2007 US F3J Team Trial: Chicago

[little flyer]

With the team trial less than a week away I thought we should generate some interest. So who is going to be there? I know I will. :)

Jeff
SOAR Chicago

[Goinav8n]

My son Bret and I will be driving there. Leaving Thursday early.

Jeff

[SailorMac]

Looks like a thread for all the Jeffs that will be at the Team Selects. I'll be helping work the event on Saturday.
Newbie trying to learn all I can.
Jeff

[Bob McGowan]

We (me, my Son AJ, his friend Nick, and Nick’s dad Charlie) are almost ready for our flight from San Francisco to Chicago this Thursday. I just checked weather.com and it looks like “abundant sunshine” for the event and very light winds. One of the last things I need to do is make some additional ballast slugs so all our ships can be fully loaded simultaneously. I will go ahead and spend this time to grantee the Chicago winds will stay down ;) .

So what do you local's predict for conditions? What shape is the field in considering all the flood reports we have been seeing on the news - muddy? I hope no S.O.A.R. member's homes were in the flooded areas.

Thanks in advance to all the S.O.A.R. members and supporters who will be working the contest and to those who have already worked hard to prepare for us.

See you all in Chicago!!

Bob

[StevenatorLTFO]

They don't call it the windy city for nutt'n :D

I'll be there Sunday and Monday helping out, should be fun.

We had our club contest there yesterday, the field was firm for the most part, but the entrance had alot of standing water to navigate around. It was iffy driving on, but the sodfarm itself is in good shape. It should be great by the weekend for the team select.

On a personal note, I'm south of the field by about 50 miles, I got some water in the basement, and was without power for 28 hours. All in all lucky tho, loss was limited to a few things on the basement floor, and the contents of the fridge. All the good stuff was spared!

I'm looking forward to the contest, should be great weather, and the site is unmatched!!!



Steve

[little flyer]

Aside from what Steve said, the ground is also very soft. We were able to pull the turnaround out of the ground on launch. I had my back to them but hear the Heads UP! I stepped to the right and saw the turnaround 5 feet off the ground and 3 feet from my head. Talk about scarey! Be sure you have large safety stakes.

Jeff

[emersunn]

Not going but I would love to see some pics . . . of the planes, not the pilots. ;)

[bwanajim]

Here's a shot of the Seattle team at the beginning of the season in Mission, BC, Canada. Left to right: Brendon Beardsley, Connor Laurel, Michael Knight. I think they're all a couple inches taller since this photo!
http://media.twango.com/m1/original/0053/3270924cd9a040cfa58691431a26c1b4.jpg


Here's Connor, launching his Pike Perfect at a contest early this season:
http://media.twango.com/m1/original/0058/0cf38f3e5ed24f2581d009b7e4143df7.jpg

[John Walter]

Not going but I would love to see some pics . . . of the planes, not the pilots. ;)

Sorry, no plane photos, but here is pilot photo of Jeff Walter at the OVSS contest in Ft. Wayne. 1st place in Sportsman, 3rd place in overall with 30 pilots flying. :D

[Daryl Perkins]

I leave tomorrow (Tuesday). Shipped my toys last week. I've still got some prepping to do. But I threw all the ballast I had for every model in, just in case. I'd like to see some wind to separate the scores. We hate F3J landing contests.

Here's pics of my bumblebee Supra, and my F3B toy should the wind howl. I don't have a pic of my Espada RL. Here's a visual for ya... It's big, kinda gangly, and a real pretty but hard to see white/turquoise color scheme. I don't expect it'll see much use, unless I misplace or break something... :cool:

dp

[little flyer]

Hey Daryl have you got any stick time yet on the Supra? From the photo it looks like you have the new foam core horizontal stabilizer? See ya tomorrow night.

Jeff

[Daryl Perkins]

Hey Jeff, I've got a few bungee launches for basic set up, but no winch or J time on it. It is the new lightweight stab, so light that my Supra needed tail weight to CG it.

[Neil Stainton]

> It is the new lightweight stab, so light that my Supra needed tail weight to CG it.

