
2 through 6 being bunched up within ~100 points and Dave T. way
out in front with >150 point lead for 1st place.
Oddly enough no weird things happened and no one hit anything
animate or otherwise.
Fred did provide his usual entertaining and terrifying landing
approaches, causing the following dialouge amongst witnesses:
"Look at that. Not the slightest landing pre-planning." (John)
"Yes, it's as though he's saying, *gravity has taken over and I'm
helpless* " (me).
"Cruel, but true." (Taylor).
I noted that only three of us had planes with flaps and ailerons.
One other with spoilers. But more and more people are beginning
to posture and make noises about building new stuff.
Terry
|
| 853.83 | BTW, 70 degrees | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Thu Mar 19 1992 13:40 | 45 |
| Belated report on last sunday's club X-C contest.
10 of the usual hardcore X-C types showed up. X-C contests seem to
weed out the faint of heart.
I thought I'd be flying the Algebra, but discovered a stripped aileron
servo, so rushed home (5 miles) and grabbed the Legend, which I
don't like to fly in the sagebrush too much.
On my first round (of 3) on the 2km course (length chosen to be LSF
legal) I got good lift and had no trouble completing the run without
circling. The far end of the course had a row of power poles right along
the road extending back toward the start/finish for ~1/4 mile.
On my second round I had no noticeable lift and by the time I got to
the turn around (riding in the back seat of a '64 Dodge Dart
convertible chase car, what luxury !) I was down to power pole height
so managed to dodge a pole, guy wire and stop sign and set it down on
the shoulder of the road.
Third round, no lift at the start, headed out and flew through several
patches but didn't circle. At the turnaround I was at ~2X pole height,
so came about and punched for home, The Izusu P.U. that I was riding,
had to hum at a steady 40mph to keep up and I wasn't using any reflex.
Didn't think I was going to make it, but got right over the road and
hit a few wave like bumps, and crossed the line with 4 ft. of altitude.
All in all good enough for 4th place, aced out of 3rd by one point by
Phil S. and his Paragon, he passed one more cone than I did.
Dave T. (BOT) and Taylor C. (Southwind) had to have a fly-off to break
their tie for 1st.
Taylor had flown all three rounds with one launch, 6 KM total, legal
under the C.D.s rules, and had gotten his LSF IV X-C requirement to
boot.
Dave had gotten his 6Km with 3 separate flights.
Dave won the fly-off, 6 more KM to Taylor's 5. Dave quit after 6 KM
even though he was still ~800 ft. high, because the rest of us were
impatient to get to Wendy's.
No incidents to report except that the winch ate one Gentle Lady wing.
Terry
|
| 853.84 | March F3B contest in Az. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Mon Mar 23 1992 14:40 | 17 |
| The winter F3B team qualification contest was held south of Phoenix
Mar. 14-15. The '91 team was there and Perkins took 1st, with Wurts
and Jolly in 2nd, 3rd.
Phil Renaud from our club took 4th, Tom T. and Buzz took 8th and 10th.
17 contestants. It looks good for Phil to make the '93 team at this
point.
Joe Wurts pretty well dorked his Eagle during the contest due to a
failure of a carbon fiber pin in the stab actuation mechanism. Don't
know if it was a pivot rod or part of the linkage.
Earlier he had javelined it into the sod on a spot landing, and he
thinks the pin was cracked at that time. Later it failed in the air.
Terry
|
| 853.87 | Phoenix glider contest regrets | KAY::FISHER | If better is possible, good is not enough. | Wed Mar 25 1992 16:16 | 24 |
| > -< Did you miss the 1/8 th A.F. meet too? >-
No - that's what I went to Phoenix for in the first place.
I'll write a long note about it soon.
> Sorry about that Kay. I could have put a note in about it beforehand,
> but didn't know any noters would be in the area. It was postponed
> due to weather, so normally you would have missed it anyway.
Wasn't your fault - I didn't look in the AMA list for Az contests so
even if it was listed I would have missed it.
> BTW, Dan Miner is in Phoenix now and may have a chance to come to Albq.
> first weekend in April. Should I be worried ? ;^).
Worried about what? I missed something here.
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.88 | Sense of humor too obscure. | ELMAGO::TTOMBAUGH | Naked in a cave in the Jemez | Wed Mar 25 1992 16:56 | 12 |
| Yes, you missed the smil;ey.
The F3B contest wasn't in the MA contest schedule.
FWIW, the Central Az. Soaring League has their monthly contests on the
second sunday of each month during their contest season which goes
on hiatus during the summer. But they would welcome anyone stopping
by to watch or enter.
Ditto the A.S.A. and our contest season is year round.
Terry
|
| 853.89 | April 5th New Boston Glider Carnage Report | QUIVER::WALTER | | Mon Apr 06 1992 17:02 | 40 |
| No time for a full report, but a few comments on Al Ryder's glider contest
Sunday:
Could have been a little warmer, could have been a LOT less wind, but in
general a good time was had by all (except those took their planes away in
small plastic bags).
The "10 MPH" wind forecasted by those doobies who call themselves
"meteorologists" revved up to 35 MPH gusts. Some thermals were ferocious
in intensity, and I routinely flew into areas of the biggest sink since the
Titanic.
Al originally called for 8 minute tasks, and reduced it to 7 minutes with
consensus of the pilots. I don't believe anyone maxed a flight. My longest was
4 minutes, and I considered it an amazing fluke. Most of my flights were over
with in less than 2 minutes, and the plane's flight generally consisted of a
backward shuffle from towhook release to the field. Even when you found lift,
it got blown down wind so fast that you had to bag out else the plane would
never make it back to the field. Many planes ended up in the trees, and I don't
believe Terry Sweeney ever found his.
I scratched my third round in the open class because my Prophet broke in my
hand. I was holding the fuse in the normal manner and a gust of wind hit
it so hard that the wings shifted in the saddle and broke off some plywood
hold down pieces. The turbulence was such that Lovesongs would roll 90 degrees
in the blink of an eye. When you're 20 feet from the ground, that's bad. Jim
Reith's planes sustained the most damage while sitting in the pits. Even
with substantial weight over the fuse, gusts of wind would rip through the
pits and toss the planes around like leaves.
Kay Fisher noted that Al had invented the true Elimination Contest: the last
flyable glider is the winner! It almost came to that.
OK, maybe I overstate the conditions a bit, but it's the strongest wind I've
ever flown in. No word on results yet, Al was going to work out the numbers
and mail the final order to the contestants.
Dave
|
| 853.91 | Carnage during the winds from Hell | BRAT::RYDER | perpetually the bewildered beginner | Tue Apr 07 1992 05:18 | 14 |
| If I had to describe the New Boston contest succinctly, I'd say it was
good training for the Nats. If the wind is blowing at the Nats
anything like it was Sunday, there will be a couple dozen pilots from
New England who might out-perform people from placid places.
The AMA sanction rules allow contests to be suspended during tornados
and hurricanes, naught much less.
Alton, who learneed more lessons in CD 101
p.s. Rondeau consistantly nailed his landings: 71, 97, 81
The average for the contest was more nearly zero.
p.p.s. More succinctly, "Carnage during the winds from Hell".
|
| 853.94 | revised New Boston results (with all the data) | BRAT::RYDER | perpetually the bewildered beginner | Wed Apr 08 1992 10:57 | 36 |
| Results of the 1992 Spring Soar-in in New Boston
Points and Standings
HLG 2 meter Open
Experts:
Ken Baker 43 5 382 2
Les Gerhardt 210 3
Chris Ordzie 314 2 510 1
Walter H. Rady 34 6
Lincoln Ross 6:52 3 367 1
Steve Schommer 6:55 2 149 4 149 4
Chris Schuch 235 3
Sportsmen:
Fred Backhaus 0
John Backhaus 76
Dan Carr 385 2 390 3
Shane Ellison 146 6
Art Faria 528 1
Kay Fisher 0:58 10
Preston Heller 137 7
Dave Levan 2:02 8
Harry Newman 0
Walter E. Rady 80 7
Jim Reith 1:32 9 201 5 109 9
Jim Reith Jr. 3:15 7 273 4
Richard Roelke 7:02 1 69 8
Robert Rondeau 249 4
Terry Sweeney 5:30 5
Steve Syrotiak 214 5
Mark Thayer 6:45 4 128 8
Jim Tyrie 329 3 416 2
Al Vasquez 77
Dave Walter 4:39 6 665 1 137 6
27 entrants
|
| 853.95 | Biddeford F3B (and other) practice session | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon May 18 1992 12:00 | 41 |
| I went to Biddeford this weekend. I was the only DEC-related attendee.
It wasn't an official contest but there were three winches for under 10
fliers. The day was build as an F3B practice session and there were two
89T Comets there. They practiced speed and distance legs. Listening to
the Comets sing through the air on the speed runs was impressive. Jim
Tyrie was turning13 laps in the 4 minute window and seemed to be
getting better as the day went on. Dennis <mumble> had the other Comet
and gave some impressive speed and distance runs while calling what he
was giving for inputs.
Personally, I woke up at 4am to rain. I finally got up at 6am and it
was coming down in buckets. I turned on the Weather channel and the
Worcester radar was saturated. Not wanting to drive 5 hours for a
rainout (2.5 each way) I called Ken Baker about 7am and he wife said he
had left and the sun was coming out. I got there at 10:30 and we had
the pilot's meeting about 11am. The sun didn't come out until I was
heading back after 3pm but the wind never got over 3-5mph. Other people
there included Phyllis with a Paragon and the 3/4 Predator, Jim Tyrie,
Art Falia (with a nice standard class pod and boom), Steve Schommer
with a trunk full of lawn darts and a new Mariah with a set of S3021
wings that he hated, Ken, Dennis, and one other DSC guy. Jimmy got in a
few GL flights and I flew the Alcyone.
I managed to get a few 10+ minute flights in and got the crow mode
dialed in so I managed an 89 and 76 on the two landings I attempted. I
only broke one alignment bolt when I did a spear landing
unintentionally. I spent a few minutes talking to Jim Tyrie about
further tuning of the Alcyone and he strongly recommended going with
silicone hinges due to the movement he was seeing with my tape hinges.
I started them last night. The biggest improvement in flying the
Alcyone was seen in putting 50% exponential back in and flying it on
low rates for the most part. I got it back into the more where it was
grooving around in the turns nice and flat.
Next session is 5/30 and I'm planning on going up and getting more
winch time. The winches were almost always available and we only had
one frequency conflict in the bunch (not me fortunately). I got in a
leisurely 7-10 flights and managed to get a lot of tuning done which
was why I went. I'll be sending in my Nats registration this week for 2
meter and open class and flying the planes I'm most comfortable with
and getting a day in between to get set back up.
|
| 853.96 | Contest results - CRRC 1992 | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Aug 10 1992 11:33 | 39 |
| CRRC Partial Contest results
Saturday 8/8/92 - 7 rounds
Name class overall within class points
Lincoln Ross expert 1 1 3418
Jim Tyrie expert 6 6 3189
Grant Fleming sportsman 7 1 3070
Anker Berg-sonne sportsman 13 3 2927
Steve Schommer sportsman 18 6 2696
Sal DeFrancesco sportsman 19 7 2691
Jim Reith Sr sportsman 20 8 2680
Chris Schuch sportsman 28 13 2501
Dave Walter sportsman 29 14 2469
Art Faria expert 30 16 2467
Kay Kisher sportsman 35 17 2291
John Nilsson expert 36 19 2236
Hartmut Klingenberg sportsman 38 18 2067
Ray Mierzejewski sportsman 42 21 1899
Lamar Phillips sportsman 43 22 1834
Jim Reith Jr junior 45 1 1592
John Ross sportsman 48 24 1327
Sunday 9/9/92 - 4 rounds
Name class overall within class points
Terry Luckenbach expert 1 1 1617
Anker Berg-Sonne sportsman 2 1 1604
Chris Schuch sportsman 4 2 1594
Lincoln Ross expert 7 5 1548
Jim Tyrie expert 13 10 1447
Jim Reith Sr sportsman 20 6 1343
John Nilsson expert 21 15 1329
Art Faria expert 24 17 1247
Steve Schommer sportsman 28 10 1177
Lamar Phillips sportsman 32 14 1051
Kay Fisher sportsman 34 15 970
Jim Reith Jr junior 37 1 874
|
| 853.97 | All types of conditions over the weekend | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Aug 10 1992 11:48 | 23 |
| I had a good time at the CRRC contest(s) this weekend. The first day was great
weather and I finally felt that I had the Alcyone under control. I managed to
hit half my landings and found reasonable air most rounds. I had crow mode
working and was able to play with it quite a bit on a couple of flights. I was
up high enough on my 5th and 6th rounds that I needed to deploy crow at the 5
minute (7 minute rounds) mark to get down in time. I was able to use it near
the ground and managed two 88 point landings over the weekend. It was interesting
to fly against Sal on saturday with his lighter Alcyone. He had to really work
to get down on time a few flights. I picked up a couple of pointers over the
weekend and finally feel that I can handle the Alcyone in most conditions. Sunday
wasn't very sunny. It was typical CRRC contest weather, rain. We did sneak in 3+
rounds before the rain hit after lunch but due to people travelling they weren't
going to start a new round after 2pm. We finished up and headed home at a
reasonable time. My plane was intact at the end of the weekend (but I bent two
wing rods) and I was pleased with how I flew.
Jimmy did well with his Gentle Lady and managed to run his own winch the last two
rounds on sunday. He told me he's ready for a better performing plane for next
season. He also got an 88 point landing and was rubbing it in that he was doing
just as well as I was on the spot landings 8^)
A very good weekend of flying. Time to earn some more brownie points at home and
make my wife start smiling again.
|
| 853.98 | A good time Saturday at least | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Mon Aug 10 1992 13:43 | 68 |
| Not having anything available to fly at the CRRC glider contest, I decided to
go out Saturday and just observe and help out. I had intended to go out for
a few hours and would up staying the whole day.
I did some timing for people, drove the moped retrieving the winch line,
and sat at one of the winches for awhile. Even though I wasn't flying, I
still had a hell of a time. It was a good turn out and as usual, everything
ran very smoothly. There were alot of nice high tech machines there and
quite a few out of state people.
One of the newest things I saw there were a couple of large gliders that had
full carbon fiber sheeted wings. I wonder if they bothered to put spars
in them 8^).
John Ross finally did in his lovesong by folding the wings and putting the
fuse into the trees. I HOPE he doesn't rebuild it. He had some other type
of "old" backup ship there that he ended up blowing the wings off as soon
as it left his hand.
Dave Walter did a nice AGGRESSIVE zoom launch and "broke" half of his stab.
He still ended up with a 2.5 minute flight and landed in the tall grass to
avoid further injuring the broken stab. (it was still hanging there).
Kay had a bit of bad luck, but did that before I got there. I understand
they ended up cutting the whole tree down.
After watching the goings on Saturday, I'm convinced that flaps are all you
need. I didn't see much crow in use and the ships that could get a good 90
degree deflection were floating in just as nice as can be.
Probablty the most interesting thing that happened during the contest was
the emergency landing done by an ultralight. While a few of us were taking
a break under the canopy, someone pointed out a "plane" that sounded like
an ultralight, but looked like a regular plane. Turned out to be one of
those fully enclosed ultralights. Were watching the thing fly by when all
of a sudden he goes dead stick. He made a turn that looked like he was
coming into the drop zone and they started to clear the field. Then he made
a turn like he was going to try for Crow Island. Then he made another turn
into the drop zone and at that point, it was certain he was coming in. Dave
walter and I were standing next to each other watching the guy and when he
turned on final, he went out of sight behind the trees. Not just because he
was a ways out, but because he was LOW. Dave and I were both sure he wasn't
going to make the field and were just waiting for the sound of the plane
crashing through the trees. All of a sudden, he appears over the tree line
and proceeds to touch down about half way down the field. He was also
landing down wind but really didn't have much choice in the matter. This
thing didn't have any breaks and it looked like he was going to run off
the end of the field, but he managed to get it turned just as he was about
to run out of field.
Turns out part of his needle valve assemble broke and the engine went lean.
In typical barnstorming chicken wire and chewing gum fassion, a repair was
made and the guy took off after the contest ended. He circled the field
gaining altitude, then headed off for Sterling where he left from.
While it was on the ground, we got a chance to look it over and the engine
looked like something Eric would be interested in. It was a Rotax 2 cycle
motor that looked just like a Super Tigre 10,000. The pilot took it appart
to check things out and it's no different than anything we fly. Even the carb
was pretty simple with a spring loaded mechanism for mixture control. I was
looking at the construction of this thing and the fuse looks like a a Kadet
Senior. I don't think this is something I'd be interested is flying.
Anyway it was a fun/interesting day and I'm glad I decided to go out and
make myself usefull.
Steve
|
| 853.99 | | EMDS::SNOW | | Mon Aug 10 1992 13:48 | 6 |
|
Sounds like you visitor was a Kitfox Steve. Glad to hear he made the
field rather than a lasting impression in the trees!
With anyluck perhaps JR1 has run out of gliders??
|
| 853.100 | CRRC contest | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Aug 10 1992 14:28 | 55 |
|
The carbon gliders Steve Smith mentioned are Terry
Luchenbach's Probes. The wing is a sandwich construction with a
hollow foam core and carbon fiber on the outside all molded. The
wingrods are aluminum tubes. The whole assembly seems
unbreakable. The bad side is that you see no flex at all on
launches, so when it breaks it will do so without warning. Its
my dream plane, but the kit costs $550 with a 6-8 week backlog
when Terry starts building after the contest season.
I saw Kay's launch. Right after release the front of his
hatch came loose and the hatch blew onto the top of the fuse
attached to the rear. After that the launch flattened out so he
was only about 200' up and going at 1000 mph. At that point the
tail feathers fluttered and self destructed - all of them. My
theory is that the semi attached hatch created enough turbulence
to disturb the tail feathers, prevent the plane from gaining
altitude, and then caused the flutter when the speed got high
enough.
Kay's was one of two Lovesongs destroyed that day. I was
stupid enough to agree to operate the winch pedal for John Ross.
When he got to the zoom one wing just folded. After the fact he
told me that he had repaired the wing without opening it. He
hust poured epoxy into the damaged area, so anything could have
been wrong.
My Legend with the crazy winglets performed wonderfully.
After the 6'th round on Saturday I was comfortably in first
place. When I zoomed on the launch for the second round I had
aileron flutter which caused one of the clevises to open. The
loose aileron flapped like craze and coused incredible drag, so I
was on the ground in 2:48, but I made a semi-decent landing.
That flight bumped me down to 3'rd. That night I made several
modifications to tighten up the linkages and Sunday there wans't
any flutter problem. The day was really crazy with extremely
light lift. After Chris Schuch had flown his 4'th round he came
up to me and told me that I needed a perfect time and at least 80
landing points to beat him. Given that challenge I had to work
really hard, but the wind was now strong enough that I could park
on a ridge and get my max plus a 92 point landing, which I really
didn't deserve.
The tiplets are set at 90 degrees to the already bent up
tips, so they point towards a point about 10 feet above the plane
(tilted inwards). A week ago I did some testing of their
effectiveness by removing one and then the other to see what
effect they had on the plane. There is maybe a very small
positive effect, but they definitely don't hurt and are a great
conversation piece.
The ACE Micropro is also fully set up now and is just a
joy to operate.
Anker
|
| 853.101 | Generator | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Aug 10 1992 14:32 | 13 |
|
One thing I forgot to mention.
We dragged my 4000 watt generator out to the field,
attached it to 200' of electrical cord, hid it behind a plywood
sound barrier and ran it to 4 12 amp chargers attached to the
batteries. This was enough to keep the batteries pretty much
charged through the contest. This eliminated the complaints
(justifiable) that you always get when a battery starts running
down and a flier gets a bad launch. We are definitely going to
do this again.
