17th Annual Southwest Classic 2006

[wrhinehart]

The Central Arizona Soaring League
( http://www.public.asu.edu/~vansanfo/casl/index.html )

is hosting the first leg of the "Western States Triad Series" on February 11 & 12, 2006. ( http://www.rcsoaring.com/triad/ )

The CONTEST SITE is at Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, AZ (45 min SE of Phoenix)

Is anyone here going to keep us updated during this major competition?

There will be some of the VERY BEST PILOTS IN THE WORLD there.
Some of the competitors listed will be Joe Wurts, Daryl Perkins, Mike Lee, Skip Miller and Larry Jolly. Daryl is the defending Champion.

I certainly hope someone is up to the task. I would love to see pictures too.

Bill Rhinehart
ISS

[pocket rocket]

hello Bill

weather is looking good, should be high 70's for the contest

I'm in Southern AZ and today's cloud is just burning off at noon

Flying in Open and RES but won't be able to give you any news until Sunday pm when I get home

180 entries (we can fly multiple classes so it's not 180 pilots) and most better then me but I'll enjoy the weekend anyhow I'm sure

Flying a Polecat Thermal Dancer and a Chrysabubba (Chrysalis 2m fuselage and a sort of Bubble Dancer wing)

Philip

[wrhinehart]

Thanks Philip!

At least one person will be watching the info coming out.

Have fun!!

Bill

P.S. It's Santa Ana Conditions here in So. Cal. so it looks like we all will be "Grounded" this weekend.

[mlee8249]

Today, the U.S. F3J Teams appearred for a team practice and contest open to anyone who wished to fly. About 24 pilots were signed up and the weather for the day started with cool overcast and variable winds of only 3 MPH. Lift was very spotty and light. We got three round of flying in with lift getting good about an hour into the event. And then came lunch...and a wind storm...and just enough sprinkling rain to make the dust stick your car, your plane, your radio, you...and everything else. Contest ended.

Pilots coming to Phoenix...beware! What looks like grass on the field is actually dried stubs of what once was grass. The ground is hard and there will be carnage to those who choose to dork with any force. Be prepared for lots of dust. And I mean a lot! Even the dead grass has dust that then leaps to your shoes and you look like you have been marching across the Gobi Desert in five minutes. If you have asthma...be prepared. And bring lots of water!

Mike Lee

[wrhinehart]

Thanks Mike!!

Somehow it sounds like our field. :cool:

I look forward to your updates and I'll keep the guys updated.

Go get em. :D

Bill

[flyingdogtwo]

Been hunting around and have yet to find any reports. Anybody seen/heard something. All I know for sure is the Colorado boys better stay down there for a little while longer. We have "snow & low temps" round these parts.

[wrhinehart]

Oh how I await updates. :D
The suspense is killing me.

[Jim Bacus]

I just read this over on RCSE...

1st - DP
2nd - JW
3rd - Joseph Newcomb

[wrhinehart]

Hi Jim:

I'm dense.

What exactly is "RCSE"? :p

I have friends that are flying there today.

I can't believe a contest of this magnatude isn't being updated on the Net.

How otherwise are they to generate interest? :confused:

This was a major "Fubar". :censored:

Bill

[Jim Bacus]

Hi Jim:

I'm dense.

What exactly is "RCSE"? :p

I have friends that are flying there today.

I can't believe a contest of this magnatude isn't being updated on the Net.

How otherwise are they to generate interest? :confused:

This was a major "Fubar". :censored:

Bill

RCSE is short for RC Soaring Exchange, an email list for the RC Soaring community that has been around for years. You usually read this via email, but I will supply a web link to an archive, (which is a little behind the list so it is not up to the minute complete) but at least you can check it out with your web browser.

There has been some SWC reports on RCSE, but still no pictures yet.

Here is the web link for RCSE (http://www.mail-archive.com/soaring@airage.com/)

[rdwoebke]

What exactly is "RCSE"? :p



Bill,

As Jim said, RCSE is a listserve. It seems to be mostly geared towards competition glider topics these days. Some of the "hot thumbs" in US soaring post to it quite often. You can join it somehow, although I am not subscribed to the list so I can not comment on that. If you want to actively post to it, I would suggest joining.

That said, if you just want to lurk, you can also read RCSE via the yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soaring/messages

Or here on good old RCGroups:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198341&page=2&pp=15

It looks like you already found that mirror. BTW, your reply to the SWC post that Darwin posted may or may not ever make it to him.... :) Or onto RCSE...

I read RCSE via the yahoo group. You can post to RCSE via the yahoo group too, but it takes a few days for your post to make it to RCSE and sometimes your posts never make it at all. So that is fun! :) Kind of like gambling though, it keeps you coming back... :)

Good luck!!!

Ryan

[OVSS Boss]

Bill,
Other than World Championships (and not really sure of them) no one is updating a contest during the day unless someone does it via a private e-mail usually, most times the folks running these events are working hard running the contest (remember 170 fliers or so). And usually scores are posted after a complete event, not by the day, even for the Nats. Not sure what you expected, but, as of right now this is the norm.

