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Conference vmszoo::rc

Title:Welcome To The Radio Control Conference
Notice:dir's in 11, who's who in 4, sales in 6, auctions 19
Moderator:VMSSG::FRIEDRICHS
Created:Tue Jan 13 1987
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1706
Total number of notes:27193

992.0. "F3b Soaring intrests" by CSC32::M_ANTRY () Thu May 11 1989 18:28

    
    I would like to write this note and see if anyone out there is
    interested in flying F3b sailplanes.  I had always thought about
    flying them and as primer I went to Denver last Sunday and flew
    in a F3b contest with my polyhedreal/Rudder ship and placed 5th
    behind 3 other F3b type planes.  
    
    Now I am really hooked!
    
    Is there anyone in this notesfile that:
    
    1. Currently flies F3b and is thinking about making an effort to
    go to the TEAM finals in 1990?
    
    2. Has thought about F3b soaring and wants to get interested in
    flying it?
    
    3.  Would like to Fly F3b but needs more info?
    
        Post your replies here.

    
    There are 4 of us in the Colorado Springs area that are thinking
    of putting a team together and going to the finals in 1990.  This
    includes 2 DECies so far, Bob Page and myself.  
    
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
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992.1Tell me moreCURIE::ANKERAnker Berg-SonneThu May 11 1989 18:5521
        Re:< Note 992.0 by CSC32::M_ANTRY >

>    3.  Would like to Fly F3b but needs more info?
        
                I fly  gliders,  am  a  beginner,  but did OK in the only
        contest I have participated in.  I am not sure what the F3B rules
        are, but if they  are  to stay up for a given length of time with
        penalties for more and less  time,  and  spot  landing,  then I'm
        interested. But I'm located way up in the Northeast.
        
                      _ 
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         Hang in there! o_|_
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             Anker      \_|_/

992.2More interest IGUANO::WALTERThu May 11 1989 21:176
I'm interested too, but like Anker I'm a beginner at sailplanes (actually he's
not as "beginner" as he claims). I was under the impression that F3B was not 
thermal duration, but involved high speed flybys, timed circuits around two 
pylons, that kind of stuff. Maybe a description of the events is in order here.

Dave
992.3New Winch Rules passed.GIDDAY::CHADDPylon; the ultimate High.Thu May 11 1989 22:467
Re:                 <<< Note 992.0 by CSC32::M_ANTRY >>>
                           -< F3b Soaring intrests >-

Are you aware that all the proposed changes  to the Winches passed at the CIAM 
conference in April?.
    

992.4Here's what F3b is all about!CSC32::M_ANTRYFri May 12 1989 11:2080
    re: .3  Yes John I am aware of the new winch rules.  That info that
    you sent me was real good reading material.
    
    Ok; A description of F3b.  The following is the officers column
    that I entered in the Pikes Peak Soaring Society May newsletter
    describing F3b and the F3b Contest that I entered on May 7th, 1989:
    