Anker
|
| 853.102 | Lots of fun | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Aug 10 1992 14:44 | 5 |
| Yes, the generator worked great. They did the same thing at the Nats and I
never heard anyone complain about a weak winch. Your generator was a lot less
irritating being off in the tall grass. The Nats one was between the pits and
the winch and could be heard better than the PA. You guys sure do run a fun
contest. I really like the one class/lots of rounds format.
|
| 853.103 | It was great! | MICROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Mon Aug 10 1992 14:56 | 13 |
| Anker,
I second Jim's comments about the contest, it was great! This was my first
contest this year and the first contest with the Pulsar. I haven't been able to
put a lot flight time in this year because of work and it showed this weekend in
my flying. On Saturday, I was only able to get landing point on three of my
flights. Sunday was better in the landing department as I got points on every
landing, but I still wasn't flying too efficiently.
I really enjoyed myself and think Fritz and John did a great job CD'ing contest.
I can't wait until next year!
-lamar
|
| 853.104 | Lovesong crashes for 4th time. | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Mon Aug 10 1992 15:16 | 97 |
| >Kay had a bit of bad luck, but did that before I got there. I understand
>they ended up cutting the whole tree down.
Wasn't luck - was pilot error.
My first launch of the day. After working weeks fixing the Lovesong
from when I blew the stab off at the NATS.
Here I am at a winch again. As soon as it started I didn't think
the winch had much power. As I tried to pull up it would wallow about
and look like it was going to stall - so I kept the nose down quite a bit
and the pedal to the metal. Soon the canopy blue off and was held on by
two wimpy rubber bands. As I let off the pedal and did a little dip to
loose the chute I blew the tail off.
In retrospect I think what was happening was that the fresh winch was
so powerful that instead of not having enough power it was plowing the
Lovesong thru the air and not letting it climb. I think now that
if I had let up and started tapping it would have started going up.
Anyway after the stabs left (and I think the rudder left also!) I was flying
directly to the woods and had roll control but couldn't turn. It only lasted
a few seconds then I went in the woods.
After I got down to the turn-arounds the fellow at that end showed me the
tree and you could see it. Then I went in the woods and couldn't find it.
But the mosquitoes were something else. So I went back for some OFF.
Back into the woods 4 more times before I could find the tree that
you could easily see from the field. I borrowed some tree type
tools from Les Gerhardt and managed to get a big rope on the tree
and shook it. Nothing was moving. So I went back to use
my backup ship (Hobie Hawk) and put in another round.
Between rounds I was getting volunteers to help but never really
made any progress till we took a saw out after the last round.
Thanks to Lamar Phillips great throwing arm and to Jimmy and Jim
Reith's lumberjack sawing and Dave Walter's knot tying we finally
retrieved the bird. As the tree came down it managed to break one
wing in half. Both leading edges had chomps taken out from the
landing in the tree and the rudder was dangling by a pushrod.
One stabilator half was found near the turn-arounds and the other
is still missing. The canopy was still connected to the fuselage
by the two wimpy rubberbands.
I just weighted it the other day at 103 ounces. I don't think
I'm gonna repair it this time. Mostly because I can't justify why
the tail let go. If I repaired it again I think I would just be setting
myself up for a repeat of the failure mode for the third time. Yes
I was probably going too fast but I don't think fast enough to start
shedding parts.
>I think
>Probablty the most interesting thing that happened during the contest was
>the emergency landing done by an ultralight. While a few of us were taking
Now picture this - I'm in a good thermal but way down range and they start
yelling "DEAD STICK" on the loudspeaker system.
I thought at first "so what" - we're all dead stick.
But soon they are yelling for everyone to clear the field.
Man - I'm way out now and walking backwards away from my plane
to clear the field. I head back and get a little scared because I had
no idea where this "real" airplane is and don't you know I didn't make
it over the trees.
So I didn't get to see the dead stick landing because I'm busy flying
my Hobie Hawk into the woods. I didn't see the ultralite take off because
I was in the woods retrieving the Lovesong also.
Anyway - Dennis Phalen gives me his compass and off I go.
Now I'm in a great mood. I've got a Lovesong in the top of a tall
tree with no branches near the bottom and I can't find the Hobie Hawk.
Good thing Dennis gave me the compass because it wanted me to go to my left
and I didn't believe it was right. Eventually I followed the compass and
heard servos. It had found a clearing and landed in some brush - no damage.
Hartmut was timing for me and came out to help me find it just as I found the
plane.
Let's see - first flight was 10 seconds.
I always have fun at the CRRC contests tho and I look forward
to going back.
No - we never found Mark Dufresne's plane from last year.
Well - this frees up one Airtronics PCM receiver and 5 servos.
It will be interesting to hear Hartmut's views on the contest.
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.105 | I'll pass the creditrs on to those who deserve them | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Aug 10 1992 15:56 | 9 |
|
I can't take any credit myself, but I'll extract the
feedback notes and pass them on to those who do: Fritz Bien and
John Nilsson for CD'ing, Chris Schuch for the food, .... By the
way, if you want tp send a note directly to John you can send
mail to him at INSURE::NILSSON. I know how much he will
appreciate a two-liner.
Anker
|
| 853.106 | Another good contest | QUIVER::WALTER | | Mon Aug 10 1992 16:51 | 46 |
| I was pleasantly surprised by the spectacular weather we had Saturday.
Sunday's rain was much more in line with the CRRC tradition. But it was
certainly a very well run contest. Consider that on Saturday we
completed 7 rounds with about 48 people per round: that's 336 winch
launches, not including popoffs and line breaks. There isn't another
contest in the Northeast that can approach that.
I never cease to be amazed by the experts who consisently make their
times and get the landing points. And they do this contest after
contest, so it isn't luck. Seems like I always have one or two flights
that are real dogs and take me out of the running. Of course, exploding
my stab on the zoom launch didn't help my case either.
We were treated to a demonstration of F3B flying after the contest by
Mike Lechowski and Dennis Phelan. They set up their own winches,
complete with stretchy nylon line, and proceeded to show us all what a
REAL zoom launch looks like. I was staggered! They just nail that winch
peddle and use the full force of the winch for the entire launch. The
result is a lower trajectory but with tremendous speed, capped by
yanking the plane 90 degrees up and the ensuing "rifle shot" as the
plane detaches from the tow hook. On one launch the entire plane
vibrated like a kettle drum and I thought sure it would explode into
little bite-size pieces. But no, it just went about another 300 feet up
into the air, then turned back toward the winches to begin the speed
run. The speed run was two complete laps on a 150 meter course (600
meters total), ending at about 10 feet altitude and 70 mph (and pull up
before you hit the trees!). Someone told me that top speed during the
run is around 120 mph. Boy, it looked like fun!
I don't think that unexpected visitor was a Kit Fox. The Kit Fox I saw
at Crow Island was a two seater, and this thing was strictly for one
person. But it was very similar in design. I was kind of miffed about
the whole affair, tho. For one thing, when the guy realized he had engine
problems, he should have immediately headed for the nearest airport
(which is Crow Island, about 1/2 mile from the Drop Zone). Instead, he
decides to land on a field in which there are 50 people scattered
around. It's a good thing that Fritz was alert to the situation and
broadcast the "run for your lives!" order over the PA system. After the
pilot landed, quite a few people helped him move his plane to the other
side of the field, and also helped out with repairs. I don't recall if
he thanked anyone for bailing him out, but he was upset when Fritz
wouldn't allow him to take off until the contest was completed. His
attitude seemed to be all wrong. (Steve S: you helped him out, did you
detect any signs of contrition?).
Dave
|
| 853.107 | Lots of fun and experience | LEDS::KLINGENBERG | | Mon Aug 10 1992 17:46 | 68 |
|
The contest on Saturday was pure fun to me. I met all my goals
(compete, not be last, bring the plane home intact, and gather
information regarding different planes and kits). I even made it back
to the field every flight, if you don't count the one time I was blown
into the tall grass by a gust during landing approach.
I was amazed how many flights we got in, and I attribute this to great
experience and preffesionalism of the CDs. There was never a time of
hectic - except with the UL incident.
There were some scary moments for me, though. During the second flight,
I went to where the (only?) lift seemed to be: over the trees over the
hill. Unfortunately, about 6 other planes were circling there, too.
Quite a ways out. And you are never as close to another as you think,
right? I thought that, too - and promptly mid-aired with a floater type
plane. The Fiesta flew right through it. I only saw the other guy's
wing tumbling down. I still don't know who it was and whether his plane
was found. I was not able to find out. The Fiesta went on as if nothing
had happened, inspection revealed only a slight dent in the right wing's
leading edge. Most of it I could get out by ironing over it. I'm still
very sorry for the other guy.
This incident made me stay away from the bulks for the rest of the day.
On two flights, I found reasonable lift at another place that helped me
to at least once get a decent time (6:53 or so). Unfortunately, I blew
the landing.
The other scary moment was the UL incident. I was just timing Kay's
Hobie Hawk flight when that thing came in. I panicked and tried to get
Kay off the field. With a little thinking afterwards, we were clear
from the landing path anyway. I should probably have just stayed with
Kay and watch the UL and be prepared to throw us both on the ground.
That way, Kay could have concentrated on the Hawk and maybe had made it
back to the field. I was very sorry that I couldn't get out into the
woods to help looking for it since it was my turn to fly shortly
afterwards. After my (short and unconcentrated) flight, I went out to
support Kay, but by the time I found him, he had already spotted the
Hawk. Sorry Kay, would have liked to support you better.
I'd like to say a big thank you to John and Fritz and Chris as well.
You organized a great contest (my first after about 16 years), helped
me to meet a bunch of nice and helpful friends and in general gave me a
lot of fun being there.
Thanks go to Jim (and Jimmy) Reith for convincing me to bring a
sailplane from Germany, for picking me up and taking me home again and
for doing a lot of planning for me that I might not even know about (as
we entered the military field, Jim mentioned they had checked
citizenship last year, but he made sure in advance I would be clear).
Thanks to all the noters that I came to know, that helped me with
timing and coaching and for all the tips for what plane I might look
for to buy myself as next winter's project. Special thanks go to Dave
Walter for letting me fly the Predator and even the (wounded) Prophet
although I'm used to a different mode. Thanks for trusting me that
much, Dave, I appreciated it!
Sorry, I can't promise to be there next year, but I'd definately like
to!
Best regards,
Hartmut
P.S.: Kay, I did pray for good weather yesterday. Unfortunately, I stopped
to do so when the rain stopped when we went to church (around 9:30/
10:00). I was amazed at the downpour when we came out around 12:00.
Sorry it didn't quite work out:-).
|
| 853.108 | I think he was a little nervous | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Mon Aug 10 1992 19:29 | 15 |
| Dave,
I think the Ultralight pilot was VERY glad to be on the ground. He
mentioned that, from the air, the drop zone looked PRETTY SMALL. I
think he was a bit shook up over the whole thing, was worried about
getting back out again, was worried about making it back to Sterling,
was a little embarrased about stopping the contest, etc. This all
probably contributed to his apparent lack of gratitude.
Plus being as shook up as he was after the landing, he was pounced on
by quite a few people saying things like, gee we thought you were going
to die!!!!!!!!
I wouldn't be to hard on the guy. Not that you are of course. Just
answering your question.
|
| 853.109 | The comraderie is part of the fun. | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Aug 10 1992 19:30 | 15 |
| Thanks for the kind words. I was glad to help out and it was fun to have
someone else come along. I'm sorry I missed all your flights but it seemed
we were in conflicting flight groups.
My favorite quote of the weekend was when Hartmut disappeared for about an
hour and came back to state that he had gone over to talk to Ray for "a few
minutes" about his Bird of Time. 8^)
I missed most of the carnage myself. I did get to run a winchline for a while
and managed to time for several of the ESL members. Boy, do they take things
seriously. There were several planes that got winched to death saturday but I
didn't see any on sunday. There was one of the older ESL members that had an
older woman helping him that came in hot and long for one landing and caused
the woman to vault the plane. Fortunately it had enough momentum to pass fully
under her when she jumped.
|
| 853.110 | Ok, here I go again | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Tue Aug 11 1992 01:41 | 51 |
| Well, there's nothing like a good contest with plenty of nice
ships around to make you go out and do something stupid.
I was talking to Sal at the CRRC field generally asking around if
anyone had anything for sale. Sal was the only one to do any real
talking and of course I got the whole run down on what he "just"
sold. Like a Legend completely built for under $250. He did mention
that he had a Pulsar completely built that he would part with for
around $100 bucks. He said it was a little rough and a little heavier
that he'd like, but it was straight and never been crashed. At about
that time, we got cut off and never did finish the conversation.
I tried calling him last night but he wasn't in. I called him again
tonight and he was there. I asked him about the Pulsar and his
comment was that it was a piece of junk (this one, not Pulsar's in
general). Now I figure that someone that has something to sell is
telling you that it's a piece of junk, then it's not something
I want. It also says something for the integrity of the seller. He
mentioned that he had a built Anthem he'd sell for $400 dollars and
I said gee that's nice but a little out of my range. Then he said
he had a built Magic coming in and didn't even mention the price.
That was probably out of my range too 8^).
Well, looking like I wasn't getting anywhere I tried talking him out
of his Alcyone. Told him it would be a good opportunity for him
to upgrade to the glass fuse and although it was nice and light, maybe
it was too light. He didn't buy it. He likes his Alcyone.
After some more pleading, sobbing, and begging, darned if we didn't
come up with a deal. He's selling me a completely built Dodgeson
Sabre and taking my Pulsar in trade. Total price is $245 which is
$50 dollars less than the kit price. It isn't new but it's in
excellent shape and was well built with carbon fiber spars etc. This,
of course is according to Sal, but considering what he told me about
the Pulsar, I believe him.
The Sabre for those not familiar with it is a 121 inch open class
glass and foam glider with full camber changing flaps and ailerons.
This one weighs in at 69 ounces which is light. Wing loading is
just under 10 ounces. It uses the SD7037 wing section which,
according to the write up, is very versatile with camber changing.
Up to a point, increasing the camber increases lift rather than
creating drag. Decreasing the camber increases speed dramatically
while still maintaining an excellent lift to drag ratio of something
like 26 to 1. It's built to have 4 servo's in the wing and two in
the fuse.
Looks like I might make a couple of contests this year after all.
I should have it in a couple of weeks.
Steve
|
| 853.111 | Allright, Steve!!! | MICROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Tue Aug 11 1992 12:24 | 4 |
| Way to go Steve! I told ya if ya timed for Sal, you could probably work out a
deal! :-) The Sabre looks like a very nice ship(are ya listen Mr Walter?? :-) )
Can't wait to see it down at Acton. Hope you get it in time for Al Ryder's
contest!
|
| 853.112 | Way to wheel and deal! | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Tue Aug 11 1992 14:26 | 6 |
| Same airfoil as the Alcyone (yes full camber changing works great) and about
the same weight. Sounds like you got a great deal. If you want any help
setting up the mixes, let me know. I can probably get you part of the way
there from setting up the similar Alcyone.
Make me feel pretty good if he's keeping his Alcyone and selling a Saber!
|
| 853.113 | Yeah, yeah, I hear ya. | QUIVER::WALTER | | Tue Aug 11 1992 19:02 | 17 |
| Yes, Mr. Smith, I'm listening! Ever since the contest, I've had strange
voices in my head, "Get the Sabre, get the Sabre". I started thinking
about the one that Peter Munroe owns. He showed it to me last fall, and
it looked really well built. Peter bought it from a professional kit
builder. Knowing Peter, I'll bet he hasn't even flown it yet. It might
be a bit beyond his capabilities. I'd like to convince him to part with
it, but I'll bet he paid over $500 for it. Come to think of it, it came
with radio installed, so the total price was likely close to $1000.
Heck, it never hurts to make a call, right?
I must say, I was getting a severe case of envy watching those hi-tech
Probes take command of the sky. And I'd kill for just 10 minutes on the
sticks of one of the F3B ships.
Dave
|
| 853.114 | Downeast (Amherst, NH) 9/5/92 | N25480::FRIEDRICHS | Organizationally Challenged | Tue Sep 08 1992 20:49 | 94 |
| Well, since all of the DEC contestants seem to be so slow to reply, I
will start off and let the others add...
This past Saturday was a DOWNEAST Soaring Club contest held in Amherst,
NH. There were 22 pilots, including Dave Walter, Kay Fisher, Lamar
Phillips and myself. Notably missing were Jim Reith (who claims he
needed to buy a new engine... why do you need a new engine for a
glider??) and Steve Smith (who claims it was UPS that took too long to
ship his new Sabre). Steve did show up later, but I couldn't stick
around to watch the maiden voyage...
Anyways, Al Ryder was the CD. As a result, the pilot's meeting
started on Digital time (ie 1/2hr late). As usual, Al dragged out the
pilots meeting painfully long. Of the hot issues that took forever to
decide was what classes would be held. It was finally decided that
there would only be open, but we would fly 5 rounds for the scoring.
Then, on to scoring... At first, I had a very hard time understanding
the system. But now that I do, I guess it makes sense... It is an
"add'em up" type event, with the total goal of 25 minutes. However,
the first 4 flights have durations of 5,7,7,5 minutes. The last flight
goal is however many minutes you need to make 25. After talking with
DW1, I guess it does make sense as it keeps everyone in the contest
right up to the end, whereas in simple duration, if you screw up a
round, you are done for...
I didn't truely understand this all until it was too late.. With this
system, any points lost by going over the goal are lost forever,
whereas time under the goal can be made up on the last flight. As a
result of some great thermals that I hated to leave, I ended up losing
about 50 pts by going over on times. So my last flight was only 3:09
in some great lift... Oh well... Back to Al and the pilot's meeting.
It went on and on. Finally, it ended... But boy, there were suddenly
a lot of confused people walking around!
As Al likes to do, he had a handlaunch contest which was fun to watch.
Rick Roelke (3rd in HL at the Nats) made 1 throw at the opening horn
and was still up when the window closed 10 minutes later...
Impressive! Terry Sweeny did well. Dave Walter hung in there...
Finally, we started flying for real. I was helping a guy from our
local club so I kept pretty busy flying and timing. I hadn't flown
gliders since the Nats, and it showed in my landings.... I managed to
pull the hinges out of the rudder on the Oly, but realized they had
probably been loosened during my abrupt landing at the Nats. So after
the first flight, I flew the Spirit. I was pretty happy with all of my
flights, except that I popped off the winch more than a few times with
the Spirit. After the first 2 times, Lee also popped off on the same
winch and they determined it was a failure at the turn-around point, so
I got to re-fly that round. But I did proceed to pop off again in the
next round.
Landings were kind of interesting... For much of the day, you had to
either approach over some trees, or cicle down in front of the trees.
Lots of people overshooting... But then the wind started to turn
around. Some people noticed and started approaching from the other
direction, while other people kept the same approach... Simultaneous
approached from different directions got very interesting!! People
scrambling everywhere!!
In between a couple of the rounds there were 2 more rounds of HLG. I
guess this is where I started to get very antsy... As much as I enjoy
HL, it seemed very weird to stop the competition for 1/2 hour or so a
couple of times to do the HL. As it was, with the 22 contestants, we
got 5 rounds in in 5 hours! That is a pretty poor launch rate. I
would have much preferred to get the 5 rounds done earlier then let
people fun-fly. As it was, the fun fly became very limited as the
winch owners needed to leave...
In addition to feeling that there is a problem with *not* "KISS",
adding the lack of focus (was this a HL contest or open class?) can
make it very frustrating... And what is more frustrating is that Al
will likely run a similar event in October, but wants to add in an F3B
speed event! Given that the vast majority of the contestants are
veterns, the pilot's meeting should be very brief. I don't know, maybe
I was just thinking about flying my other plane too much...
Anyways, it was a fruitful day for DECRCM folks...
1. Dan Carr from R.I.
2. Lamar Phillips!!
3. Dave Walter (also won 3rd in HL!)
9. Jeff Friedrichs
I didn't see where Kay ended up...