Marc

[pocket rocket]

very challenging air at the SWC this weekend

lots of off field landings including 2 planes fried on the power lines, (off field starts about 750' from the expected landing site)

a slow start due to the usual winch/retriever/2 miles of string problems and relocating winches to give more people room meant we only had 6 of the expected 7 rounds flown

we didn't get the forecast wind on Saturday and it was blue skies, sunny and warm on both days, mostly downwind launches except for early in the day

think I came 42nd in Open out of 120 ??

think safety - I was assembling my plane ready for a flight when WHAM!! an out of control plane on launch hit the ground and part of my plane, missed me by inches and my timer by a couple of feet. very scary moment I tell you that, put me out of RES too.

Philip

[pocket rocket]

try the " Tucson Thermal Soaring " thread post #158 for pictures from the SWC

Philip

[pocket rocket]

results are up on rcsoaring.com under "Contest Results"

Philip

[glderguy]

I see DP won for what the 2nd/3rd time in a row with the lowly, bagged
Insanity. I think he even beat a few molded birds. Congrats to all the placers, and non placers as well.
Walter

[emersunn]

Scores are up at http://www.casl.net
And it was the 18th annual BTW.

[rdwoebke]

I see DP won for what the 2nd/3rd time in a row with the lowly, bagged
Insanity.

The Insanity is lowley? Wow, I always thought it was pretty cool. He just developed it last year (or was it the year before), right?

Ryan

[wrhinehart]

How on earth did George Gomez end up getting a Minus 172 in round 5?

His was the ONLY MINUS round.

What's up with that?

:confused:

[pocket rocket]

How on earth did George Gomez end up getting a Minus 172 in round 5?
His was the ONLY MINUS round.
What's up with that?
:confused:


maybe he flew too long in the Add-Em-Up, should have tried for 23 minutes

Philip

[flyingdogtwo]

A big That-A-Boy for RMSA's Joseph Newcomb for his oustanding 3rd place.
And MIke Verzuh's placing 5th deserves high-fives, too!! Congrats!

[mlee8249]

No, no ,no...Not a big That- A-Boy....This guy is awesome!!! And he will represent the U.S. in the World Champs!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here is a sequence of shots taken by my Nikon D-70 when an open class bird found the power lines at the SWC. The entire incident lasts only about 20 seconds and these were the prime shots from my camera. So if anyone ever needed the answer to the question of whether the carbon content of a wing would fry when touched by a little power....here ya go!

[okiesoar]

And he will represent the U.S. in the World Champs!


That makes it a clean sweep of the top 4. Dale Nutter (Albuquerque) was a member of the first WC team that flew in South Africa.

[emersunn]

So if anyone ever needed the answer to the question of whether the carbon content of a wing would fry when touched by a little power....here ya go!

That was a nice Icon on Saturday frying up on the powerlines. I don't know what the one of Friday was that did the same fireworks.

I saw them both go up in flames. It make an awesome noise! When I saw the first one happen I though it was a failed rocket launch by Arthur. They go bzzzrrapp! and look like a giant camera flash - big blue fireball.
:cool: and :(

[cody303]

Here are the pictures I took of the plane that got fried Friday.

Little Cody

[Tom Gressman]

Tell us more about the performance of the Espada R and Supra. Good result at 15th considering the major bad luck streak you and Hal had. Tom Gressman

[cody303]

Tell us more about the performance of the Espada R and Supra. Good result at 15th considering the major bad luck streak you and Hal had. Tom Gressman

The whole contest for me was a bad luck streak for me. Thursday morning were my dad ran over both of my planes, and some family issues, that had my mind off track for the contest. Luckily Skip Miller was nice enough to let me fly his Espada.

The Espada is a very different flying plane. Its very slippery plane, and take awhile to get used to. I can get nice tight circles low to the ground, but when I got up high I was having troubles making large circles. I think that I will be able to get that worked out when I have more time on the plane. It lands very well, but it will get thrown around if you mix flaperons with the flaps. I was not getting very high launches down wind, but I think that was because Skips Launch mode was not set up right yet. The Espada will suffer in light lift conditions, but I have high hopes for the XL in light conditions. Overall I like the plane and I will probably stick with it for average and better conditions. For the light stuff I am hoping to the XL will work, we will see.

Little Cody

[pocket rocket]

here's an altimeter trace of my last flight on Saturday, the second round of the Add-Em-Up, max time of 10 minutes

came off the winch and started sinking, notice the steepness of the down line, would have landed at 3 or so minutes but for the responsiveness of my Thermal Dancer from Polecat Aero

it indicated lift very nicely and allowed me to climb up thru several other planes which didn't seem to notice the lift and get my flight time, in fact with all the dust and stuff in the air it was hard to see at times

Philip (wish I could do this every time)

[pocket rocket]

here's another

from Sunday, the last round, 8 minute precision duration

here again, come off the winch, lower height due to no zoom because I noticed the rudder fluttering (skin delam), head off in the direction of my wind streamer and look for lift, took a while but again the old TD shows me where it is and we get 8 minutes with a bonus of 5 on landing too

Philip

[topazpilot]

Can anyone tell me what the issue is with ch 16 & 17 at the SWC field?