      
      OFFICERS CORNER by Mark Antry, President
      
      	Sunday, May 7th, Ben DeMeter, Bob Page and myself traveled to 
      Denver to fly in our First F3b contest.  Although Bob and I only 
      had polyhedreal ships we wanted to give it a try and start getting 
      some exposure to this facet of our hobby.  F3b is really fun to 
      fly and you don't need to have to have a $800. ship to fly it with 
      and you can see that by the results, Lenny Keer flying a Eclipse, 
      finished with 1000 pts (normalized), John Wyss flying a Eclipse 
      with 999, Matt Sheldon flying a Modified Oly with 955, Ben DeMeter 
      flying a KING with 949, and Me, Mark Antry flying the Pantera with 
      940. It was fun at the awards ceremony to see some of the Colorado 
      Springs flyers taking home some prizes as we all know that alot of 
      our trophies/ribbons are taken home by Denver flyers. 
      	I would like to give everyone a brief description from a first 
      time flyers point of view. F3b is flown mostly man on man meaning 
      that you are flying at the same time as say 3 others.  Teams were 
      assigned with 24 flyers or 4 teams of 6.  Each team has 2 winches, 
      a primary and a backup, these 8 winches are also placed about 3 
      feet from each other so you have 8 winches with 4 pilots launching 
      in about a 25 foot area which works well. In F3b all of your team 
      members have a job to do every flight, a Pilot, Line retriever, 
      winch winder downer, timer, and someone monitoring working time. 
      The first task was DURATION, It is normal 6 min precision with a 
      100pt tape landing.  It is flown with a 9 min working time which 
      means that all 4 pilots line up when ready and the CD calls "Start 
      Working time"  you then have 9 mins to get in a 6min flight.  So 
      if you launch right away and after 2 mins things aren't looking so 
      hot land and go back up although at the end of working time if you 
      havent landed there will be no landing points. The next task is 
      DISTANCE, It is flown with a 6 min working time.  Pylons are set 
      up parallel with the launch lines spaced 150 meters apart.  After 
      launching you will come off the winch and fly back towards the 
      pylon that is next to the winches called "Base A" then when you 
      wish you may enter the course by crossing it again.  You do not 
      have to enter the course right away but keep in mind that working 
      time is running and you have 6 mins to fly a 4 min distance run.  
      After entering the course you then fly as many times as possible 
      between Base A and the far pylon Base B within 4 min Course time 
      and 6 min working time.  Here again if you dont like what you see, 
      land and relaunch just remember the working time.  The next task 
      and the one to watch a F3b plane/pilot come alive is SPEED, The 
      object being to make 4 laps around the plyons as fast as possible.  
      After coming off the launch you then again head back towards Base 
      A and when you wish within a 4 min working time cross back over 
      Base A and start your flight of Down and Back, Down and Back. In 
      Speed you may only relaunch after declaring a abort before 
      entering the course for your run and again if you want to thermal 
      for 2 mins before entering the course that is fine too.  
      	To get a idea of how I flew in the Contest with my Polyhederal 
      Pantera.  I managed a 4 min 53 sec flight in Duration with a 70 pt 
      landing which was the best in my group so I got a 1000 pts.  Then 
      in Distance I was a little rusty on my turns and rushed the flight 
      and was on the ground after 5 laps and 2 1/2 mins but it was 
      better than anyone else in my flight group so I got 1000 pts. Can 
      you see how if you launch in bad air, so does everyone else in 
      your group so it is realative.  In speed I made my 4 laps in 45 
      secs and because this is flown 1 plane at a time the score is 
      normalized over all pilots, I got 489 pts (you can see this is 
      where the F3b ships outclass the others).  We then flew another 
      distance task and I did much better with 13 laps getting another 
      1000 pts.  So you can see it is not hard to do.  To give you a 
      idea how the F3b pilots go, some pilots were logging 24 laps 
      distance and in Speed John Wyss finished 4 laps in a blinding 22.8 
      secs.  
      	See you all at the meeting on the 16th and at the contest on the 
      20th.     Happy landings and give F3b style a try!
      
      

    Hope this gives everyone a idea of what F3b is.
    
992.5Heaps of funCURIE::ANKERAnker Berg-SonneFri May 12 1989 15:0715
        Re:< Note 992.4 by CSC32::M_ANTRY >

                Sounds like heaps of fun.  I would love to do some.  What
        are good F3B ships?
        
                      _ 
                     / |
        |  _====____/==|
        |-/____________|
        |    |        o \
             O           \ 
                          O
         Hang in there! o_|_
                          |
             Anker      \_|_/
992.6It is going to be $$$$$ and take some timeCSC32::M_ANTRYSat May 13 1989 13:4342
    
    A good F3b plane??????  Haa Haa....A loaded question!
    
    Take your wallet out and hide it before you read this!
    
    Lets label the plane Competative or not so Competative.  A very
    competative air plane would be like a COMET or KING.  These two planes
    are made in germany by a fellow named Hans Mueller.  They are all hand
    built and come about 90% finished.  The wings have been built and are
    skined with 1mm German white pine.  About all you need to do is finish
    the fiberglas fuse and shellac/paint/cover the wings.  This includes
    arrow shaft hinges on the entier trailing edge.
    