All in all, it was a great day for gliders... But it was one of those
days where you wish you didn't have a contest as you could have flown
forever in some of those thermals!! I got to practice inverted flights
and loops with the Spirit on 2 flights!!
cheers,
jeff
|
| 853.115 | More on Amherst contest | QUIVER::WALTER | | Tue Sep 08 1992 22:58 | 26 |
| Well, I have to agree with Jeff on most of the points he raised about
Al's contest. I'll add one more: putting the launch area 1/4 mile away
from the cars slowed things down significantly. But once we got things
underway, I enjoyed myself immensely. The winches were pretty much
problem free, it was great soaring weather, and lots of people to talk
shop with.
I commend Al for doing the upfront organizing (always more work than
meets the eye!), getting the field, and doing his best to run the
contest. If Al gets a support crew with a little more experience I
think the confusion will drop to an acceptable level.
Steve Smith did get to test his Saber. Jim Tyrie offered to take it up
for a maiden voyage. It flew fine, and Steve just needs to work on the
trim, and get used to flying the monster!
Dave
PS: Oh yes, Lamar told me he talked to Al Sunday and discovered that
the scores were a little screwed up. (I remember at one point his
scorekeeper was adding up minutes-seconds as if it was straight
decimal! Like, 2:45 is equal to 245 seconds. Not!) Anyway, Lamar
thinks I might have actually won with Jim Tyrie and someone else coming
in ahead of Lamar, but he didn't seem real sure about it. Because of
the task format, there were a lot of scores very close to each other.
Doesn't really matter. It was a nice day.
|
| 853.116 | | N25480::FRIEDRICHS | Organizationally Challenged | Wed Sep 09 1992 13:33 | 34 |
| I talked with Al last night..
Yes, the scores were messed up. Only a small percentage of the folks
actually figured it all out correctly... Al will be getting me the
"real" standings and I will post them.
We talked quite a bit about keeping it simpler... He graciously
offered to let me be a CD! Wrong! It is a thankless job and there is
a lot of work ahead of time. But we did discuss some changes that
may help.
I forgot to mention the 2 crashes...
- Lee Cornielus crashed his Spirit 100 again. (This is the same plane
that he crashed before the CMRCM contest when he hand tossed it). He
misunderstood the frequency control system and he somehow snuck by the
impound person. As a result, both he and Dave had their transmitters
on. Luckily for Dave, Lee launched first and it rolled over and went
in pretty hard. Lee was able to field repair and did fly the rest of
the day. Al takes responsibility because he feels it was an impound
failure.
- Tom K. (a local novice pilot) was having a good flight and was making
time to get down. As everyone watched in amazement, he flew right
through a tree. Apparently he had just lost depth perception and
thought he was going to miss it... The wing of the gentle lady
departed and the fuse fell to the soft ground. He was able to repair
the damage to the wing and flew the rest of the day. Apparently he did
put up a fuss about whether or not it was an "on-field" landing or
not...
Cheers,
jeff
|
| 853.117 | A moment in the sun.... | MACROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Wed Sep 09 1992 15:45 | 153 |
| As Dave mentioned in the previous note, the scores got a little messed up.
I brought my family with me to the contest, but when we saw what the set up
was with parking area and launch area. They decided to go and visit some
friends in Milford for a while. I got all my planes out of the car and made
the long hike out to the launch area.
I flew in both the hand launch event and the regular contest, so the contest
wasn't too slow for me(but 5 rounds in 5 hours is SLOW!) My day started off
with a little trouble. I had problems with the left flap servo on the Pulsar
and ended up pulling the pins out of the Dean's connector trying to get the
wing off. I put the pins back in and still had problems. Turns out the flap
servo connector had disconnect from the extension in the wing.
Anyway, I decided to fly my new Spirit instead. I have never flown this plane
off a winch, but my mind was in a blur because of the problems with the
Pulsar and the launch window was quickly closing! Dave Walter was timing
(and did for the entire day, Thanks Dave!) for me and told me to relax. I
quickly set up the Spirit and walked over to the winch line and launched.
The Spirit went straight up the winch line without a problem. When I was
about ready to get set up to zoom off the top, there was a problem with the
winch line. The Spirit just flew off the line. I started heading over to
where I thought the lift was and the winch master told me I could have a
relaunch if I wanted. I said "HELL NO!" I found some pretty good lift and
was going up! Five minutes later I came down for a perfect score and got
landing points! That calmed the ol' nerves down.
I also timed for Dave on this round(he flew before me though.) Dave was just
getting read to launch when a guy with a Spirit 100 launched. His plane
nosed over about 40 feet up and went straight in. Turns out he was on the
same frequency as Dave, but Dave had the channel 22 pin. Dave felt bad about
it, but it wasn't his fault. He had the pin. Luckily, the Spirit wasn't
damage too badly and was ready to go after a quick field repair. Dave went
on to get a 4:58 flight.
After the first round was over, we did the first round of the hand launch.
They split up the contestants into two groups of four fliers. I was in the
first flight group along with Dave, Kay, and Steve Schomer(sp?) Steve's the
guy who designed the Lawn Dart that Kay is flying. In the second group was
Rick Roelke, Terry Sweeny, Tom K, and another young kid that I didn't get
his name. I flew my Skeeter that I bought at the last WRAM show.
Rick Roelke offer to time for me and I said "Sure, as long as you give me
some pointers!" :-) He's the guy who came in third at the Nats in hand
launch. He pointed out a few spots and I found the lift, but I couldn't stay
in it. You needed to make very tight turns and I needed more rudder throw in
the Skeeter. I did impress him with my launches though! I think I only got a
total flight time of 3:20 for that round. Dave caught a good thermal near
the end of the window and did pretty good. I'm not sure how Kay did as he
went halfway down the field to fly. As Jeff mentioned Rick Roelke only had
one toss and flew for 10 minutes! Awesome!
The second round of the regular contest started right after the hand launch.
I had a high pucker factor experience on my first launch of the second round.
I managed to get the chute wrapped around the tail of the Spirit when I came
off the line. It jammed the rudder(luckily in the neutral position!) and I
couldn't turn. I ended up using a combination of flaps and elevator to keep
the plane flat because it was coming straight down! I pancaked the Spirit
into the ground and didn't break a thing!!! Whew!!!! I did a relaunch, but
ran into the "express elevator down" right away. So my first flight on a 7
minute round was only around 2:54. :-( I timed for Dave again and he had
an excellent flight. He got a 6:59:89 flight and landing points. The
Prophet was flying well with the new stabs.
We flew another hand launch round right after the second round completed.
Jim Trye timed for me this time and I did about the same as I did on the
last HLG round, 3+ minutes. It was funny though, when the horn to start the
round went off, we all sat around watching each other. Nobody wanted to be
the guinea pig! :-) It was a funny moment. "You go first... No no, you go
first... no no, be my guest..." I think Dave caught thermal on this round
as well. Kay was way out in the field on this round again, so I had no idea
how he did.
They started the third round of the contest right after the hand launch was
over. This was another 7 minute round and I HAD to max it. I found some
good lift a little ways out after the launch and it was off to the races. I
ended up 6:58 flight time for that round and landing points. Dave had
another great flight and ended up with a 7:01 flight time and landing
points.
After the third round ended we flew another hand launch round. I actually
spotted a thermal on this round. There was some little yellow butterflies
in the tall grass and I noticed they were going up. I shouted to Rick to
take a look and a couple of the guys mentioned that the butterflies mate in
thermals. Soooo, I tossed the Skeeter in with a bunch of mating butterflies.
They were right! I started climbing! Something about the heat of passion I
guess. :-) Anyway, I was quickly joined by Dave, Kay, and Steve. It was
quite a sight to see the four of us trying to claw our way to the top. We
were VERY close. So close in fact that I heard my Rx antenna hit Steve's
Lawn Dart. It was loads of fun though!!!
After the fun was over with the HLG's, we got the fourth round under way. This
was a 5 minute round and I need to max it as well. I got a good launch and
went looking for lift. Unfortunately, all I found was sink! I did find a few
little bubbles near the ground and so did a huge bird. I not sure what it
was, but it showed me how your supposed to thermal out! I think it made two
or three turns and left me behind. I manage to eek out 3+ minute flight.
Dave wanted a flight of at least 4 minutes on this round so he would only
need a 2 minute flight on the final round. He hit 4 minutes exactly and got
landing points.
While the third round was continuing, I calculated my time for the first four
rounds. You then subtract the cumulative time from 25 minutes. The result is
your target time for the last round. My target time came out to be 7:34, but
the max time for the last round was 7 minutes. Oh well, 7 minutes will be hard
enough. The top guys only had to fly 2 or 3 minutes for their final round, so
I didn't think I was going to do well in the contest.
The next round started and the winch line filled up pretty fast. I sat around
talking to DW2(who had shown up during the third round) for a little while.
When I finally went up to fly, there were only a couple of planes in the air
and they were coming down. Not a good sign. I got a good launch and started
looking. I wasn't finding anything but sink. I was quickly loosing altitude
and remembered what Dave had told me while we were flying down at Acton. I
started a zig-zag pattern back towards the field. It paid off and I found a
good sustainer bubble. I milked it for all it was worth and finally started
going up after a few minutes. I knew I would be able to get the 7 minute
flight now! At the six minute mark, Dave started giving me a count down every
10 seconds. I ended up coming into the landing are on the downwind side(the
wind change as I started coming in) I had the flaps down and was still moving
pretty good when I got to the landing area. I also had a few more seconds to
go so I just flew past the landing area and tried to get a perfect time. I
think I ended up with a 6:58 flight time, but I was happy! I needed that!
After the flight, I told my wife that we could pack up and head out since the
kids were getting a little restless. I didn't think I was in the running for
anything and just was hoping to get at least 300 LSF points(needed 920 to
finish out Level II requirements.) As I was packing up the car, I heard Al
calling me back to the pit area. I thought he said something about picking
a prize. When I got back there, Al was getting ready to announce the winners.
I was shocked when he called my name for second place! I guess I was too
shocked to realize it was a mistake. I also thought they announced Dave in
first place. It turned out to be third. As I was heading for the car, I
found out Dave was really listed in third place. I said something to Dave,
and he said that the score they had down for him was incorrect. He said not
to worry about that I should be proud of how I did(needed a 7 minute flight
on the last round and did it.) Unfortunately, my wife was waiting in the car
with my youngest and my oldest daughter was DYING to go, so I left. I called
Al the next day and told him about. He told me I was right and that Dave in
fact won the contest. He had me down in fourth place at the moment, but did
not have score sheets for three other fliers that are very good pilots. I
still feel bad for not saying something at the contest and have apologized
to Dave. Kind of tarnishes an otherwise good flight performance for me.
Other than the scoring problems, the contest was a lot of fun. It was a nice
change from the other contest I've been to. Someday, I'll really earn the
second place finish, but I'll damned sure to check the scores first! I can't
wait to see the final scores so I can redo my LSF form. I've got two more
contest to go and need to know how many points I still need.
-Lamar
|
| 853.118 | | N25480::FRIEDRICHS | Organizationally Challenged | Wed Sep 09 1992 18:33 | 7 |
| Gee, Lamar, if you had come out to the NATS you would have no point
problems at all!!
:-) :-)
jeff
|
| 853.119 | I know, I know.... | MACROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Wed Sep 09 1992 19:37 | 9 |
| Yeah from what I hear, you guys relly rack up some points at the NATS. Can't
wait to see what the real contest results are! Was Al able to get in touch with
the Downeast guys? Now to decide which contest to go to next! The choices are
Simsbury(CT) the 13th, Salsbury(MA) on the 20th, or Minot(ME) also on the 20th
(I not sure on this date.) I know I'm going to Al's contest on Oct 4th, so I
need to pick one of the others. Any local glider guiders heading down to
Simsbury this weekend????
-Lamar
|
| 853.120 | t-minus 2 days till Rhinebeck! | N25480::FRIEDRICHS | Organizationally Challenged | Wed Sep 09 1992 19:47 | 6 |
| Gee, if you are going to drive all the way to Simsbury, you might as
well drive all the way to Rhinebeck!!
BTW - Lamar - Ken should be taking your Eindecker up for its maiden
flight this evening or tomorrow morning!
|
| 853.121 | Contest Review | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Thu Sep 10 1992 13:51 | 52 |
| >need to pick one of the others. Any local glider guiders heading down to
>Simsbury this weekend????
I'll probably make it.
Sorry about my lack of report over Al's contest but I've really been swamped at work lately.
It was a fun contest. Pat came with me and we had some friends show up to spectate.
So I had to spend some time with them and didn't get to socialize as much as I would
like to have done.
Sorry I missed you Steve - I only saw you as we were getting ready to leave.
Even then I wish I had remembered you were bringing the Saber - I would have
like to have seen it.
I flew the Hobie Hawk and placed in the middle of the pack. I needed an LSF entry
but no points so it probably doesn't matter what the new results are. With this contest
I have my 6 LSF contests and I picked up all the points I needed at the NATS.
Now on to 1 hour thermals and a cross country.
Anyway - the Hawk flew great and I maxed 3 out of 5 rounds.
I missed every landing. Every one. Every lousy one.
But only by a little and for the Hobie Hawk I think I did pretty good.
Lost a lot of points by going over! I should be so lucky every time.
Regarding HLG's.
Well - it is painfully obvious that I can't hand launch the Lawn Dart.
I hate to give up on the plane because off a hi-start at Acton it
flys GREAT!
But I will be looking into a new HLG soon.
In the mean time I'm saving the Lawn Dart for a weekend at the Cape
sometime (hopefully this fall) with the Acton crowd!
Regarding the scoring problems. I was sitting at the scoring table for
quite some time trying to fill out my LSF form and was getting quite a chuckle
out of the scoring problems. Experts were turning in there score sheets with
perfect last flights only to find that they added (or subtracted) their cumulative minutes
up decimally instead as minutes and seconds so they flew overtime on their
last flight and therefore had earned several penalty points!
But how about that weather - almost no wind and thermals going straight up!
Great day for floaters.
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.122 | CASA soar-in | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Sep 14 1992 15:35 | 55 |
|
If someone wants to go to a REAL glider contest I
recommend the annual CASA (Capital Area Soaring Association)
contest, which is part of the ESL circuit. I have just returned
(rolled into my driveway at 1:30 AM), from my second
participation in the event.
It is held in Gaithersburg, Delaware, on the National
Geographis Society headquarter grounds, a monster lawn about 1500
by 1000 feet.
The weather was perfect. A 5 to 10 mph breeze Saturday
and variable thermal breezes Sunday with high sunshine.
The contest is a two day event and this year there were
90 contestants, roughly 30 sportsmen and 60 experts. The first
day's events were 5 rounds with the first three consisting of one
seven minute and two 10 minute tasks with your choice of which to
make the 7 minute. The last two rounds were 10 minute tasks.
The landing task was graduated landing with 50 point maximum.
The 10 minute tasks really weed the men from the boys. The
landing task was a lot harder than it appears because the grass
was newly mowed so you either had to have shark's teeth or dork
the plane in to stop.
Sunday was 4 rounds with the three first being a five
minute and two 9 minute tasks and the fourth being nine minutes.
At the end of Sunday there were fly-offs for first and
second and for fourth and fifth in Sportsman. Just a sign of how
tough the competition was.
All the time there were hawks or turkey buzzards trekking
south passing through. Twice we had large flocks of hawks with
at least 25 birds in them passing though at high altitude. My
last flight Sunday was in the middle of such a flock with about 6
or 7 other gliders. Incredibly crowded. At one point I wasn't
sure which of the circling objects was mine. Earlier in the day
some poor sod had run into the same confusion and was busily
flying someone else's plane which his own was diving vertically
into a pond at 200 mph! The flutter was incredible.
Twice there were problems with swamped receivers. The
first time it was Chris Schuck who flew over the pilots and lost
control - no damage. The next was worse: The 9 year old
wunderkind, Chris Burns, flew over my head and I just heard a
WOMP!!! behind me when he augered in. Spooky. The problem was
the shifting winds which forced pilots to approach the landing
circle from all kinds of angels.
Try it next year!
Anker
Why aren't all of you guys members of ESL anyway?
|
| 853.123 | Keep the reports coming in as I like the feel of the bigger, better run contests. | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Sep 14 1992 16:15 | 9 |
| I got my first ESL newsletter in the mail this past week. I joined at CRRC and
Jimmy gets in for free being a junior. I'll be looking at some of the other
contests on the circuit next year.
The Nats are in Lubbock TX near the end of July. My in-laws are in Roswell NM
about 100 miles west of there so I'm making plans for a trek out to next year's
Nats. Should work out as a nice family trip with me getting an overdose of
flying and Rose getting an overdose of her mother. Kay is right about getting
your wife interested early in making the trip.
|
| 853.124 | Great! | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Sep 14 1992 17:42 | 14 |
| Re: <<< Note 853.123 by HANNAH::REITH "Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039" >>>
Jim,
That's terrific. I'll most probably be extremely active
in the ESL circuit next year. With a little bit of luck I'll
still be a sportsman by the end of this season, in which case I
plan to go for the sportsman championshipin 93. Most of the real
competition has already hit the 12 points, so I should have a
chance. I just have to stay out of the wood next weekend. :-)
I don't think I'll make it all the way to Texas, however!
Anker
|
| 853.125 | Simsbury | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Mon Sep 14 1992 18:15 | 44 |
| > <<< Note 853.122 by MR4DEC::ANKER "Anker Berg-Sonne" >>>
> -< CASA soar-in >-
...
> Why aren't all of you guys members of ESL anyway?
Cause all the contests are so darn far away!
Anyway - I went to the Simsbury contest this weekend. Perfect weather.
Saturday I first went to the annual Brimfield float fly.
Great fun and very relaxing. We took in the Brimfield antique/flea market.
Not so relaxing.
Anyway Sunday was Simsbury.
26 pilots in unlimited.
23 in 2-meter
21 in standard
I flew the Lawn-Dart in Unlimited (hey - you gotta have some humor) and finished 23rd of 26.
I was in the middle of the pack on the other two events.
Didn't break anything.
I timed for Les Gerheart and he flew his new Falcon 880 for the first time in a contest.
The wing folded on launch! I helped him dig the fuselage out of the ground.
I don't think he was at fault on the winch. Looked to me like a building error.
These big hi-tech ships will drain all your energy and money fast.
Funny Anker should find so many hawks - we had the same in Simsbury.
At one point they started forming up in a circle right above the winch line
and they built up to 30 (I was trying to count) over about a 5 minute period
they they all took off in a row. It was like a swarm of mosquitoes. If anybody
thinks thermals are rotating air they could have watched all these hawks
turning if both directions at the same speed for 5 minutes. They didn't have
a great thermal but they knew it was building and they stuck with it.
Had a great time wish you were there Lamar and Steve and Jim?
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.126 | This is really weird | MACROW::PHILLIPS | DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314 | Mon Sep 14 1992 19:17 | 12 |
| >> Funny Anker should find so many hawks - we had the same in Simsbury.
Believe it or not, but we had the same thing in Fitchburg! I was washing my
wife's car and noticed a hawk circling overhead. I started looking around, and
saw a flock of them WAY up there. It was incredble! There must have been at
least 50-60 birds circling.
Wish I would have been able to be at Simsbury(or better yet the contest Anker
went to!), but my car bought the farm on Friday. Now I'm car hunting instead of
thermal hunting. :-(
-Lamar
|
| 853.127 | Cape Anne contest, Salisbury Mass. | QUIVER::WALTER | | Mon Sep 21 1992 21:50 | 47 |
| I went to the Cape Anne sailplane contest in Salisbury this Sunday. It was
definitely a low-key contest. We had just 6 contestants! They were:
Jim Tyrie, Art Faria, Walt Rady, Herb Cotterly, Les Gerhardt, and me
I felt kind of bad for the CD. He had enough coffee, donuts, lunch, plaques,
and prizes for about 30! We flew all the tasks, from Open down to Handlaunch.
