What to bring and how to prepare for a contest/season?

[Fly2High]

I would like to expand on Attila's thread with this one.

What do you bring to a contest? Amount of equipment, number of radios, tools, spart parts, etc. Anything you feel important.

What kinds of repairs do you avoid or perform at a contest?

In addition to discussing practicing methods, what do you do to prepare for a contest? All aspects welcome.

I am interested in practice as well but I would like to know what plane check ups to perform so many weeks, days, or hours before, items to inspect, things to replace and the amount of time to trust them.

I know this is a little broad but what car problems have you encountered? I am not referring to mechanical but rather during the ride, what kind of damage happened to the planes/equipment, things to do to prevent them, unique methods of packing. What hotels, etc. to avoid as well.

This could be a separate thread as well but what places near which contests must you go to, your family go to.

Not to limit this to HLG but do you do any physical preparation as well?

All forms of contests welcome but I would prefer a focus on HLG and unlimited.



Thank you

Frank

[mlee8249]

Hi Frank,

That's a pretty broad set of questions you have there, and a lot of the answers is going to depend on the person answering you. Everyone has a different idea as to what to do, what to bring, how to practice, and all that. I will say that the very first thing to do is to read any rule books on the class you're flying and make sure you comply with the rules and you know the tasks. BTW, being you fly HLG, check out the International HLG Competition held by the Torrey Pines Gulls in June. They have a website: www.torreypinesgulls.org

What kind of repairs to avoid or prepare for? I avoid repairs completely! You should fly well enough to not have to make a repair, but I do know that sometimes, it happens. There are two types of repairs I consider; the type you could have avoided and the type you can't avoid. The type you could have avoided are the ones where you dork the plane into the ground, hit yourself in the leg, cartwheel on landing, step on the wing, make a bad toss on launch, things like that. When you do that, hang it up as you probably already relegated yourself to the bottom of the points standing. The type you cannot avoid are mostly mid-air collisions, loss of radio, battery failure, loss of sight with plane, things like that. When those happen, which are normally catastrophic, and also unpredictable, you still end up towards the bottom of the heap. Anytime you have to make repairs, you probably just lost a load of points, unless maybe you broke a servo gear when the flap hit the ground on landing and the plane actually made a landing, so you're still in the game. I make preparations for those type of repairs, so a set of gears or spare servos, epoxy, CA, and some other basic junk are on my list. For a major competition, I bring more than one plane, not for the fact that I might ding one, but more for the fact that I will have a plane optimized for different weather conditions. In HLG, I bring three planes. For the F3J Team Selection, I had three planes. For something like Visalia, two planes. Local competition, one plane.

Preparations....on the planes and equipment....Let me just say this: The best plane in a contest does not win a contest. The best prepared pilot with the best prepared plane wins a contest. Regardless how modern, high tech, go fast zoom to the moon the plane may be, if the pilot doesn't know how to use it, it's no better than worst plane on the field. I have seen more than a few contests get taken by some guy with an ancient model that looks like the rats ate it. But, he knows that plane, inside and out. He knows what it will do in every situation and any weather condition. And he takes advantage of the capabilities of that plane, never pushing it beyond what it can do. Start with that and you'll be a long way towards reaching the podium. Email me at mlee8249@msn.com and I'll be happy to send you a copy of an article I just wrote concerning how to prepare yourself for competition, soon to appear in Fly R/C Magazine. (Sorry for the shameless plug).

Mike Lee

[rdwoebke]

Fly2High,

Please don't post the exact same thing in more than one forum. You posted this same thing in the general soaring area. My response there was:


Wow. Congratulations, you win the award for most questions in a single post.


I like to fly at least a few times in the week before a contest. Getting lots of stick time on the model(s) you plan to fly in the contest really helps.

I try to avoid any kind of repairs on the field… But, I probably am more likely to do a field repair than many pilots. I come from a model rocket background, and we seem to be building/fixing on the field quite a bit compared to soaring. I have fixed cracked loose stabs, broken wing mounts, etc. on the field. I find that if you forget something you need (soldering iron, CA, epoxy) there is a decent chance another pilot will have it and help you out.

I like to pack the car the night before the contest. Really gives me time to make sure everything is laid out and everything I need goes along. Also I take this time to get my GPS setup, maps printed, coolers packed, cloths laid out, etc. This saves time in the morning so you can just get on the road.

If possible, I always bring one backup plane for a contest I drive to. I figure if you break 2 planes in the “drive away” contest, then probably it is time to quit for the day anyway so a 3rd is not absolutely necessary (unless you really had different kinds of planes depending on the weather).

I usually bring a backup transmitter, just in case. After having a battery issue last spring, now I check my TX and RX packs using my Sirius super test the day before the contest. For sure peak all the packs before the contest. Still, a good idea to bring extra batteries along and the charger.

This thread could get interesting.

Ryan

[OVSS Boss]

As posted on the other thread, go to Jon Stone's contest strategy topic that was earlier in the year, it was very comprehensive and well done.

Marc

[rdwoebke]

As posted on the other thread, go to Jon Stone's contest strategy topic that was earlier in the year, it was very comprehensive and well done.

Marc

It is actually a sticky at the top of this very forum..... ;) It is a good thread. You could even do a digest of what people post here and then add a post to that thread, as I don't think it is closed just not recently posted to.

Ryan