[wrhinehart]

I found out how George Gomez got the only NEGATIVE number in the event.

His timer screwed up and he kept on flying over the time.

Look at his scores. Daryl Perkins you got lucky!!

George ended up in 67th place with 2024 points
Daryl won with with 2503

If George got ZERO points in round 5 he would have had 2196 points for 51st.

All George needed was 308 points to win that thing.

Looking at Georges' scores in the other rounds. I say he could have easily gotten 308!! The fact is he might have gotten more than 400!!

Alas....that's what a mistake will do at this level. The mistake need not be the pilots. :(

Bill

[emersunn]

Can anyone tell me what the issue is with ch 16 & 17 at the SWC field?
Ch 16 and 17 have trouble at our club field (Rodeo Park), not at the SWC field (Schnepf farms).
Historically, 16 and 17 got 'hits' at Rodeo park.

[jrerickson]

Bill,

If George had a perfect flight in the round where he got the negative number, he would have ended up with 2401, good for 27th place. He flew well, but not at the 1st place level.

A perfect score was 2550. Daryl missed it by 43 points. Not too shabby. 2400 flight points to be had and 150 landing points.

John

[Jim Frahm]

I recently made the switch from the dark side (gas) to gliders. This was my first competition so I wasn't expecting much, but finishing 40th in open has raised my hopes for the next one. Man I'm hooked on this stuff,,,,,,, now I know why you guys are so hyped. Practice, practice, practice!

See you at the next competition,
Jim

[bobby legue]

Ya know, those guys with oily fingers will never know. They just dont get it.
As for me ,I love any challenge that never ends. Otherwise I get bored.
Welcome to the insanity,
Bob

[emersunn]

This was my first competition so I wasn't expecting much, but finishing 40th in open has raised my hopes for the next one.

Awesome job for a first contest, especially a hectic 100+ pilot contest. Thanks for making the trip to AZ.

PS send back Dale Kitchens, we miss him.

[Jim Frahm]

The oily finger dudes act like rival biker gangs, nobody talks to each other until there’s trouble, but meeting glider pilots at a competition is like going to a family reunion, everybody knows one another and if they don’t they introduce themselves. CASL put on a great event. Thanks to all that helped.

Jim

[AustinTatious]

No, no ,no...Not a big That- A-Boy....This guy is awesome!!! And he will represent the U.S. in the World Champs!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here is a sequence of shots taken by my Nikon D-70 when an open class bird found the power lines at the SWC. The entire incident lasts only about 20 seconds and these were the prime shots from my camera. So if anyone ever needed the answer to the question of whether the carbon content of a wing would fry when touched by a little power....here ya go!


That $h!7 ' ll buff right out.

[TOSSPilot]

Here are a few pictures at the SWC.

If you open the files, it is about 1.73Mb in total.

TOSSpilot

[planekrazy]

I posted some pics here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=484310

Mehrdad

[wrhinehart]

Hey JR.

OK...let me get you straight here.

You're saying that if George had a PERFECT FLIGHT on round 5 that the MAXIMUM points he could have gotten was 205 for that round?

How do you figure that?

Don't you get 150 points on landing? If that's so, then he could only get 55 points for time?

My calculator shows that if you zero out round five for both pilotsl,
George had = 2196
Daryl had = 2035


Round 5 saw Daryl getting a very good score of 468 and George a -172 due to his timer going long. (he's got to lay off the glue)

What am I missing here?
I guess I just don't understand the scoring or something.

[wrhinehart]

Thanks for the pictures TossPilot.

I wish our field was that wide open.

We have a 50' corridor to navigate with a tall light standard over the tennis courts on one side and large piles of dirt and tall weeds on the other.
I hit the pole on Sunday and destroyed my beauty. All I needed was 8 more inches of airspace to clear.

I HATE LIGHT POLES in the flight path!!

Bill

[TOSSPilot]

I am not sure of how the math was working on the add'm up but the maximum landing points per round was 25, with 150 being the total landing points for the contest. Maybe this explains John's response?

TOSSpilot.

[rdwoebke]

What am I missing here?
I guess I just don't understand the scoring or something.

Bill,

I was not actually at the contest. But, you can get a task overview here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soaring/message/140657

2550 max possible score – 150 max possible landing points (25 points per landing on 6 flights) is 2400. Divide that by 60, and you get a total of 40 minutes of flying. Have you been to a contest before with add-em up? This is a task where 2 or more flights adds up to a target.

Round 1 is a 4 minute max. Round 2 and 3 are part of a 23 minute add em up. Round 4 is a 5 minute, round 5 is part of the 23 minute add em up, and round 6 is an 8 minute flight.

The max you can score on rounds 2, 3, and 5 combined is 1455 (23 * 60 + 75 for the 3 landings). This means the max your friend could have picked up in round 5 is 289, but that is probably not correct because it assumes perfect landings in round 2 and 3. We can’t know the full story, because we don’t have the scores separated from their landing scores. But even assuming that, 2024 + 289 + the 172 he went over, that comes out to 2485. Still not enough to win the contest.

Ryan