The whole day started off very pleasant. Lift was all over, the winch was
pointing up wind, and the task was 5 minutes with 3 minutes to get back down
and a 10% bonus for landing in an area the size of Idaho. Piece of cake! After
my first flight was an easy max followed by a no-brainer landing, I mentioned
to my timer that this was "like cheating". I would live to eat those words.
The wind quickly shifted 180 degrees. Down wind launches for the rest of the
day. There was still good lift around, but we all got stuck in tremendous sink
at one time or another. And that big landing zone can be hard to hit when the
wind is swirling in over the trees. I even got sucked in by some hawk who
decided to circle in massive sink. Gad! I ended up with only 3 maxes in 9
flights. For pity's sake, I only had to stay up for 5 minutes in perfect
soaring conditions! I spent most of the day shaking my head in bewilderment.
(A humorous afternote: I realized that my longest flight of the day was in
the Handlaunch event!)
I was the only one to show up with an honest-to-God handlaunch, so several
adventurous pilots decided to hand toss their two meter planes. Not a good
decision. Walt broke the trailing edge of his wing at the root just by gripping
it there. Jim Tyrie gave his two meter a gargantuan heave and folded the
wing! (And me, with the handlaunch, I took my eye off it just long enough to
look ahead for a landing spot and cartwheeled it into the ground, snapping the
wing). Sheesh!
At the end of the day, Jim Tyrie had first in Open and 2-Meter (with his broken
"handlaunch"), Les Gerhardt took Standard, and I stole Handlaunch. I also got
a second and a third place in two events, and notta in the other. It occurred
to me that I had "flown for the cycle"... 1-2-3-0.
Besides the nice plaques handed out, the CD had also purchased two, count-em,
TWO Chuperosa kits. He ended up putting the names of the six contestants in
the hat and giving away both kits! Here's a CD who knows how to take his lumps.
Me, I would have given away one and saved the other for the next contest!
I offered to give the CD a list of names of glider contest participants so
he wouldn't have a repeat of the low attendance next year. I'll see if Al
Ryder and Ken Baker can part with their lists.
Dave
|
| 853.128 | If you're looking for new RC horizons... | QUIVER::WALTER | | Mon Sep 21 1992 22:01 | 14 |
| Also seen at the glider contest:
A power pilot who also happens to be a sky diver showed me what he
drops from his Sig Senior - a radio controlled parachuter! It was
really neat. The "man" had the complete radio and two servos inside him.
The servos move the arms up and down individually. Out of his pack pops
a scale version of a parafoil type parachute, complete with the
air-loaded compartments that give it an airfoil shape. So you can
actually steer the thing around as it falls out of the sky! Cool.
Didn't get to see it fly... er, fall. It's sold by Robbe.
Dave
|
| 853.129 | They've been around for long, didn't you know? | LEDS::KLINGENBERG | | Mon Sep 21 1992 22:49 | 15 |
| .... there have been RC parachute contests in Europe for several years
now. I think there are even clubs that specialize in parachuting.
Amazing how many facets of our nice hobby are barely covered in this
huge country here.
Did you actually see that guy fly?
There is another company in Germany that builds parachutists. I think
they kind of perfected the guy that was originally introduced by Robbe.
In the meantime, the strap a small glo-engine to his back and have him
fly on his own (without a plane to get him up). There is nothing you
can't do...
Best regards,
Hartmut
|
| 853.130 | New Boston Fall foliage Glider contest | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Oct 05 1992 13:05 | 52 |
| Well, I missed the CMRCM fun-fly so I could go to Al Ryder's Fall glider
contest. The format of the contest was...creative, yeah, that's the word 8^)
The events to be flown were HLG, 2 meter and open thermal soaring and F3B.
I decided that the hanger queen 2 pound Ninja was a reasonable choice for F3B
since I used to practice chasing the chute to the ground with it way back
when at St. Mark's.
The mood for the day was set before the pilot's meeting when I threw my 12oz
Predator and snagged the tail on the grass on a too hot landing. Scratch one
event. The pilot's meeting went 20 minutes and confused Al as much as us. You
really can be over organized. Too bad he didn't tell us the duration for the
events 8^) After the round of handlaunch we asked Al what the task durations
were and after consulting with Jim Tyrie, 7 minutes was chosen. Flight order
was grab an available pin and get your rounds in before the end of the window
and that seemed to work well. Everyone was expected to shag chutes and that
seemed to be the slowest part of the day. I screwed up my knee at some point
and can bearly walk today. At least I can sit in my shop. My first round
flights were both in down cycles and bearly broke the 2 minute barrier. Grab
a sandwich and some chutes and then start round two. I decided to fly my 2
meter flight first and got in a reasonable launch but the plane really wasn't
climbing much. When I zoomed, the wing exploded and the fuselage and one panel
dove straight down. Dave Walter was right under it and while it ejected my
battery pack, the plane won the race to the ground. Scratch plane #2. I've got
a 2 meter Alcyone in the box waiting for me to get some building time. Now I
don't have to worry about how to "break" it to the Rude Bitch. She served me
well for two seasons and went out with a BANG. Next was round two for open. I
got a reasonable launch and tried to stay with some lift but lost it so I
headed around down wind to get set up for landing. I found a little bit of
stuff right around the trees and flirted with the trees for about 2 more
minutes before finally coming in to land with my best flight of the day. I
found that I had popped my aileron servo gears so I flew the 3 round (both
classes) with my Ninja 8^) Needless to say, I didn't finish very high for
the day. Then there was more HLG which I helped time for and finally we got
down to the event I expected to be lots of fun. I came to test the limits of
my Ninja and never let up on the winch. After 3 false starts where I launched
with too much tension and outflew the line on the initial sproing, I got a
good launch and flew the course. I wasn't as happy as I was on my practice
3rd round flights since the wind had died but it was good enough to beat
everyone except the Comets (including Jim Tyrie's 40oz ballasted Falcon) and
give me 3rd place in F3B 8^) That put a cap on my season.
Time to build for next season. Watch out, I'll be back!
on the down side:
Dan Miner lost his Oly II in the woods and we formed a search party afterwards
to go out looking. Another plane was also lost and in my search for Dan's plane
I found the Bird of Time that had gone astray. Many pieces and on the ground
but at least he got it back. They came back out of the woods without Dan's
plane but there is always hope. They found Terry Sweeney's HLG from the spring
contest in the afternoon. A few things growing in it but it looked pretty good
for 6 months in the woods.
|
| 853.131 | The F3J contest that wasn't - Knox, Maine | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Oct 26 1992 12:25 | 69 |
| Saturday morning: pouring rain in Fayette about 1 hour's
drive from Knox. Well, you never know, so I loaded the planes in
the car and headed for Knox. On the way it actually started
clearing - not really clearing, but there were lighter patches
and the rain did let off. On arrival there were 6 cars.
The idea was to use the morning for practice and start
the contest at noon. First thing I did was to assemble the SW120
(Secret Weapon 120 - Legend fuse + killer wings) and discovering
that the right aileron didn't move. Fortunately the CD had a gas
soldering iron so I got the connections fixed. The moment this
was done it started pouring. There was a barn on the field where
I could hastily throw the plane and then spend the next 20
minutes in the car. The rain then stopped and we were ready to
practice.
I had bought 150 yards of 80 lb test line at Spags for $6
and put it on one of those orange electrical reels with my
wimpstart parachute at the end. The CD unrolled the line and
promptly disappeared over a hump in the field. 150 meters is
looong! I was able to move so I could see the top of his head.
On my signal, when there was a 5mph breeze blowing, he started
running and when the tension was up to about 30 lbs I launched.
To my utter amazement I got a good solid launch. This is a 85 oz
plane with 1100 square inches! The flight was pretty uneventful,
but the slope gave me a 6 1/2 minute flight. According to the CD
he only had to run about 10 yards before the tension built to
about 60 lbs and he could walk slowly backwards until the plane
was nearing the top when he started running again.
Then it started raining again. By the time it cleared
we were close to noon and the CD decided to have a practice
man-on-man session and then start the contest. There were 4
flyers registered and a total of 6 people, so we had just enough
to launch everybody at the same time. This time I had a
different runner who was afraid to build real tension so the
plane ran out of airspeed at about 40 feet altitude. The same
happened to the others. Then it started raining again.
When it stopped we decided to retry the practice session.
This time all three planes launched well. One came down pretty
quick, but mine and a Bird-of-Time stayed up pretty long, but
there was something wrong with my elevator. Only full up would
slowly give me up but down would quickly set the plane heading
for the ground, but by minimizing elevator I stayed up about 5
seconds short of the BOT. Upon examination I discovered that the
wing holddown block had come loose and was jamming against the
elevator pushrod, so time to retire the SW120.
The backup plane is a 2 meter multifunction ship, an
Accipeter II (SP?). Whgen I had that put together we had a test
launch. This time the CD had to run as fast as he could and
barely gave me a decent launch. This seems to be a rule. Big
ships tow launch easier than small ships. I cannot figure out
why.
By this time it was clear that we were not going to have
a contest, so the rest of the afternoon we just fun flew.
Som conclusions: Hand towing is a lot easier than I had
thought. With a runner that knows what he is doing its as easy
as launching with a high start, and gives you much higher
launches. The other conclusion was mentioned earlier - big
multifunction planes are easiest to hand tow.
If another opportunity comes up to have a hand tow
contest I'll definitiely join.
Anker
|
| 853.132 | | QUIVER::WALTER | | Tue Oct 27 1992 22:56 | 7 |
| >> launches. The other conclusion was mentioned earlier - big
>> multifunction planes are easiest to hand tow.
Could it be that it's easier to walk at a reasonable speed and pull
hard, than to run like hell pulling light tension?
|
| 853.133 | Its the speed that puzzles me | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Wed Oct 28 1992 12:00 | 7 |
| Re: <<< Note 853.132 by QUIVER::WALTER >>>
I just don't understand why bigger planes need LESS
launch speed than small planes. Intuitively I would have
expected it to be the other way round!
Anker
|
| 853.134 | We saw it too | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Wed Oct 28 1992 12:15 | 10 |
| I'm not sure either but we noticed it when we played around with hand towing
at Acton. Kay's Chup was constantly "popping off" and the bigger planes (Spirit
and Gentle Lady) would hold on. It could be something with the tentioning of
the line since the heavier planes will keep the line tight while the lighter
planes catch up with it quicker (and overfly it and pop off). That would make
you run more to stay ahead of it. We never got brave enough to try it with the
open class ships. Running the line through a turn around so the "runner" is
back near the pilot was something we wanted to try but never got around to it.
This seemed like a good launch method for the winter when the highstart rubber
is less elastic.
|
| 853.135 | Same Thing with Power Tow | LEDS::WATT | | Wed Oct 28 1992 15:50 | 9 |
| I noticed something similar when I tried towing Eric's glider with my
Unic. The line kept going slack unless I kept climbing at a really
steep angle. His glider had so little drag and it was so light that it
would stretch the string like a bungie cord and spring forward. Hand
towing probably has the same problem since it's hard to run at a
constantly increasing speed.
Charlie
|
| 853.136 | A two pulley system | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Wed Oct 28 1992 16:04 | 26 |
| Re: <<< Note 853.134 by HANNAH::REITH "Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039" >>>
I thought of a system that would use two pulleys to increase the
speed of pulling the plane, and ALSO allow the runner to face the
plane. I'll try to draw it in ASCII:
Plane
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
|O_____________________________
|______________________________O---- Runner
|
|Stake
This will give a two to one ratio. Pulling up a larger
plane just requires attaching the end point of the line to the
runner's handle.
Anker
|
| 853.137 | Be prepared to walk towards the plane also 8^) | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Wed Oct 28 1992 16:22 | 10 |
| Yep, that discussion is somewhere in topic 399. I've got the runner's pulley
in my old glider field box. We didn't build the turnaround pulley so we never
actually used it. It also requires three times the line of normal hand towing.
Spag's didn't stock heavy enough line in long enough reels. Monofiliment worked
well because of the bunge aspect of the line.
When we hand towed we found that if you had 5-10mph winds you actually spent
part of the launch walking towards the plane. It is very easy to attain 80-90%
of the line length as launch height. Speaking as a tow person, zooms aren't
really attainable 8^)
|
| 853.138 | Sounds like a good way to hand tow. | QUIVER::WALTER | | Sat Oct 31 1992 18:06 | 7 |
| >>> It also requires three times the line of normal hand towing.
Really just 2 times. You can anchor the line close to the launch point.
We gotta try this sometime soon.
Dave
|
| 853.139 | Yup! | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Nov 02 1992 12:23 | 9 |
| Re: <<< Note 853.138 by QUIVER::WALTER >>>
Dave,
I'm really interested in pursuing it. I'm going to see
if I have a usable pulley lying somewhere, otherwise I'll buy one
at a boat store or marina.
Anker
|
| 853.140 | Count me in | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Nov 02 1992 12:41 | 5 |
| I've got the pulleys if we can find the line somewhere. I wired my house for
stereo when we build it and ended up with several spools from RS 16 gauge
zipcord. I have one in a frame with a handle. I have another that could be
used for a turnaround. I just didn't have a long enough set of line to lay out
a big section. We user our histart line for our Acton trials.
|
| 853.141 | 80lb test monofilament from Spags | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Nov 02 1992 14:04 | 9 |
| Re: <<< Note 853.140 by HANNAH::REITH "Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039" >>>
Jim,
I use 80lb test monofilament purchased from Spags sports
store at roghly $6 for 150 yards. I'll be happy to purchase a
few more.Monofilament is great because of the inherent stretch.
Anker
|
| 853.142 | Hand Towing Revisited | UNYEM::BLUMJ | | Mon Nov 02 1992 15:23 | 45 |
| Before I gave up on gliding in my area(slope excepted) I thoroughly
explored hand towing. In fact there is a note in this conference
dedicated to hand towing where I relate all my successes and failures.
In a nutshell- handtowing works great, any size ship can be towed to
winch height. After experimenting with many setups I can recommend the
following configuration as a bulletproof method of towing two meter to
f3b ships with great success(read no pop-offs):
1) Use a pulley- mine was a washing machine pulley mounted in a wooden
frame.
2) At the glider end of the line, attach a short length(10 ft is good)
of old high start rubber or bungee cord.
___---------------------------*************glider
pulley (0 -------- \
|-stake Bungee cord
As the runner pulls the pulley the bungee cord stretches and the pilot
releases when the tension is appropriate. Pop-offs are virtually
eliminated because the bungee cord provides a "buffer" until the
glider is flying. Good communication between runner and pilot results
in spectacular zooms.
The Germans tow F3B ships using two runners and two pulleys and
achieve spectacular launches.
Try the above method, you'll like it!
Regards,
Jim
|
| 853.143 | Guess we'll have to give it another try | HANNAH::REITH | Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039 | Mon Nov 02 1992 16:33 | 10 |
| Anker,
We were avoiding the monofilament because of the twist we were seeing.
We used the 45 pound test squiding line from Spag's with good success.
I don't know why but I just had an aversion to tieing two spools
together. That is the right way to do it. I like the turnaround method
where the pilot and runner are at the same end. It makes communication
easier and also provides less of a walk to take your turn towing. That
was our big complaint. You had to traverse the field each time it was
your turn to fly or tow.
|
| 853.144 | 45 pound won't be enough | MR4DEC::ANKER | Anker Berg-Sonne | Mon Nov 02 1992 17:44 | 7 |
| Re: <<< Note 853.143 by HANNAH::REITH "Jim HANNAH:: Reith DSG1/2E6 235-8039" >>>
45 pound test isn't enough for my 120 inch ship. 80
pound should be the minimum. Do they have 80 pound squid line at
Spags?
Anker
|
| 853.145 | Let's twist again.... | BAHTAT::EATON_N | Nigel Eaton | Tue Nov 03 1992 11:38 | 9 |
|
I noticed the comment about monofilament twisting. This is a problem for anglers
too, you can purchase swivel connectors from angling shops that should eliminate
your problem!
Regards
Nigel.
|
| 853.146 | watch out your stepping on the... | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Tue Nov 03 1992 14:52 | 7 |
| I don't like monofilament because you can't see it!
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.147 | CMRCM contest report | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Mon Jun 21 1993 17:04 | 140 |
|
Well, the annual CMRCM open glider competition is history and it was an
interesting day. Altough the turnout wasn't bad (about 20 people) it was
down a little due to the weather. Thank God for canopy's.
The day started for me at 5:30 A.M. and I arrived at the field shortly after
8. Several people were already there including Jim Reith (the CD) and his
family, Dave Walter, Charlie Watt, Dick Bissen, Lamar Phillips and possibly
some others I've forgotten. Oh yea, Ray M. and Kay Fisher were there too.
I had driven through a couple of pretty heavy showers on the way to the field
and that proved to be the norm for the rest of the day. The air was VERY
dead, no wind, no lift to speak of, and intermittent showers of varrying
degrees of "wetness". After the first round, I had put a plastic bag over
my TX so the rain wouldn't get to it. It never really rained that hard, but
it varied from nothing to misty to a pretty heavy drizle. Not exactly ideal
conditions.
The format for the day was to fly 4 rounds with a 20 minute cumulative
duration and 7 minute max per round. We had our share of winch problems
per usual, and ended up cutting the rounds down to 3 keeping the 7 minute
max per round. Two meter was up first and due to frequency conflicts, I
was up first in 2 meter. I had brought the Spirit for 2 meter and the Saber
for open class.
My first launch was very disappointing and quite a surprise. I had spent the
last couple of weeks flying both the Spirit and Saber for the express
purpose of getting them trimmed out and marking the trim lever locations
on the TX using different colored marks. Green for the Spirit and Red for
the Saber. I set the TX up for the Spirit and launched. The Spirit didn't
climb much at all and I could have gotten a better launch off of a high
start. Once of the winch, I had to hold in ALOT of up elevator to fly level.
This basically screwed up the whole flight and I was down in about 1.5 minutes
with 20 landing points. After a few hand tosses to see what was happening
(should have done that to begin with), I found the elevator trim to be WAY
off. I went from about 6 clicks below neutral to full up trim. I have NO IDEA
what so ever why it was like that and it flew fine like that the rest of the
day. In other words, it didn't change again. But, because I launched with
what turned out to be WAY too much down trim, the launch sucked. The 2nd
flight wasn't much better time wise and I ended up with about 2.5 minutes. I
did manage to get 78 landing points though. Third flight was about 3 minutes
and I got something like 20 landing points. Trouble is, I needed 7.5 minutes
for my last flight so 3 minutes didn't cut it.
In the open class, the Saber flew well, and overall, out flew the Spirit. All
my flights with the Saber were 3+ minutes. Not MUCH over 3, but 3 to 4
minutes was the norm for the day. Not too many people got many flights longer
than 4 minutes. I ended up blowing the landing though due to pilot error.
Because of the dead air, I figured I switch in one of my mixes that droops
the entire trailing edge hoping to get a little more lift and therefore a
little more time in the air. I'm not sure how much that really helped but the
problem is, when that mix is in, the flaps are switched out. By switched out
I mean the whole trailing edge will only drop about a quarter of an inch
even with the flap stick (throttle stick) pulled all the way down. So......
when I set up for my landing and went to kick in the flaps, nothing happened.
It took a second or two to remember the mix I had switched in and by the time
I switched it out, I was too high and too close and overshot the landing.
The next flight was about 3.5 minutes and I learned my lesson with the flaps.
Corrected my approach and managed 80 points on the landing.