    The PRICE of these beuties.  About $800.00
    
    Now add on to that:
    1.  A sofisticated radio to control the ship.  Functions would include
    Flap to elevator mixing, Rudder to aileron coupling, Camber control
    (moving the entire leading edge up or down to control the wing
    characteristics), Elevator to flap coupling for tighter turns, and Crow
    configuration for landing (Flaps down, ailerons up)
    
    2.  6 Hi-tech servos with metal gear trains, coreless motors, and Ball
    bearings.
    
    Take this all out to the field and put it up on a winch for the first
    time.  Now that makes for excitement.
    
    
    I just talked with a fellow DECie named Ron Watts and it looks like he
    is interested in joining the Colorado Springs F3b team.  We are going
    to do our F3b team approach the low buck method.  Which means we are
    going to bypass the $800.00 airplane investment and build ours.  We
    will buy some fuselages and then cut our own wing cores and build them
    up.  This way we can afford to have 3-4 of these planes each for
    practice and just in caseses.  We have 5 people (3 decies) who are
    interested.  A bare minimum team would be 4, which include: Pilot,
    Course timmer/Pilot helper, Chute shagger, Winch runner downer/Working
    time timmer.
    
    Its a long long road.  But I think we are getting ready to start!!!!!!!
    
992.7How about an East coast team?CURIE::ANKERAnker Berg-SonneMon May 15 1989 13:0719
        Re:< Note 992.6 by CSC32::M_ANTRY >

                I would like to see if we can muster up an East Coast F3B
        team.  I  am  not in a position to drum up $800 for the plane and
        another $800 for a  radio,  so  I  would have to go the el cheapo
        route. Would you be willing to sell your "kits" to Easterners?
        
                Kay, Dave? Would you like to try F3B?
        
                      _ 
                     / |
        |  _====____/==|
        |-/____________|
        |    |        o \
             O           \ 
                          O
         Hang in there! o_|_
                          |
             Anker      \_|_/
992.8Yes and NoK::FISHERStop and Smell the Balsa!Mon May 15 1989 13:2630
>< Note 992.7 by CURIE::ANKER "Anker Berg-Sonne" >
>                       -< How about an East coast team? >-
...
>                I would like to see if we can muster up an East Coast F3B
>        team.  I  am  not in a position to drum up $800 for the plane and
>        another $800 for a  radio,  so  I  would have to go the el cheapo
>        route. Would you be willing to sell your "kits" to Easterners?
>        
>                Kay, Dave? Would you like to try F3B?

Not me - I know my limitations.  I want to first earn LSF level 4 and I'm
just starting on level 3.  Also I want to become modestly accomplished
at Scale powered flight.

Also - look at the AMA schedule - there are NO F3B contests here this summer.

Tho I have a Lovesong and a Vision on my Wish list that still would not
be good enough for F3B and they are both way beyond my capability.  I hope
to be a good enough pilot to justify (to myself) the hardware this next 
Christmas.

Having said all that I would be glad to enter any F3B contest you can find.

Speaking of contests - we have had several DECRCM fun flys and no contests
yet?

Bye          --+--
Kay R. Fisher  |
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992.9Sell them kits....Hum????CSC32::M_ANTRYMon May 15 1989 13:4210
    
    re: SELL your kits.
    
    I dont think we will be kitting them as folks are with the Skoota Too
    but when we start cutting foam cores for wings and stabs we may be able
    to cut a whole gaggle of them and get some to you.  We will probably
    buy the fuselages from somewhere and I will keep results posted here. 
    I will also let you know when we start to cut cores and see who is
    interested.
    
992.10A little early yet for F3BIGUANO::WALTERFri May 19 1989 17:0113
Re: .7

Anker,

I'd LOVE to get into F3B, but I think that would involve a commitment of time
that I just can't justify right now. And like Kay, I need to do a lot more
flying before my skills are in that league. (You'd understand that if you saw
my touch and goes yesterday with the Kadet.)

But it does intrigue me. I'd like the experience of flying a F3B ship. Maybe we
could get together and build a couple?

Dave