Like anything else, winning contests require's knowing your airplane. I still
have some things to learn about the Saber. One of the things that got me
yesterday is that the difference in flap effectiveness (on landing) varies
GREATLY with the wind conditions. Keeping in mind that the flights I put on
the Saber yesterday were flights 6,7,and 8, I've not had alot of experience
with it and all fights have been is realitively windy weather. In yesterdays
case, I found that with no wind, the Saber will maintain quite a bit of
forward speed and doesn't really slow down that much. This is one of the
reasons I overshot the first landing. When I let the plane go into it's
typical full flap nose down attitude, it didn't pickup any speed, but didn't
slow down any either and was going too fast to land in the spot. Next time
around, still no wind, and I came in much lower, dumped the flaps, and flew
in the ground effect up to the tape. That got me the 80 points.
BUT.....then I ended up screwing myself again on the last flight as the wind
has picked up and I came up short this time only getting 2 points. So, you
really have know the flight characteristics of your plane if your going to
do any scoring. For about a 5 mph wind, I needed to be about 4 feet higher
when I hit the flaps.
High lights of the day.......well the only reall high light was watching Dick
Bissen's Magic refuse to come down. He's one of the few that got decent flight
times. On either his first or second round flight, he came in intentionally
because he was nearing the 7 minutes max mark. Although I was impressed with
the hang time the Saber was getting, the Magic was incredable. With a little
more practice, Dick will be a force to contend with. Then again, Dave Walter
was flying the Spirit in both 2 meter AND open. Once he get's his Falcon 880
flying, he'll be totally rediculous.
Low lights of the day.......unfortunately there were quite a few. Most in the
form of folded wings. Jim Tyre was there with his BRAND NEW Shadow. He'd only
had it a couple of weeks. Per usual, Jim asked and was given permission to
put in a test flight before the contest started. I was sitting under the
tarp with Dave Walter and heard the winch going up. I kind of peaked out and
saw the Shadow SCREAMING up the winch line. Then I saw Jim go into his Zoom
routine and just waited for the inevitable. Just as he started to pull up,
the right wing let go with a mighty bang. The detached right wing came floating
down right on the field, and the fuse and left wing spiraled into the
undergrowth ontop of the hill off the right end of the field. Dave and I
started out after it and basically walked right up to it. We already had it
retrieved by the time Jim got there. Although he "was" using Jim Reith's
KILLER winch and stood on it all the way up, he feels the winch line was
shorter than he was used to and overflew the winch. Chock another one up for
the KILLER WINCH.
Later on, George Kaley blew up his Easy Eagle by being a bit too aggressive
on the zoom. Rene Rouch destroyed his plane by being to aggressive on the
launch. About 70 feet out and up, the wing exploaded. The strange part to this
incident is that the fuse was put into such a violent state after the wing
let go, the FUSE exploaded about 10 feet off the ground. I've never seen
that before and it took me totally by surprise. Your basically watching the
pieces come down and all of a sudden there's another explosion. Weird.......
Sometime during the day, Les Gearhart (sp?) got turned around on the winch
and ended up going in inverted right on the winch line path. I'm not sure if
he had a Falcon or Legend, but it was totalled whatever it was.
The last accident I saw was Ed Girouard and his appogee. He launched up the
winch and maybe 75 feet up did a nice 180 and started coming back down again.
He got off the winch and looked like he had it under control but the plane
kept flying off in a direction he shouldn't have been flying if he was going
to re-launch. The plane flew out over the pond and spiraled in. SPLASH.......
They tried for awhile to get it out, but he ended up going home and getting
a canoe. By the time he got back, the plane was just bairly afloat. He did get
it back, but the water shorted alot of things out and I doubt he can dry it
out. Found out later he had forgotten to turn his receiver on.
After everything was finally over, there was two round of hand launch and
then the awards were given out. All I remember is the following.
Lincoln Ross took first in Open. Jim Tyre took third in either open or 2m,
Steve Schomer took first in hand launch and Dave Walter took second in
hand launch.
Due to the lack of lift, it was DEFINATELY a landing contest type of day and
I just plain need some more practice. It was a fun day despite the weather
and lack of lift and Jim did a good job of CD'ing the event. Actually, I should
say Jim and FAMILY did a good job. He had both his oldest kids AND his father
scoring, timing, and working frequency control. What a slave driver. 8^)
|
| 853.148 | Looked like a good turnout to me. | CSTEAM::HENDERSON | Competition is Fun: Dtn 297-6180, MRO4 | Mon Jun 21 1993 17:31 | 24 |
| I popped down top the field to pay for the towpath cutting etc. or said
another way keep the peace!.
It liked the way everyone was helping each other. Jim was bustling
around and there seemed to be a lot of work going on. I visited
Charlie at the winches. There were a lot of mosquitos and I was amazed
how everyone was putting up with them.
I was not tempted. EVEN FOR A MOMENT, to do flat-field gliding again.
Up-circle-land is just not enough adrenalin for me. I appreciate the
difficulty of "maintaining time in the air" and "spot landing", but after
that its ZZZZZZZZ-time in glider land.
Still I did enjoy seeing all the competitors and the activity. After
about an hour I adjourned to HQ and bought pipe fittings to build a
stand for my Coquest.
I also bought a motion detector outdoor lamp, would you believe, to fit
in the bathroom?!. I'm serious. I needed a remote extractor fan control that
would automatically switch itself off. (Kids never switch thing off!).
Regards,
Eric.
|
| 853.149 | Good comp. | USCTR1::GHIGGINS | Oh Whoa Is Moe | Mon Jun 21 1993 18:18 | 37 |
|
It was a pretty good turnout considering the weather, but then again,
this was my first times as a spectator/helper at a glider comp. I got
there around 8:15 to find Dave,Steve,Lamar,Jim R., and Charlie. Lots
of tarps up in the pits. I headed down to the end of the winch line
path to meet Charlie and Jim setting up Jim's winch.
Charlie was winch master for the day and quite busy I might add. There
were numerous line breaks during the day on both winches but they
occured mostly during the first rounds of open and 2M. I learned a
little about winches during the day and trudged up and down the path
retrieving lines for a bit.
I was at the winch when Jim Tyrie folded the Shadow. He told Jim Reith
the line was too short. Actually he was heavy on the winch (no pulsing)
all the way up and was warned to take it easy. Intentional sacrifice ?
I helped a novice out a couple times timing and both flights were over
4:30 minutes. The first one he misjudged his approach back to the field
and dorked it over by the parked cars at the end of the field. No
damage. He kept asking me during his flight for some tips but I kindly
informed him I didn't have any change on me. (He couldn't have been
asking for flight tips....I know nothing of powerless birds.)
The mosquitos were a bear at the winchlines and I borrowed some of
Lamars spray which helped on the arms. One problem though was I got
a mega-scratch on the forarm from one of my cats the night before
and the spray was a bit STINGY.
Wish I could have stayed longer than 2:30 to see the third round, but I
had to make a trip to Nashua to return Number-1 daughter and meet some
late afternoon Fathers Day obligations.
Attending the contest has pushed me to get the Fun-1 done this week for
a weekend maiden flight so I can get the Spirit on the building board.
George
|
| 853.150 | The Evil one actually showed up | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Mon Jun 21 1993 18:23 | 7 |
| Oh yea, I forgot the Evil one showed up. I offered to let him fly the
Spirit if he'd sign up but he begged off saying something about not
bringing a radio so we couldn't set up the buddy box. You know.....
he fly's that weird mode 1 set up!!!!!! But, the Spirit is only a 2
channel glider so I think he could have handled mode 2. Plus I could
have mixed most of what he needed so they were on the mode one sticks
so it sounds like "excuse" time to me. 8^)
|
| 853.151 | Mode 1 for ever....... | CSTEAM::HENDERSON | Competition is Fun: Dtn 297-6180, MRO4 | Mon Jun 21 1993 19:26 | 13 |
| Yeah!, throttle for elevator woulda bin just great!.
:-)
Thanx for the offer Steve, but HQ was more fun. I had a blast selling
a hot tub to a guy who did not realise that I did not work there. I
also sold two security lights around the corner!. Never a dull moment.
I was in such a good mood that I even took the two wee bairns ti
McDonalds, even though it wuz the rang clan ye ken laddie!.
E.
|
| 853.152 | Great contest despite the weather! | MICROW::PHILLIPS | "DECtp Engineering TAY1-2 DTN 227-4314" | Tue Jun 22 1993 02:46 | 78 |
| First off, let me say thank you to Jim Reith(and family) for CDing the contest.
He did a great job and kept things rolling despite the weather and winch
problems. I also want to say thanks to Charlie Watt, George Higgins, and Jim
"Balsa-Slo" Cavanugh. Charlie did a good job as the winch master and George
and Jim shagged more than their share of chutes. These guys weren't competing
AND were doing this stuff in the rain. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
Steve covered the contest pretty well in his note, so I'll add a few more
highlights:
Jim Tyrie folding the wing of his Shadow on his usually "aggressive" launch.
After he got the remains back to the car, he "folded" the other wing panel
before he put it in the car. He told me before the contest that he hated the
plane and would almost be willing to give it away. I don't think he has to
worry about that now! :-) He'll be going back to a Falcon now.
Our own Dick Bissen(one of the Acton bunch) competed in his first contest with
his Magic. He did great on the flights(got the times he needed), but had
trouble with the landings. I'm not sure where he finished, but I'm sure he
beat me! Congrats Dick, ya done great!!
This was the first contest for my Falcon(and it's second flight.) I did on
short(1 minute 30 seconds) flight(using a small upstart) on it late Saturday
afternoon up at the local high school athletic field. I had to get the one
flight requirement in before the contest!
Anyway, I managed to get 3+ minute flights on all three rounds AND landing
points on EVERY flight. This was a first for me! The Falcon lands like a
dream with full crow.
On my last flight of the day with the Falcon, I almost got into trouble BIG
time! The wind started picking up a little bit and I was launching downwind.
No problem with the launch, but I was very close to stalling the winch(battery
was getting low.) Well, I let the Falcon get a little too far downwind and a
little too low before heading back. Kay was timing for me and said "Lamar, I
think you better head back now!" I started back.
I was also having trouble with visibility(white fuse, natural obechi finish
wings with red tips.) All day I noticed the plane would tend to "porpoise"
slight when the speed built up. This gave me fits trying to get the bird back
to the field this time. Jim Tyrie kept yelling "negative camber", but I
didn't want to take my eye of the plane to find the knob. Dave yelled to me to
"fly smooth!" Boy, was I trying!! :-)
Well, with all the coaching and *LOADS* of luck I made it back to the field. I
also got landing points(only 24!) The words of help and encouragement were
greatly appreciated!!!!
The last event of the day was the HLG contest. Kay asked me if I throw his
Lawn Dart for him. "Sure, no problem" I responded. I forgot about his Lawn
Dart's nasty habit of rolling to the left on a hard launch.
The first few practice tosses were okay(read: no rolls.) When the contest
started and I gave it heave, it rolled sharply to the left. Kay got about a 30+
second flight out the first toss. Every toss after that was almost the same
results.
On the 4 toss of the last round, Kay made a "firm" landing. When I picked up
the Lawn Dart, the left wing panel seemed very loose. Looking at the carbon
fiber rod, you could see it was cracked. Kay looked at it and decided we should
try one more launch. I did and the wing fold almost as soon as it left my hand.
The fuse impaled itself on the opposite side of the field. The damage report
consisted of a broken wing rod tube and several splits in the fuselage. Kay,
please accept my apologies for mangling the Lawn Dart. I owe you a bunch of
Fribbles for that one!
The other interesting activity during the HLG contest was Lincoln Ross falling
flat on his face right after he launched his handlaunch. He recovered
beautifully and didn't loose much height.
That's about it and I'm sure I missed a lot of things! Despite the weather,
I still had a great time. A big THANK YOU to Jim Reith and crew.
-Lamar
|
| 853.153 | Pass the bug stray | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Tue Jun 22 1993 19:48 | 37 |
| It was a lot of fun despite the rain and drizzle and lack of thermals.
I heard Jim Tyre saying he never seen a day when there weren't thermals
sometime!
Did anybody get a 7 minute max?
It was a contest for those who could get great launches.
I flew the Sagitta in 2 meter and the Paragon in Open class.
Most flights were between 2.5 and 3.5 minutes.
I got almost every landing right on the tape but several times
got very little points because of a extra long slide in the wet
grass. On one landing I had the tape pulled away from me and I slid
full length down the tape and the nose hit the peg with a whop and it
continued sliding for another 20 points.
Points or not - I count them all as GREAT landings - I was only short
once and lined up good.
Now about that CD.
Great job Jim and family.
About the HLG - the damage after Lamar's last throw was no greater than
the damage before the throw - it looked bad but...
I gotta get a real HLG.
Father's day in the rain at a glider contest - it don't get much better
than this. Anybody going to Minot Maine this next Sunday?
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.154 | CD report (glad you all had fun) | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Wed Jun 23 1993 13:41 | 50 |
| Finally a free minute...
First, I would like to thank Charlie, George and Jim for helping out.
Without you guys down at the winch, things would have been much tougher.
Was the canopy set up down there a good change?
While it is true that I had Murphy as co-CD for the event, things went
well and just about everything that I was able to do up front, paid off.
The weather... well the bribe wasn't in the budget so we got drizzle.
If you'll notice, I did manage to have enough to appease the wind gods.
The biggest thing I learned is that you can never have too much equipment.
We used 4 different winches and only one of the two retrievers showed up.
The retriever turned out to be too much drag on the winch and was pretty
quickly abandoned. I think it's the style of the retriever. We got some
great effort out of the contestants shagging chutes and we generally had
a couple of people waiting at the turnaround to bring back chutes.
We also had something else for the first year that I've been to it.
Spectators! It seems the signs I put out on the highway brought in some
sightseers.
Final tally was 19 participants and 4 confirmed no-shows who called
saturday night. Looks like a good turnout in spite of the weather. My kids
enjoyed helping out and my father came up specifically to help (and see
what this hobby stuff was all about). By delegating the work out I was
able to run around and fill in the gaps and help where needed and things
got taken care of. The HLG event was supposed to give me time to calculate
the final standings, but they were done when I got back to the table. I
think it helped having the impound covered as well. It was a rainy day and
I believe the entry fees covered the cost of the event and prizes.
Yes, there were people who maxed rounds (including a perfect 7:00) and
here's the top three places in both classes (1200 possible points)
Open Class 2 meter
1 1134 Lincoln Ross 1 1107 Chris Ordzie
2 1130 Chris Ordzie 2 1014 Jim Tyrie
3 1103 Jim Tyrie 3 903 Rusty Knowlton
4 1037 Dave Walter 10 684 Dave Walter
9 922 Dick Bissen 11 671 Kay Fisher
12 735 Lamar Phillips 13 589 Lamar Phillips
14 714 Steve Smith 14 558 Steve Smith
15 560 Kay Fisher
Steve Schommer's HLG flights should have shown that there were thermals on
the field. He got a minute plus flight up the hill.
I'm open to suggestions for next year.
|
| 853.155 | Atta boy, Jim! | QUIVER::WALTER | | Wed Jun 23 1993 21:02 | 26 |
| Y'know, it just occurred to me what's wrong with that retriever. The
take up spool should be turned 90 degrees so that the axis is in the
launch direction. That way the line would come off the spool and go
through the "eye" without having to turn the corner. That's the way
most retrievers are set up. The other possible problem is the small
spool size: I think it generates more drag than a big spool would.
When we stopped using the retriever, the contest slowed down. When
people stopped using Lincoln's winch, it slowed down further.
Suggestions: Have extra fresh batteries available.
-OR-
Have the batteries on constant charge from a portable
generator.
Get a kid on a moped to do retrieving. The kid will have a
blast and launch cycles will take half the time.
CRRC uses a generator and mopeds; maybe we could borrow them next time.
I thought you did a good job of CD'ing Jim. It was tough weather, and
that's a difficult field for running a glider contest. Thanks to Harvey
for getting a nice swath cut through the high grass. Next time it'll be
even better!
Dave
|
| 853.156 | More things to consider for next year. Keep the ideas coming | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Thu Jun 24 1993 11:51 | 15 |
| We were supposed to have several retrievers and several winches but only
the local retriever showed up and most of the winches had integral batteries.
We had originally talked about running the charger off the generator and
having a dirt bike/three wheeler but stupid me, I said we were all set with
the retrievers. We need to have two winches IN USE to keep the throughput
going. Having several winches saved us but putting the sport winch into place
did nothing for us since nobody would launch on it. Something was wrong with
Lincoln's winch since even he wasn't happy with the power.
We've been talking about going out with personal lawn mowers once a month and
trying to keep that winch path open for the monthly glider fun-flys. If we
spent an hour or two once a month we could improve the quality of the path for
next season's contest.
Dave... weren't YOU that "kid" on the moped at CRRC? 8^)
|
| 853.157 | More "ideas" | LEDS::WATT | | Thu Jun 24 1993 12:38 | 18 |
| As winchmaster I quickly learned that the competitors were NOT willing
to fly on a winch that they thought would give them less of a launch.
They gravitated toward the winch they percieved as stronger and
sandbagged as best they could to use that one. I think this is to be
expected especially when lift is at a premium and maxes are very
difficult. I agree with Dave on the retreiver. George's is a very
nice unit but it does add quite a bit of drag. If we had one on both
winches, they would have used it. Also, Jim Tyree asked to take it off
and we could have said no and made everyone use it I guess. I like the
motorbike idea and the generator idea to keep things moving. Riding
the motorbike is fun and the winches get retreived quickly to boot! If
you run multiple winch lines, how about doing open on one line and 2
meter on the other and make everyone use the same winch? That way
noone could call unfair on unequal winches. Use the whimpy one on the
2 meter if they are not equal.
Charlie
|
| 853.158 | | QUIVER::WALTER | | Thu Jun 24 1993 20:37 | 12 |
| > If you run multiple winch lines, how about doing open on one line and 2
> meter on the other and make everyone use the same winch? That way
> noone could call unfair on unequal winches. Use the whimpy one on the
> 2 meter if they are not equal.
Well... I would have no problem with that arrangement, but some pilots
want a monster launch regardless of the class. Jim Tyrie puts the pedal
to the metal even in the 2M class because his plane can take it. Also,
if you have a long line of Open planes and no 2M's, then one winch just
sits idle. My preference is for at least 2 good strong winches and a
fast retriever.
|
| 853.159 | A retriever is next on my list | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Fri Jun 25 1993 11:15 | 11 |
| I have another starter motor sitting idle. I may try to put one of the PVC
style retrievers together like what used to be used at Biddeford. Basically
it is a set of PVC pipes with eyelets out on arms that the line goes through
the line is retracted to the turnaround so it causes no drag while winching
and it is pulled to the winches to retrieve (usually two lines can be done
at a time). I'd like a retriever and this wouldn't be much more than what I
already have for parts.
The bad part about retrievers is that it gives you another set of line on
the ground to snag and break and more mechanical stuff to go wrong. I think
a system which doesn't put drag on the launch is the best way to go.
|
| 853.160 | One class at a time... | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Fri Jun 25 1993 11:17 | 3 |
| One other thing that I did was to run each class individually. It was easier
to sort the frequency conflicts by class and the entire class flew in more
similar air than spreading it out over twice as long.
|
| 853.161 | Hard to Please | LEDS::WATT | | Thu Jul 01 1993 17:56 | 9 |
| If you run two winches, it seems only fair to allow the competitors to
choose which one they use unless they are considered 'equal'. I sense
that the top guys are looking for ANY edge they can get including using
the best winch. This is understandable since a better launch in dead
air should give better duration.
How does this retreiver work?
Charlie - just back from a nice vacation!
|
| 853.162 | I'll be contacting the people at DownEast for their plans | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Thu Jul 01 1993 18:12 | 16 |
| Welcome back, winchmaster 8^)
The retriever I hope to build is a loop of line out to the turn around and
back which has some type of cart on it. Attached to this is another line
which goes over to the winch line and attaches to it with a welded ring. The
winch line feeds through this welded ring. When the winch is operated, the
retriever is at the turnaround end. When you retrive, the cart is pulled up
to the launch end and the string and ring drag the chute along. It is very
important not to over winch the chute since it won't go through this ring
and the turnaround. Before launching the retriever is sent back to the
turnaround. Since there isn't a second line going up, there is significantly
less drag than the "follow me up" style of retrievers. This was used with
good success at Biddeford in 1991. The Biddeford retriever serviced two
lines at the same time but you should be able to use it on a single winch.
You tie a ribbon on it when set up to tell you when it's down to the
turnaround.
|
| 853.163 | Vacation too Short | LEDS::WATT | | Thu Jul 01 1993 20:03 | 9 |
| Thanks - I wish I could say it's good to be back. It ain't.
I see how this works. Probably works best on ground that's in better
shape than CMRCM. :-) I guess you'd have to winch down the line so
that the chute doesn't go in the bushes.
Charlie
|
| 853.164 | | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Thu Jul 01 1993 20:13 | 12 |
| Yeah, you winch the line down onto the cleared path. The cart may have
wheels to help it over the ground but you need to pull the line without
snagging in the path.
I don't like retrievers which send up a second line like George's did.
It gives you something else to snag the plane. I've been caught on a
highstart before and it doesn't give you much opportunity if it snags
your stab. (I flew into/under one of Dave Walter's launches)
The other option is to have a "retrieve master" and to have the chutes
hooked up to the cart manually each flight. This basically replaces the
moped/motorbike with the cart.
|
| 853.165 | HLG contest report | KBOMFG::KNOERLE | | Tue Jul 06 1993 08:03 | 88 |
|
Past Saturday we finally had our first HLG contest. 8 people showed
up with basically 3 different Designs :
1) GRAUPNER Benny, a built up all balsa glider
2) SOFTY, what is a glass fuselage with carbon tail made by a friend
The wings are each ones own design. (Next time at least 4 people
will have MY wing design - guess why ?)
3) Noname all built up
The following tasks had to be performed
1) Within 10 minutes get as many 30 second flights or a multiple
of it as possible (handlaunch)
2) You have 5 tries on a high start, the longest 3 of them count up
to a max. of 120 seconds (high start, approx.60 feet)
3) 10 precision flights of 20 seconds, each second above or below
subtract 1 per second
The day was as beautiful as it could be, nice warm and sunny, very
light wind but not to much thermals. The area where we were flying
is all grass, thick fat green gras. On the far left side (windward)
there was an area that was mowed. But right behind a small hill.
In the first event most pilots had trouble to get the 30 seconds for
2 reasons : the plane is not at the edge of the comp or they don't
have a "Dave_W."-arm. On one throw I was lucky enough to find a zero
sink area and could stretch my flight above 60 seconds. Willi our
Club's chief, was unlucky: after the 4th throw he sticked his Graupner
Benny into the ground. You should not do that with a Benny. It took
him several minutes to patch it up.
The second event was interesting. I got one flight with almost
2 minutes and two other flights with just above and below 1 minute.
One guy had 4 flights around 40 seconds and got one flight with 2.5
minutes ! To end that flight he spiralled it in (i.e. he lost control).
No damage - those SOFTY fuselages are superb - none ever broke
(so far)
The third event was wild : I wanted to have 30 minutes precision, but
all others voted for 20 (to get a chance). We flew one round. The
timer called 10 - 15 - 16 - up to twenty. At twenty you had to land
or grap it. I had to land twice and caught it 8 times. With several
people on the airfield it was interesting to slalom around them....
Good thing is those lightweights slowies wouldn't do much harm.
Here the final standings :
Name 30 second Duration precision total
flights 3 x 120sec max. 10 x 20sec [Sec]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Gerhard Kinzl [1] 30 150 153 333
(Noname)
7. Wolfgang Klein- [2] 60 211 97 368
waechter (SOFTY)
6. Reinhard Wolff [2] 60 202 192 454
(SOFTY)
5. Dieter Loecherer [4] 120 193 162 475
(Benny)
4. Willi Scheuer [4] 120 247 195 562
(Benny)
3. Sigi Hofbauer [8] 240 134 195 569
(SOFTY)
2. Wolfgang Loecherer[9] 270 113 193 576
(Benny)
1. Bernd Knoerle [13] 390 233 197 820
(SOFTY)
Thanks, thanks (blush) ... thanks (blush again)....thanks for the
applause.
All 3 Pilots with Benny and myself will have the same wings next time.
Will be interesting then.
The real bright side of this is that we were 8 people doing the same
thing and having a blast. There was no real pressure and the whole
comp. was very relaxing. (Exept one, whose 'excellent' Design based on
a SOFTY wasn't as successful as he believed). And all agreed :
" WE WILL DO IT AGAIN VERY SOON ! "
(Remember to have heart that sentence before :-)
Bernd
|
| 853.166 | Good Show Bernd! | LEDS::WATT | | Tue Jul 06 1993 12:08 | 12 |
| Good show Bernd! Was it your wings or your arm???? Looks like you
showed them how it's done.
Do you think you really could do 30 MINUTE precision (I know you meant
30 second)?
Now get back to that really challanging Pattern flying. :-)
charlie
|
| 853.167 | I call it evolution | KBOMFG::KNOERLE | | Tue Jul 06 1993 13:12 | 23 |
|
I must admit, 30 minutes precision would be World Championship. But
honest, on a calm day like 9:30 PM right before night, I can do 10
flights with 40 seconds +/- 2 . I tested it couple of days ago, when I
compared the old wing with the new one. I constantly got 5 seconds
more.
Because we practised a bit a week ago, for most of my club buddies it
wasn't a surprise that I won, for others it really was.
They have not been at our field lately. The particular guy that I
mentioned was sooooo protective to his "self claimed knowledge advantage"
that he didn't even tell us what he saw at a contest that he watched. He
said with most honest tone of arrogancy "forget everything below 60
seconds" - now he gets 25 on average :-) :-) :-) :-) ........
You might know this feeling........
Next project is an even better wing, thinner profile, less weight and a
Reynolds number compensation at the outer wing panels. And then back to
the Ultra Sport, start with a certain spar that's missing.
Bernd
|
| 853.168 | Nice start. | CSTEAM::HENDERSON | Competition is Fun: Dtn 297-6180, MRO4 | Tue Jul 06 1993 13:21 | 8 |
| Good job Bernd. It takes people like you to bring the next level of the
hobby to people.
I really enjoyed your report. It made me laugh.
Regards,
Eric.
|
| 853.169 | Nice format | QUIVER::WALTER | | Wed Jul 07 1993 19:39 | 14 |
| I like the format of that hand launch contest. It gives your arm a
chance to rest a bit when launching from high start, and adds some
variety to the competition.
If you want some REAL entertainment, invite Lincoln Ross to your
competition. During the handlaunch portion of Jim R's contest, I was
concentrating on my plane when I heard thunderous footsteps careen past
me. The footsteps came to an abrupt halt, there was a loud grunt, then I
actually FELT the ground shake as Lincoln lost his footing in the wet
grass and fell flat on his face. I think I scratched that flight due to
uncontrollable laughter, but it was worth it!
Dave
|
| 853.170 | Give him the ticket | KBOMFG::KNOERLE | | Thu Jul 08 1993 07:59 | 25 |
|
Where can I sent the tickets to ? We shure like entertainment like
this if nothing serious happens of course.
The few things that happened were :
1) Two planes touching, shaking and continue to fly. Not even a
dent
2) One guy launched, forgot to push the stick, and plane came down
as it went up.
3) When one plane landed the pilot missjudged and hit one guy with
the wing in the back. He slowly turned round as s.o. tapped on
his shoulder.
4) The one guy showing up with a real colourful plane, never flown
an almost impossible to control. He was all over the place like
a fly that burned its tail. He had the longest flight of the day
however from the highstart (2:27) circling in a thermal and
ending that flight with a crash du to a "radio" failure...
5) Many landings downwind with one wing down and doing cartwheels,
only the wooden fuses broke.
6) My favourite one: One self_claimed ace (who never accepts any
advice) was trying to get 30 sec. flights but was always down
after 20 something - you should have heart his excuses.
Bernd
|
| 853.171 | CRRC August 21-22 | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Mon Aug 23 1993 19:32 | 15 |
| This past weekend was the annual CRRC/ESL two day contest in Sudbury. We
were blessed with clear skies (it usually rains) but saturday was windy.
I showed the rust from only flying a few times this year and managed to
fly terrible saturday and better but still lower middle of the pack on
sunday. It was good to see all the familiar faces and even Al Ryder
hobbled by on one crutch to greet people. And no CRRC contest would be
complete without one trip into the woods. I managed to talk Kay into
searching for lift "over the horizon". He almost made it back but it took
a while to find the plane (50' in from the field). I told him that if we
started looking for the plane where it was, it would have gone much faster
8^)
39 contestants saturday and 42 sunday. As always the CRRC guys ran a great
contest!
|
| 853.172 | CRRC Contest report | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Tue Aug 24 1993 13:01 | 148 |
|
The annual CRRC soarin is history and it was a great contest even though I
only made Sunday. Except for maybe a couple of PO'D wind gods Saturday, the
weather gods in general were smiling on the drop zone. Sunday was an awesome
day.
I was torn between attending the CMRCM picnic on Sunday and going to the
glider contest on Sunday. I decided late Saturday night to go to the contest.
Put everything on charge and set the alarm for 6:30. I got to the field about
8:45, signed up and set up. I was assigned to flight group 7.
This is an extreamly well run contest and they keep things moving. I think
they got 8 rounds in Saturday and we got 7 in Sunday. I was timing/launching
for Dick Bissen most of the day and he was in flight group 3. Things went so
fast that by the time Dick landed group 6 was being called. I had a chance to
sit for maybe 10 minutes then it was time to fly again. There were 3 winch
lines which had very few problems.
The first round was a 5 minute duration and the last 6 were 7 minutes. I am
assuming this is because with flying starting at 9 A.M., the lift is still
weak. My first flight of the day was the most interesting. My time was good,
somewhere around 4:30 on a 5 minute duration task, but I just missed the
landing points. I had a good excuse though.
It seems that I've developed this syndrome of attending major contests and
coming away with some sort of "distinction". For example, at the NATS, I was
the ONLY pilot during the ENTIRE NATS competition to cause a few of the judges
to jump up out of their seats during a somewhat squirrely takeoff. Something
else happened at another contest that I can't recall, but yesterday, I earned
the distinction of being the only person out of 42 competitors for the whole
weekend to be involved in a MIDAIR. Seems I was still in Gremlin combat mode.
Talk about setting the tone for the day. This happened on my very first
flight. Fortunately (for me) the damage was slight and field repairable.
The other guy was out for the day. I was circling out over the trees getting
ready to set up for a landing. As I leveled the Saber to get into position to
turn on final, all of a sudden this other glider seems to come out of nowhere
and before you know it, were just a blur. As the gliders come apart,
"something" is fluttering down. I'm still flying and the other glider noses
over and goes in.
I took a minute to kind of check things out and still appeared to have full
control. I could have kept flying but decided to land and look the Saber over.
Besides, I could see something hanging from under my left wing and thought it
might be a flap servo or something. Also, my time was running out for the 5
minute duration anyway. Turns out what I saw hanging was just some covering
and part of the leading edge still stuck to it.
Damage to the Saber was slight. About a 2 inch wide by 1 inch deep chunk taken
out of the leading edge. As I said, the piece of leading edge that was broken
out was still attached to the covering so I glued it bcak in. Got a piece of
foam from antoher contestant, stuffed the whole and covered with vinyl tape.
The Saber flew fine for the remaining 6 rounds. At some point, I'll do a proper
repair. I may even have Jim Reith do me up a new set of wings. 8^)
The other guy wasn't so fortunate. Turns out his glider was a T tail and I
ended up taking of his stab/elevator. That's what I saw fluttering down. His
fuse was broken about 3 inches ahead of the fin. Not sure if that happened
in the air or after the crash. He was fortunate in that the plane came down
in the bushes and sustained NO further damage. Wings and the rest of the fuse
were fine. Looks like I get to paint a "kill" on my tail. Splash one Genesis.
I don't know if I can describe this or not, but thinking about the midair and
the damage sustained to both planes, we came about as close as you can come
to a total head on midair. Picture the Saber. A midwing/mid tail design.
Picture the Genesis. A midwing/Ttail design. The chunk taken out of my leading
edge was almost exactly 12 inches out from the fuse. The other guy lost his
stab. Try and picture how that can possible happen and not have any other
part of either plane touch. The only way I can figure it is this. In order for
his stab not to hit my fuse, there had to be a horizontal separation of
about 12 inches. This is born out by the damage to my wing. The damage to my
wing could not have been caused by a "horizontal" strike from his stab. Rather
it was caused by his fin. After the impact, my wing then took off his stab.
In order for my wing to hit his fin, we couldn't have had a verticle
separation of more than about 6 inches. That's what I call close.
At any rate, thermal duration in a contest atmosphere is sometimes not for
the faint of heart. There's no such thing as "only 4 planes allowed up at
once". Generally it's more like 6 or 7. There's also no such thing as first
come, first served where thermals are concerned. If you find one, rest
assured the rest of the pack will be there shortly. When you have 6 or 7
gliders about a thousand feet up and about a half to 3/4 of a mile away
all circling in the same thermal, it can get interesting. Depth perception
is out the window and you just hold your breath. Then on windy days, there's
that nice thermal that's carrying you rapidly down wind. You have to stay
with it if your going to be competative. The question is, can you make it
back. It's hard to stay with that thermal when it's carrying you out over
"jungle" that would take 3 indian guides and a medium to find your plane if
you didn't make it back. No guts, no glory.
The rest of the day went much better. Considering that the flights I put on
the Saber yesterday were flights 7 through 14, I was happy with what I did.
I got landing points on every landing except the first, maxed out 2 flights,
got 1 100 point landing and put it all together on the last flight with a
6:48 time and 96 landing points. The landing tape is incremented in 4 point
intervals, so I was only about 12 inches away from another 100 point landing.
The Saber requires finese while flying it and I have to learn to stop horsing
it around. A couple of simple mistakes can loose you alot of altitude. When
your in a small weak thermal, there's no margin for error. One mistake, and
your probably out of it. One thing I "think" I learned Sunday is that with
all the mixing I have and all the different directions I can move the control
surfaces, the Saber flew best when I just left it alone and let it fly.
Let's see. Who was there. I shared a canopy with DAve Walter, Jim Reith, Kay
Fisher, Dick Bissen and various visitors. CMRCM member George Caly (sp?)
stopped by for the day and helped out timing for people. He timed for me
twice and was a tremendous help. He helped me turn one flight that should
have been a 2 minute flight into over 5 minutes. He was really good at
watching what other people were doing and keeping tabs on the wind to try and
locate thermals. I thought he was very knowledgable.
Sal from Northeast Sailplanes spent most of his time under our tent as did
Anker. Sal had one of the new Shadow's and took 2nd place with it. It looked
and flew great. Anker kept on breaking elevator servo's on landings. Wish I
had the servo consession there yesterday. 8^) Sometime during the afternoon,
who should appear but Al Ryder leaning on a crutch. He looked good and was
getting around pretty well. It didn't take him long to pitch in and help with
the scoring.
The two outstanding "locals" in the contest were Dick Bissen and Dave Walter.
Dave's only flyable glider right now is a 2 meter Spirit. The wind on
Saturday killed him and he was pretty far down in the pack. By Sunday, he
finished up SIXTH overall. Quite a comeback. Dick Bissen was just amazing. I
wish he was flying in the same group as I was. All you needed to do was
follow Dick. He maxed every flight. On a couple of occasions, people were
falling out of the sky in sink. Dick launched and maxed the flight. After
getting him in the air, I felt like just telling him I was going to go sit
down for awhile. Just tell me when your ready to land so I can record the
landing points and just write down 7 minutes. He flew the Magic extreamly
well. Very smooth in the air and no mistakes staying with the thermals. He
also did very well milking light lift close to the ground which is sometimes
what makes the difference between winning and loosing. This is also why he
finished SECOND on Saturday and FIFTH overall. GREAT job Dick.
The attrition rate at this years contest was very light. To my knowledge,
there were only 2 planes left out in the woods waiting to be found. I think
Kay is a nature lover at heart. I say this because Kay made his annual trek
into the woods to retrieve his plane. Damage was limited to a loose stab
which, according to Kay, happened reclaiming the plane from the tree.
Unfortunately, I was in the flight group right after Kay, so there wasn't
time to join the search party. At any rate, it was a happy ending and the
Paragon is probably fixed by now.
Anyway, I had a great time and had a blast flying the Saber. When "I" learn
how to fly "IT", it will serve me well. If I can stay away from midairs that
is.
|
| 853.173 | Time to move on to a lighter ship | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Tue Aug 24 1993 13:27 | 18 |
| I have some extra decals from my winch that you can use 8^)
I made Steve promise not to beat me if I made him the wings.
I guess I should have made him promise not to take me out of
the air!
I've decided to retire Alcyone #1 and let it rest in my shop
as a functional backup. This is the plane I flew at the Nats
and as such, I don't want to destroy it. The plane is
something over 75ozs and doesn't fly well in light conditions
(probably due to the guy on the sticks) I have a backup ship
mostly complete and a spare set of wings that I almost finished
saturday night after my poor initial showing on saturday. I
also have the backup fuselage I made for the Nats and along
with some tips from Sal, I'm going to try to get it ready in
the next couple of weeks. Anyone got any spare time I can
borrow? I'm hoping that Alcyone #2 comes in somewhere in the
60-70oz range and preferably low 60s.
|
| 853.174 | more contest | QUIVER::WALTER | | Tue Aug 24 1993 17:38 | 25 |
| Good report, Steve. Just one correction: Dick and I were 5th and 6th in
Sportsman, not overall. If you include the experts, I was about 16th,
and Dick was around 13th. That's an indication of how competitive this
contest is: Dick maxed every round and didn't even make top 10 overall
(doesn't that just make you gag, Dick?!). But Dick got 2nd Sportsman
Saturday when the rest of us were fighting to just stay over the field
in 20 mph wind, so I think he did a spectacular job both days!
I was really snake bit Saturday. I had one 5 minute flight, and the
rest were all under 3 minutes! The Spirit really *&(*#'s in wind. My
favorite flight: As I come off the launch with a mild zoom, I notice
that the plane looks... funny. As it turns in profile, we see that damn
canopy has come loose in the front, and flipped up vertically, held to
the plane only by the rubber band in the back. It looked exactly like
the airbrake on an F-15 fuselage. And worked just like one, too. I was
down in about 90 seconds. As I lined up for the spot landing, I saw the
canopy opened wide like a yawning pelican, the receiver hanging out on
the right, and the switch assembly hanging out on the left! I nosed it
in UNDERNEATH the 100 point marker, for my only perfect landing of the
day! Thank God I had the battery secured with balsa sticks.
Anybody want to buy a Spirit?
Dave
|
| 853.175 | CRRC contest | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Tue Aug 24 1993 18:52 | 152 |
| It was a fun contest. I got to fly 3 airplanes - unfortunately one was because
of damage I suffered in the woods.
Saturday was windy. I initially got the Paragon ready but after the pilots
meeting I put it away and got out my old "Lead Sled" Sagitta. It was the
perfect plane for the day. But it's so old...
On my first landing I maxed and the landing was pretty close to the
target but the fuselage cracked on the port side and broke the wood
canopy plug in half - so I got a zero for the landing because of (1)
shedding parts (the canopy piece fell off) and (2) not being in flying
condition after landing.
So I zapped the port side of the fuselage and the canopy plug.
Second (or was it third) round was shorter - I had a terrible launch.
The wind was at out backs on the winch line (stayed that way for the
rest of the day) and I didn't have enough peddle to the metal. I
might have gotten some landing points but guess what.
This time I break the fuselage on the starboard side and break the
canopy plug in half (just a fraction of an inch from the previous
break). Back to the zap and ...
On a later flight I popped off and declared my only allowed pop off
and circled around and dropped it down for a quick re-launch. The killer
here was I was in great lift and I should have taken the flight.
But as I landed I broke the canopy on the bottom. This time I didn't
break the canopy plug! All these breaks were just ahead of the leading
edge of the wing. Back to the zap bottle.
This time on Dave Walter's advice I also wrapped some duck tape around
the spot. None of the other landings broke anything - but I was really
trading off points for soft landings the rest of the day.
Saturday night I cleaned the Sagitta fuselage up and sanded and put two
layers of glass on it.
Sunday - no wind so I flew the Paragon.
First flight my elevator trim was off a mile. I lost a lot of altitude before
I got it right. Second flight I didn't find anything.
After that all flights were good except one.
Picture this. The Jim and I are walking up to the winch and Jim starts
talking about the BIG SINK the guy launching in front of me gets. Sinks
from the launch in record time. So what do we do - step up to the winch
of course.
Over in the far corner there are a gaggle of planes circling in lift - but
they are quite a ways out.
Jim is saying over in the corner - so I head that way. Now I don't have
any ballast in the Paragon and the wing loading is around 5 oz/sq ft.
I'm heading past the tree line sinking all the way.
Jim says "Keep going - it's out there!"
I say "I don't know Jim!"
"Keep going - it's out there!"
"I don't know Jim!"
"Keep going - it's out there!"
"I don't know Jim!"
"Keep going - it's out there!"
"I DON'T KNOW JIM!"
So I turn back.
"I don't think I can make it!"
"Sorry"
"I don't think I can make it!"
"Sorry"
"I didn't make it!"
"Sorry"
What a way to get a volunteer to help you look in the woods.
I have to say that if the roles were reversed I can picture myself
saying the same thing to Jim. There was lift out there and maybe
if I had penetrated better or not given up I might have climbed out.
So we took compass readings (Al Marshall and Anker both volunteered
compasses) and started searching after Jim put in a nice max flight.
We didn't find it the first time but after we came back I checked out
the Tx for servo listening purposes. This time I figured I'd just go
in my self and not walk around anything - just follow the compass
straight in no matter how difficult the brush. I only got in about
50 feet and looked up and the Paragon had managed to get about
half way down all the trees and fortunately was only in some thin
stuff that I could shake - and it didn't look like any damage
at all. After the first couple of shakes tho I managed to break
the tail loose - rats.
Anyway I brought the plane back and switched to the Hobie Hawk for a
backup. Then had to fly two back to back rounds to catch up to the
flight order - they were both maxes. But with my zero round for landing
off field and with my trim problem on the first flight I finished 2nd
to last.
But it was great fun and what a perfect day Sunday turned out to be.
Can't wait to do it again next year.
Saturday there is a scale fly in at Ellington, CT I hope to attend
with my Cub and Sunday is one of the Simsbury, CT glider contests.
Jim Tyre lost a plane on the first launch Saturday and it
went so far down wind that he didn't even bother to look for it.
Les Gerheart's Falcon 880 blew up on the winch about 30 feet out
of his hand.
John Nilsson was about to land his Lovesong and looked down at his
transmitter for a second. Then he looked up and locked on the the
wrong plane till it was too late - he thinks the Lovesong is totaled.
He flew a Booger Sunday - nice planes.
Helmut Lelke flew a 2 meter floater Saturday in the wind and didn't
have any problems!
I don't know her name but a girl run Sportsman Sunday.
How come you guys didn't remember that. She was flying a Weston "Fun".
Will Jim be ready in time or will he have to use his backup Alycone?
Will he let me coach him over the woods?
Will Steve "Red Baron" Smith be flying a Saber with kill markings on it?
Will Dave Walter raise his Spirit(s)?
Will Anker find one more elevator servo gear set?
Will Dick read this after he gets back from vacation and say - "Gee guys
if I had only known!"?
Will...
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.176 | And an excellent pilot | QUIVER::WALTER | | Tue Aug 24 1993 21:15 | 10 |
| >> I don't know her name but a girl run Sportsman Sunday.
>> How come you guys didn't remember that. She was flying a Weston "Fun".
Anne-Marie Glob, Josh Glob's sister. Josh is probably the best pilot in
the ESL, but he didn't attend the contest. It would appear that
Anne-Marie and John Hauff (one of the other out-of-state pilots) are
an item.
Are there any other questions?
|
| 853.177 | I was amazed at how well she flew/landed | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Tue Aug 24 1993 21:31 | 11 |
| Anne-Marie is an item all by herself. Very nice and quite pretty. She
beat Sal in sportsman on sunday and that really torqued him. She got
some great times and did very well in the landings (I was part-time
scorer until Al showed up) It was reassuring to see her have trouble
in the wind on saturday like the rest of us mere mortals 8^)
I believe that John Hauff was right up there both days (didn't he win
expert saturday?)
I thought she was flying the Standard class version of the Magic, the
Merlin?
|
| 853.178 | Merlin or Fun | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Wed Aug 25 1993 13:37 | 28 |
| >I thought she was flying the Standard class version of the Magic, the
>Merlin?
Someone said that but I looked at it close then I was looking at Frank
Wesson's catalog Saturday night and I believe it is a "Fun". They are
both V-Tails but the "Fun" has the wing mounted high on a kinda pylon
where the Merlin is high but flat on the top of the Fuselage. It looks
like the Fun is more ARF like than the Merlin.
I'm sure Dick knows all the details and can correct my errors.
The thing about big contests with lots of hi-tech planes - it sure motivates
you go get building!
I timed one round for Jack Buckley and he was flying a gentle lady. He was
way up with only 30 seconds to go - dove it to the ground and was only 2 seconds
over max and had 80 or 90 landing points.
So much for hi-tech!
Sure wanna scrape off my work bench projects and start on a new sailplane!
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.179 | Better plan. | CSTEAM::HENDERSON | Competition is Fun: Dtn 297-6180, MRO4 | Wed Aug 25 1993 13:47 | 5 |
| Save yourself hours and hours - Buy a Rich Spicer Geneses!. I would if
I was going to do glider comps......10 hrs will have you flying. Just
keep away from Slashing Saber Smith!.
E.
|
| 853.180 | | GAUSS::REITH | Jim 3D::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Wed Aug 25 1993 13:57 | 13 |
| Yeah, I was going to mention avoiding Mr. Steve. 8^)
Kay, just remember that Jack wasn't there flying saturday. You really need
a plane with a wide ranging envelope to toss inthe car and fly. I'll be
working on mine 8^)
One more highlight on saturday was Chris Schuch putting the wings on "Swamp
Thing", his battered Camano. I guess his wing rods were sticking because he
proceeded to bounce the plane on a wingtip and bounce, bounce, BOUNCE,
BOUNCE, crunch... hmmmm. Some epoxy and fiberglass and he was back in the
air again. I didn't see any of his flights since he was in my flight group
but I'm sure he managed quite well with the repair done quickly. I asked
him what he had on the building board and he said "another Camano" 8^)
|
| 853.181 | Female Glider Guider | MISFIT::BLUM | | Wed Aug 25 1993 14:24 | 17 |
| I received the new Weston "Hotsheet" last night. On the front
cover he mentions all the high contest placings with competitors
using WACO equipment.
I see Anne Marie Glab has placed high in other contests.
The Fun was a polyhedral design ready to fly out of the box.
It is no longer listed in WACO's latest catalog. The Merlin
would have flaps and Ailerons with straight wing.
I would like to meet Anne Marie, a woman who flys gliders sounds
interesting 8^).
Regards,
Jim
|
| 853.182 | Several choices for ARF/RTF ships | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Wed Aug 25 1993 15:25 | 11 |
| Kay, if your seriously considering a new replacement for the Lovesong
there are several on the market now that come in a very high state of
prefabrication. The Shadow comes to mind, as well as the new droop nose
design that is in Sal's catalog. All between $350 and $400 dollars.
CHEAP compared to what you spent on the Lovesong. The Genesis is a true
RTF high tech ship that you just need to drop a radio in. Price is
$489 (give or take a couple of bucks). The only thing I don't recall at
the momemt is the wing section on the Genesis and if it's made for
thermal duration or slope. WACO also has a couple in Sal's catalog that
have most of the work done already. Sounds like it's time to jump back
into the high tech bucket.
|
| 853.183 | Behind on building... | KAY::FISHER | The higher, the fewer | Wed Aug 25 1993 17:51 | 81 |
| > <<< Note 853.182 by SNAX::SMITH "I FEEL THE NEED" >>>
> -< Several choices for ARF/RTF ships >-
>
> Kay, if your seriously considering a new replacement for the Lovesong
> there are several on the market now that come in a very high state of
> prefabrication. The Shadow comes to mind, as well as the new droop nose
...
Perhaps I didn't express myself clearly.
I'm not looking for something at all.
I've got a basement full of kits that I WANT to put together.
Although it is alarming how slow some things go I do manage to keep
in gliders.
As regards some of the hi-tech choices - I staying in the Dodgson camp
mainly. Although I do think replacing the Lovesong with a Paragon was
a smart decision.
Why?
Well - First it wasn't entirely my decision - crashing bad the last time
helped. But my current feeling about unlimited ships is that if you
get a BIG HEAVY one they are just too difficult to handle on the ground.
Your arm gets sore walking across the field with it (like we had to do
at CRRC on Saturday). If there is a gusty wind they are a hand full at
the winch. You really gotta have a hot winch to get a SAFE launch with
any cross or down wind. No matter how slow they fly when you land a
6 pound plane a lot of mass hits the ground.
So for me it makes more since (today - I'll change my mind next year)
to have a LARGE LIGHT poly floater like the Paragon. If the wind comes
up - then smaller heavier planes come on line.
Now when you get down to two meter and smaller it is a challenge
to get full functionality (ailerons and flaps) and keep the wing
loading down where it belongs for a two meter but that's another matter.
So my glider building plans are laid out
1. Dodgson Pivot Plus
2. Dodgson Camano
3. Dodgson Pixy
Unfortunately I have a Tug boat on the work bench along with
a 1/12 scale combat Zero.
I probably will work on the Tug in the background with a goal of
launching next spring. The Zero is waiting for a fiberglass cowl
and plastic canopy I ordered several weeks ago.
Since I sold my lawn dart a few weeks ago that freed up a micro receiver
for the Pivot Plus!
Now about those ARFs. They are appealing. Much as I like to fly I
love to build. But I have nothing against hi-quality professionally
done help. Some of those ARF gliders kits are wonderful. Look at
Dick's Magic for instance. It still is quite a job to complete and
set one up but what is done for you is in many cases better than you
could ever do yourself.
Sooooooo
Even tho I spent some time in the woods Sunday and even tho I took
three trips to the parking lot for Sagitta repairs Saturday I was never
without a glider that was nearly optimal for the conditions both days.
I gotta get back to that Tug boat!
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.184 | Silly season........ | CSTEAM::HENDERSON | Competition is Fun: Dtn 297-6180, MRO4 | Wed Aug 25 1993 18:20 | 1 |
| Put wings on the tug boat!. :-)
|
| 853.185 | exit | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Wed Aug 25 1993 19:51 | 3 |
| Ya but Kay, the Lovesong wasn't SUPPOSED to be 6 pounds.......8^).
S.
|
| 853.186 | Midair repair | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Fri Aug 27 1993 11:32 | 17 |
| The repairs to the Saber wing will be complete tonight. Only need to
sand some filler and re-cover.
The U shaped hole in the leading edge was excavated out to about 1 inch
deep and 2 inches wide and squared off. A new piece of foam was glued
in. The wing is originally sheeted with 1/32 obechi (which I don't
have) so the sheeting was replaced with 16th balsa. This allowed enough
excess thickness to sand back to the airfoil shape. The missing section
of the leading edge was replaced and epoxied in. The dremel tool with
grinding drum made quick work of shaping the new leading edge piece.
Applied filler where necessary and quit for the night to let it dry.
Tonight I'll do about 5 minutes of sanding and then cover. If it wasn't
for the fact that the covering won't exactly match whats already there,
you'd never know there was any damage.
Now all I need is a decal from Jim and I'm ready to go hunting again.
|
| 853.187 | New Boston Fall Classic Glider Contest | QUIVER::WALTER | | Mon Oct 25 1993 20:35 | 49 |
| The glider contest yesterday was much like the pattern contest
at CMRCM: windy! The initial round of handlaunch took place in
relatively gentle conditions, but immediately after it ended and
the main competition began, the wind kicked up as if a giant fan
had been turned on! It seems like gale force winds are a requirement
for an Al Ryder contest.
Needless to say, there were very few maxes yesterday (7 minute duration
all rounds, 100 points for landing on a stripe). I could only enter
the Unlimited class since the Falcon was my only winchable ship, so
I got just 3 flights with it. The first two were sub-3 minute with
no landing points, the third was a much more respectable 6 minutes
with landing points, but not enough to put me in the running. I'm
just happy the Falcon is still in one piece!
Dick Bissen did well in Open with his Magic (3rd place?), despite his
complaints of being tossed around the sky like a leaf. Chris Ordzie
won Open, who placed second?
But the REAL excitement was the winner of 2-M (or was it Standard?):
Kay Fisher! Kay showed everyone how it's done by getting several great
flights with his Sagitta. I think he came closest to specing out of
anyone flying. Congrats Kay! Lead sleds forever!
Jim Reith got taken out early by that *&^%$! Alcyone wing saddle,
which came apart after a minor dork landing. Jim, you deserve better
than that! He retired to winch mastership, ready to carve another
little glider symbol on the side of his killer winch.
The last round of handlaunch was the usual chaotic affair, filled
with mid-airs, near disasters, and sneaky mind games. I got the
jump on everyone early by latching onto a strong therm, but the
blasted wind took me down range so fast I had a major struggle
getting back. I ended up scraping a tree, dropping the plane at
the base of the tree on the out-of-bounds side. My 1:56 flight was
disallowed! Bummer! Then we all caught a ride on another thermal,
but only Rick Roelke was able to ride the bronco all the way. Rick
walked away with first place, I got second, and Steve Wildman Shommer
took third. Tremendous fun! I wish I could do handlaunch all day,
but the rotator cuff just won't tolerate it...
Good set of prizes at the end. Someone got a cordless Dremel, I grabbed
a 700 mA flight battery (worth the entrance fee!), Jim donated a
nice gentle lady kit, and there was plenty more. All in all, an
enjoyable day.
Dave
|
| 853.188 | New Boston Fall Classic Glider Contest - Reprise | 56821::WALTER | | Mon Sep 19 1994 17:13 | 42 |
| By Gaw, there hasn't been a single entry in this topic since the
LAST Al Ryder Fall Classic! Well, if you want to know how this contest
fared, just read the previous note for last year's results. We're
establishing a real pattern here. For example:
1. It was windy! But then, that's no surprise for anyone who has
attended an Al "Hurricane" Ryder contest. The twist this time
is that it was a dead cross wind, with occasional tail wind
gusts.
2. It was turbulent! I don't know what geological feature causes
it, probably the close proximity of trees, but once you got
roughly below treetop level the glider would suddenly act as
if it was on drugs. Landing task was simply put the plane down
on top of a landing stripe, but very few people could do it.
3. Rick Roelke won handlaunch! Again, no surprise. His Lawn Dart
could thermal out over a freshly snuffed cigarette butt. Steve
Schommer took second, I nabbed third (opposite order from last
year). Kay Fisher entered his Pivot in handlaunch, with
relatively low expectations. His first throw of the second
round was right into a killer thermal, which he rode out to the
applause of the crowd.
4. Dick Bissen won Open class! That's up from his third place
standing of last year. Unfortunately, his last landing did
some damage to the Magic, but he's getting good at repairing
the Kevlar fuse.
5. Kay Fisher won 2M class! AGAIN he shows us all how to do it
with his lead sled Sagitta. I think Kay had one of the few
maxes in the contest.
Overall, it was a well run contest. Al was able to limit his pilot
meeting to about 5 minutes; he passed out the contest rules in an
information packet as you drove in. The biggest minus was the winches.
They just weren't powerful enough to properly haul up an open class
ship in a downwind launch, and the batteries ran out of juice early.
Otherwise, well done.
Dave
|
| 853.189 | New Boston glider contest | GAAS::FISHER | BXB2-2/G08 DTN 293-5695 | Mon Sep 19 1994 18:15 | 33 |
| I'm glad you wrote that Dave - saved me a ton of typing.
Just a couple comments.
I stayed late with Les Gerhardt, Clark Bowlen, and Jim and Garret Brandt.
We worked about an hour and a half getting Clark's 2-Meter Chuperosa out
of a tree. This got me to thinking...
On the way home I purchased a sling shot and a short fishing rod with
a spin cast reel. I figure I can put a large sinker on the line and
shoot it thru the tree with the sling shot while another volunteer
hits the break on the spinning reel as the sinker goes over the glider.
I can hardly wait to try it out. But we still need Les and his ropes.
This contest probably set records for low scores. I took (stole) third
place in unlimited. I did not have one decent flight in unlimited.
In fact one time I almost lost the plane in the trees. I flew awful
but I was lucky enough to not break it or lose it.
Actually it wasn't nearly as windy as it has been in the past but
there sure was plenty of turbulence and launches were a real test.
I had one poor launch in unlimited (my Hobie Hawk) when I didn't get much
altitude and went right into sink. I ran back to the landing zone and
made a landing in 48 seconds. This must have been the big flight that
moved me into 3rd place!
Bye --+--
Kay R. Fisher |
---------------O---------------
################################################################################
|
| 853.190 | Good Joob Guys | LEDS::WATT | | Tue Sep 20 1994 12:15 | 13 |
| Congrats Dave and Kay!
Kay, make sure that you release the spinning reel before you fire the
sinker or you'll have an interesting rebound. :-)
Actually, this sounds like a good setup to try to get a plane out of a
real tall tree. You can pull a heavier line up with the fishing line
if you need to yank on the branch. I've found that you can usually
shake a plane out of a tree if you can loop a rope around the branch
it's sitting in. I've gotten several out of the trees at Central Mass
using a rock on a string thrown over the branch.
CHarlie
|
| 853.191 | | 56821::WALTER | | Tue Sep 20 1994 13:06 | 5 |
| I think the best setup I've seen for retrieving planes from trees is
the bow and arrow I saw at an ESL contest. The tip of the arrow had a
heavy weight on it, and the tail was tied to lightweight line. Similar
to the fishing rod, but much easier to aim!
|
| 853.192 | Better yet | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Tue Sep 20 1994 13:09 | 7 |
| Na, there's an even better setup to get planes out of trees.
CHAIN SAWS........
|
| 853.193 | | 30411::REITH | Jim WRKSYS::Reith MLO1-2/c37 223-2021 | Tue Sep 20 1994 14:35 | 6 |
| Yeah but ask Kay what happens when the Lovesong is UNDEER the fallen
tree 8^(
You can always leave the hanger queens home!
Why not the weighted arrow and fishing rod combined?
|
| 853.194 | Any more permutations? | 56821::WALTER | | Tue Sep 20 1994 16:25 | 6 |
| >> Why not the weighted arrow and fishing rod combined?
How about shooting the fishing rod with the bow? No, wait,
better yet, cast the bow into the tree then spear a fish in
the nearby stream with the arrow, then...
|
| 853.195 | Say what???????? | SNAX::SMITH | I FEEL THE NEED | Tue Sep 20 1994 17:18 | 6 |
| Attach the fishing rod to the glider. When the glider
ends up in a tree, release the rod.
No wait, use a 12 oz tank filled with gas for ballast. Attach a model
rocket engine ignitor in place of the fuel inlet tube. If the glider
ends up in a tree........blow the damn thing up and forget it.
|
| 853.196 | New Boston Contest Results (in .PS) | VMSSPT::FRIEDRICHS | I'd rather be flying! | Tue Sep 27 1994 14:15 | 908 |
| %!PS-Adobe-3.0
%%Title: (results 9/18/94)
%%Creator: (Microsoft Excel: LaserWriter 8 8.1.1)
%%CreationDate: (6:15 AM 23 September 1994)
%%For: (Alton)
%%Pages: 1
%%DocumentFonts: Helvetica Helvetica-Bold
%%DocumentNeededFonts: Helvetica Helvetica-Bold
%%DocumentSuppliedFonts:
%%DocumentData: Clean7Bit
%%PageOrder: Ascend
%%Orientation: Portrait
%ADO_PaperArea: -129 -125 3171 2425
%ADO_ImageableArea: 0 0 3042 2300
%%EndComments
/md 139 dict def md begin
/currentpacking where {pop /sc_oldpacking currentpacking def true setpacking}if
%%BeginFile: adobe_psp_basic
%%Copyright: Copyright 1990-1993 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
/bd{bind def}bind def
/xdf{exch def}bd
/xs{exch store}bd
/ld{load def}bd
/Z{0 def}bd
/T/true
/F/false
/:L/lineto
/lw/setlinewidth
/:M/moveto
/rl/rlineto
/rm/rmoveto
/:C/curveto
/:T/translate
/:K/closepath
/:mf/makefont
/gS/gsave
/gR/grestore
/np/newpath
14{ld}repeat
/$m matrix def
/av 81 def
/por true def
/normland false def
/psb-nosave{}bd
/pse-nosave{}bd
/us Z
/psb{/us save store}bd
/pse{us restore}bd
/level2
/languagelevel where
{
pop languagelevel 2 ge
}{
false
}ifelse
def
/featurecleanup
{
stopped
cleartomark
countdictstack exch sub dup 0 gt
{
{end}repeat
}{
pop
}ifelse
}bd
/noload Z
/startnoload
{
{/noload save store}if
}bd
/endnoload
{
{noload restore}if
}bd
level2 startnoload
/setjob
{
statusdict/jobname 3 -1 roll put
}bd
/setcopies
{
userdict/#copies 3 -1 roll put
}bd
level2 endnoload level2 not startnoload
/setjob
{
1 dict begin/JobName xdf currentdict end setuserparams
}bd
/setcopies
{
1 dict begin/NumCopies xdf currentdict end setpagedevice
}bd
level2 not endnoload
/pm Z
/mT Z
/sD Z
/realshowpage Z
/initializepage
{
/pm save store mT concat
}bd
/endp
{
pm restore showpage
}def
/$c/DeviceRGB def
/rectclip where
{
pop/rC/rectclip ld
}{
/rC
{
np 4 2 roll
:M
1 index 0 rl
0 exch rl
neg 0 rl
:K
clip np
}bd
}ifelse
/rectfill where
{
pop/rF/rectfill ld
}{
/rF
{
gS
np
4 2 roll
:M
1 index 0 rl
0 exch rl
neg 0 rl
fill
gR
}bd
}ifelse
/rectstroke where
{
pop/rS/rectstroke ld
}{
/rS
{
gS
np
4 2 roll
:M
1 index 0 rl
0 exch rl
neg 0 rl
:K
stroke
gR
}bd
}ifelse
%%EndFile
%%BeginFile: adobe_psp_colorspace_level1
%%Copyright: Copyright 1991-1993 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
/G/setgray ld
/:F/setrgbcolor ld
%%EndFile
%%BeginFile: adobe_psp_uniform_graphics
%%Copyright: Copyright 1990-1993 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
/@a
{
np :M 0 rl :L 0 exch rl 0 rl :L fill
}bd
/@b
{
np :M 0 rl 0 exch rl :L 0 rl 0 exch rl fill
}bd
/arct where
{
pop
}{
/arct
{
arcto pop pop pop pop
}bd
}ifelse
/x1 Z
/x2 Z
/y1 Z
/y2 Z
/rad Z
/@q
{
/rad xs
/y2 xs
/x2 xs
/y1 xs
/x1 xs
np
x2 x1 add 2 div y1 :M
x2 y1 x2 y2 rad arct
x2 y2 x1 y2 rad arct
x1 y2 x1 y1 rad arct
x1 y1 x2 y1 rad arct
fill
}bd
/@s
{
/rad xs
/y2 xs
/x2 xs
/y1 xs
/x1 xs
np
x2 x1 add 2 div y1 :M
x2 y1 x2 y2 rad arct
x2 y2 x1 y2 rad arct
x1 y2 x1 y1 rad arct
x1 y1 x2 y1 rad arct
:K
stroke
}bd
/@i
{
np 0 360 arc fill
}bd
/@j
{
gS
np
:T
scale
0 0 .5 0 360 arc
fill
gR
}bd
/@e
{
np
0 360 arc
:K
stroke
}bd
/@f
{
np
$m currentmatrix
pop
:T
scale
0 0 .5 0 360 arc
:K
$m setmatrix
stroke
}bd
/@k
{
gS
np
:T
0 0 :M
0 0 5 2 roll
arc fill
gR
}bd
/@l
{
gS
np
:T
0 0 :M
scale
0 0 .5 5 -2 roll arc
fill
gR
}bd
/@m
{
np
arc
stroke
}bd
/@n
{
np
$m currentmatrix
pop
:T
scale
0 0 .5 5 -2 roll arc
$m setmatrix
stroke
}bd
%%EndFile
%%BeginFile: adobe_psp_basic_text
%%Copyright: Copyright 1990-1993 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
/S/show ld
/A{
0.0 exch ashow
}bd
/R{
0.0 exch 32 exch widthshow
}bd
/W{
0.0 3 1 roll widthshow
}bd
/J{
0.0 32 4 2 roll 0.0 exch awidthshow
}bd
/V{
0.0 4 1 roll 0.0 exch awidthshow
}bd
/fcflg true def
/fc{
fcflg{
vmstatus exch sub 50000 lt{
(%%[ Warning: Running out of memory ]%%\r)print flush/fcflg false store
}if pop
}if
}bd
/$f[1 0 0 -1 0 0]def
/:ff{$f :mf}bd
/MacEncoding StandardEncoding 256 array copy def
MacEncoding 39/quotesingle put
MacEncoding 96/grave put
/Adieresis/Aring/Ccedilla/Eacute/Ntilde/Odieresis/Udieresis/aacute
/agrave/acircumflex/adieresis/atilde/aring/ccedilla/eacute/egrave
/ecircumflex/edieresis/iacute/igrave/icircumflex/idieresis/ntilde/oacute
/ograve/ocircumflex/odieresis/otilde/uacute/ugrave/ucircumflex/udieresis
/dagger/degree/cent/sterling/section/bullet/paragraph/germandbls
/registered/copyright/trademark/acute/dieresis/notequal/AE/Oslash
/infinity/plusminus/lessequal/greaterequal/yen/mu/partialdiff/summation
/product/pi/integral/ordfeminine/ordmasculine/Omega/ae/oslash
/questiondown/exclamdown/logicalnot/radical/florin/approxequal/Delta/guillemotleft
/guillemotright/ellipsis/space/Agrave/Atilde/Otilde/OE/oe
/endash/emdash/quotedblleft/quotedblright/quoteleft/quoteright/divide/lozenge
/ydieresis/Ydieresis/fraction/currency/guilsinglleft/guilsinglright/fi/fl
/daggerdbl/periodcentered/quotesinglbase/quotedblbase/perthousand
/Acircumflex/Ecircumflex/Aacute/Edieresis/Egrave/Iacute/Icircumflex/Idieresis/Igrave
/Oacute/Ocircumflex/apple/Ograve/Uacute/Ucircumflex/Ugrave/dotlessi/circumflex/tilde
/macron/breve/dotaccent/ring/cedilla/hungarumlaut/ogonek/caron
MacEncoding 128 128 getinterval astore pop
level2 startnoload
/copyfontdict
{
findfont dup length dict
begin
{
1 index/FID ne{def}{pop pop}ifelse
}forall
}bd
level2 endnoload level2 not startnoload
/copyfontdict
{
findfont dup length dict
copy
begin
}bd
level2 not endnoload
md/fontname known not{
/fontname/customfont def
}if
/Encoding Z
/:mre
{
copyfontdict
/Encoding MacEncoding def
fontname currentdict
end
definefont :ff def
}bd
/:bsr
{
copyfontdict
/Encoding Encoding 256 array copy def
Encoding dup
}bd
/pd{put dup}bd
/:esr
{
pop pop
fontname currentdict
end
definefont :ff def
}bd
/scf
{
scalefont def
}bd
/scf-non
{
$m scale :mf setfont
}bd
/ps Z
/fz{/ps xs}bd
/sf/setfont ld
/cF/currentfont ld
/mbf
{
/makeblendedfont where
{
pop
makeblendedfont
/ABlend exch definefont
}{
pop
}ifelse
def
}def
%%EndFile
/currentpacking where {pop sc_oldpacking setpacking}if
end % md
%%EndProlog
%%BeginSetup
md begin
countdictstack
[
{%stopped
%%BeginFeature: *ManualFeed False
level2 {1 dict dup /ManualFeed false put setpagedevice}{statusdict begin /manualfeed false store end} ifelse
%%EndFeature
}featurecleanup
countdictstack
[
{%stopped
%%BeginFeature: *InputSlot Upper
%%EndFeature
}featurecleanup
countdictstack
[
{%stopped
%%BeginFeature: *PageRegion LetterSmall
level2 {
2 dict dup /PageSize [612 792] put dup /ImagingBBox null put setpagedevice
}{
/lettersmall where {pop lettersmall} {letterR} ifelse
} ifelse
%%EndFeature
}featurecleanup
(Alton)setjob
/pT[1 0 0 -1 29.999 761.009]def/mT[.24 0 0 -.24 29.999 761.009]def
/sD 16 dict def
300 level2{1 dict dup/WaitTimeout 4 -1 roll put setuserparams}{statusdict/waittimeout 3 -1 roll put}ifelse
%%IncludeFont: Helvetica
%%IncludeFont: Helvetica-Bold
/f0_1/Helvetica :mre
/f1_1 f0_1 1.04 scf
/f1_42 f1_1 42 scf
/f1_38 f1_1 38 scf
/f2_1/Helvetica-Bold :mre
/f3_1 f2_1 1.04 scf
/f3_42 f3_1 42 scf
/Courier findfont[10 0 0 -10 0 0]:mf setfont
%%EndSetup
%%Page: 1 1
%%BeginPageSetup
initializepage
(Alton; page: 1 of 1)setjob
%%EndPageSetup
gS 0 0 2300 3042 rC
100 21 2100 3000 rC
982 65 :M
f1_42 sf
20.656 2.066(results 9/18/94)J
273 317 1754 2221 rC
814 382 -3 3 1394 379 3 814 379 @a
277 321 1741 2208 rC
1043 369 :M
.727(Points)A
1583 369 :M
-.268(Score)A
1911 369 :M
-1.979(Rank)A
289 427 :M
f3_42 sf
-.873(Open)A
512 427 :M
f1_38 sf
8.69 .869(\(34 flights scored\))J
288 543 :M
f1_42 sf
-.575(Richard)A
512 543 :M
-.614(Bissen)A
866 543 :M
5.577(209)A
1011 543 :M
5.577(133)A
1156 543 :M
5.577(337)A
1329 543 :M
7.436(41)A
1612 543 :M
5.577(720)A
1979 543 :M
(1)S
288 601 :M
.79(Robert)A
512 601 :M
-.871(Rondeau)A
866 601 :M
5.577(180)A
1011 601 :M
5.577(226)A
1156 601 :M
5.577(245)A
1329 601 :M
7.436(57)A
1612 601 :M
5.577(708)A
1979 601 :M
(2)S
288 659 :M
-.128(Kay)A
512 659 :M
-.463(Fisher)A
866 659 :M
5.577(244)A
1011 659 :M
5.577(268)A
1156 659 :M
5.577(115)A
1329 659 :M
7.436(48)A
1612 659 :M
5.577(675)A
1979 659 :M
(3)S
288 717 :M
-.645(Dave)A
512 717 :M
1.169(Walter)A
866 717 :M
5.577(105)A
1011 717 :M
5.577(130)A
1156 717 :M
5.577(240)A
1301 717 :M
5.577(156)A
1612 717 :M
5.577(631)A
1979 717 :M
(4)S
288 775 :M
1.52(Garrett)A
512 775 :M
1.408(Brant)A
866 775 :M
5.577(121)A
1039 775 :M
7.436(55)A
1156 775 :M
5.577(191)A
1329 775 :M
7.436(66)A
1612 775 :M
5.577(433)A
1979 775 :M
(5)S
288 833 :M
-1.548(Dan)A
512 833 :M
-.962(Carr)A
866 833 :M
5.577(107)A
1011 833 :M
5.577(139)A
1156 833 :M
5.577(138)A
1612 833 :M
5.577(384)A
1979 833 :M
(6)S
288 891 :M
.546(Jim)A
512 891 :M
1.408(Brant)A
866 891 :M
5.577(126)A
1039 891 :M
7.436(64)A
1156 891 :M
5.577(104)A
1612 891 :M
5.577(294)A
1979 891 :M
(7)S
288 949 :M
-.721(Clark)A
512 949 :M
.159(Bowlen)A
866 949 :M
5.577(126)A
1039 949 :M
7.436(37)A
1156 949 :M
5.577(103)A
1612 949 :M
5.577(266)A
1979 949 :M
(8)S
288 1007 :M
-.202(Les)A
512 1007 :M
.527(Gerhardt)A
866 1007 :M
5.577(137)A
1039 1007 :M
7.436(92)A
1612 1007 :M
5.577(229)A
1979 1007 :M
(9)S
288 1065 :M
1.082(Steve)A
512 1065 :M
-.503(Savoie)A
866 1065 :M
5.577(160)A
1039 1065 :M
7.436(48)A
1612 1065 :M
5.577(208)A
1951 1065 :M
7.436(10)A
288 1123 :M
-1.348(Carl)A
512 1123 :M
2.531(Trottier)A
866 1123 :M
5.577(145)A
1612 1123 :M
5.577(145)A
1951 1123 :M
7.436(11)A
289 1239 :M
f3_42 sf
6.462 .646(2 m)J
512 1239 :M
f1_38 sf
8.69 .869(\(31 flights scored\))J
288 1355 :M
f1_42 sf
-.128(Kay)A
512 1355 :M
-.463(Fisher)A
866 1355 :M
5.577(356)A
1039 1355 :M
7.436(61)A
1156 1355 :M
5.577(323)A
1329 1355 :M
7.436(85)A
1612 1355 :M
5.577(825)A
1979 1355 :M
(1)S
288 1413 :M
.79(Robert)A
512 1413 :M
-.871(Rondeau)A
866 1413 :M
5.577(184)A
1039 1413 :M
7.436(85)A
1156 1413 :M
5.577(279)A
1301 1413 :M
5.577(205)A
1612 1413 :M
5.577(753)A
1979 1413 :M
(2)S
288 1471 :M
-.645(Dave)A
512 1471 :M
1.169(Walter)A
866 1471 :M
5.577(135)A
1011 1471 :M
5.577(155)A
1156 1471 :M
5.577(155)A
1329 1471 :M
7.436(63)A
1612 1471 :M
5.577(508)A
1979 1471 :M
(3)S
288 1529 :M
1.52(Garrett)A
512 1529 :M
1.408(Brant)A
866 1529 :M
5.577(106)A
1011 1529 :M
5.577(157)A
1184 1529 :M
7.436(71)A
1301 1529 :M
5.577(105)A
1612 1529 :M
5.577(439)A
1979 1529 :M
(4)S
288 1587 :M
-.721(Clark)A
512 1587 :M
.159(Bowlen)A
894 1587 :M
7.436(87)A
1039 1587 :M
7.436(72)A
1156 1587 :M
5.577(184)A
1612 1587 :M
5.577(343)A
1979 1587 :M
(5)S
288 1645 :M
-1.548(Dan)A
512 1645 :M
-.962(Carr)A
894 1645 :M
7.436(77)A
1039 1645 :M
7.436(66)A
1184 1645 :M
7.436(99)A
1612 1645 :M
5.577(242)A
1979 1645 :M
(6)S
288 1703 :M
-.202(Les)A
512 1703 :M
.527(Gerhardt)A
866 1703 :M
5.577(238)A
1113 1703 :M
1.732(trees)A
1612 1703 :M
5.577(238)A
1979 1703 :M
(7)S
288 1761 :M
-.575(Richard)A
512 1761 :M
-.614(Bissen)A
894 1761 :M
7.436(51)A
1039 1761 :M
7.436(80)A
1184 1761 :M
7.436(41)A
1329 1761 :M
7.436(33)A
1612 1761 :M
5.577(205)A
1979 1761 :M
(8)S
288 1819 :M
.546(Jim)A
512 1819 :M
1.408(Brant)A
894 1819 :M
7.436(52)A
1039 1819 :M
7.436(57)A
1184 1819 :M
7.436(26)A
1612 1819 :M
5.577(135)A
1979 1819 :M
(9)S
288 1877 :M
2.202(Jeff)A
512 1877 :M
.148(Friedrichs)A
894 1877 :M
7.436(51)A
1113 1877 :M
.276(crashed)A
1640 1877 :M
7.436(51)A
1951 1877 :M
7.436(10)A
289 1993 :M
f3_42 sf
-3.595(HLG)A
288 2109 :M
f1_42 sf
-1.302(Rick)A
512 2109 :M
-.983(Roelke)A
853 2109 :M
4.006(7:57)A
998 2109 :M
4.006(2:55)A
1143 2109 :M
4.006(2:47)A
1571 2109 :M
3.934(13:39)A
1979 2109 :M
(1)S
288 2167 :M
1.082(Steve)A
512 2167 :M
.414(Schommer)A
853 2167 :M
4.006(5:27)A
998 2167 :M
4.006(2:11)A
1143 2167 :M
4.006(2:42)A
1571 2167 :M
3.934(10:20)A
1979 2167 :M
(2)S
288 2225 :M
-.645(Dave)A
512 2225 :M
1.169(Walter)A
853 2225 :M
4.006(5:45)A
998 2225 :M
4.006(1:56)A
1143 2225 :M
4.006(2:18)A
1599 2225 :M
4.006(9:59)A
1979 2225 :M
(3)S
288 2283 :M
1.52(Garrett)A
512 2283 :M
1.408(Brant)A
853 2283 :M
4.006(2:00)A
998 2283 :M
4.006(1:34)A
1143 2283 :M
4.006(3:13)A
1599 2283 :M
4.006(6:47)A
1979 2283 :M
(4)S
288 2341 :M
-1.348(Carl)A
512 2341 :M
2.531(Trottier)A
853 2341 :M
4.006(2:09)A
998 2341 :M
4.006(1:40)A
1143 2341 :M
4.006(2:36)A
1599 2341 :M
4.006(6:25)A
1979 2341 :M
(5)S
288 2399 :M
-.128(Kay)A
512 2399 :M
-.463(Fisher)A
853 2399 :M
4.006(1:11)A
998 2399 :M
4.006(3:29)A
1143 2399 :M
4.006(1:28)A
1599 2399 :M
4.006(6:08)A
1979 2399 :M
(6)S
288 2457 :M
-1.548(Dan)A
512 2457 :M
-.962(Carr)A
853 2457 :M
4.006(1:52)A
998 2457 :M
4.006(1:40)A
1599 2457 :M
4.006(3:32)A
1979 2457 :M
(7)S
288 2515 :M
-.721(Clark)A
512 2515 :M
.159(Bowlen)A
853 2515 :M
4.006(1:57)A
998 2515 :M
4.006(1:08)A
1599 2515 :M
4.006(3:05)A
1979 2515 :M
(8)S
gR
gS 100 21 2100 3000 rC
1080 3011 :M
f1_42 sf
1.068 .107(Page 1)J
endp
%%Trailer
end % md
%%EOF
|