Wow! Would you mind posting your Supra's AUW Daryl? Also what dihedral angle joiners do you use?

Thanks in advance,

Neil.

[little flyer]

We have some templates for launch, cruise and speed mode from the supra plans. Your welcome to them and I can tell you that the settings work well. This week the Burnoski's and I planned to get out after work/school to do some tows and winching. Im suprised that you needed tail weight. My kevlar supra has bagged tail feathers which saves me an ounce off the tail and I still needed some nose weight? I would be interested to compare launch settings with you. After the contest yesterday we got in some tows and it was rotating FAST and pulling hard.

Jeff

Edit: Neil, the new tail horizontal is a blue foam core. I beleive the foam is CNC cut and then carbon rods are inserted. It comes out all up at 26g, my bagged one is 30g. The older style balsa core comes in at 40g. So with the new tails you save 14g in the tail and with nose weight removed you could save over an ounce and a half with the new tails!

[Neil Stainton]

Thanks Jeff. My Supra #58 hoz tail weighs 41g. Reducing this to 26g will potentially make a noticeable difference in the flying weight.

Neil.

[Daryl Perkins]

Neil - I have a Carbon Lite version. It came out at 63.3 ounces and is CG'd at 108 mm from the LE. I run the 5 degree joiners.

Jeff - I've got the Supra pretty well figured out, but I'd love to compare settings. I'm always open to learning something.

[bwanajim]

Hey Daryl,
Looking forward to seeing you there. The Seattle crew arrives on Thursday. Toys are enroute as we speak.


Cheers - Jim Laurel

[dhauch]

i'm just finishing up my Supra carbon lite, and my stab is 26 grams also.

dh

[Neil Stainton]

Thanks for the info Daryl.

Neil.

[Bob McGowan]

I’m not saying you guys build heavy :D ;) , but our team’s Supras all weigh under 60 ounces. Our lightest Carbon Lite version is 57.5 and our lightest glass version is 55 ounces. Barry and Vladimir have made lots of improvements over the past months. This is getting a little off topic so I’ll resurrect one of the old Supra threads and tell you guys more.

Bob :)

[little flyer]

...

[maxer]

Thats a GREAT picture of the junors coming from the North West!!!!

Brendon, I don't know if you know this, but the StarLight 3000 just won the European Championships in Juniors this past week(end).....so you have a good bird for the team selection!!!The sharon 3.7 placed 2nd overall in seniors..and the Perfect appears to be on it's way to another Eurotour season victory.
My observation is none of you will be "out planed " at the team trials....GOOD LUCK!!!!!
see you in a few days

Skip Miller

[Daryl Perkins]

Skipper - those kids are really good sticks. I flew with them about a month or so ago. That's an old pic though - Brendan has latched onto his Dad's Espada RL, and flies it quite well. I think Mikey has snaked his dad's Perfect, although he was flying a Supra when I was up there. And Connor is well dialed in with the Perfect. I wouldn't count any of them out.

Bob - I'm not sure how you're saving all that weight. I'm already running tail weight. Can't wait to see, and weigh your models. I brought a digital scale with me to weigh ballast. But it'll just handle a Supra at those weights.

I actually get to practice a bit tomorrow. Hot and humid in Chicago today. More of the same scheduled.

dp

[OVSS Boss]

From the looks of the forecast, the weekend looks very good, humidity down, winds in the sub 8-9 mph range, and lots of sun. Look forward to being there and meeting some folks and seeing old friends and finally taking part in somthing that really matters a bit, but all fun! See ya Friday...

Check out wxmaps.org/pix/meteograms and check the CHI line.

Marc

[Daryl Perkins]

Well, I've now had the chance to fly with one more of the junior competitors. He's REAL strong. Rest assured that the next US juniors team will be real tough in Turkey!!!

Good luck to all the juniors at the upcoming TS. Try to remember to have fun!!!

dp

[charlie tasto]

Any hobby shops nearby the flying field or Hotel? Would like to pick up a tube of CA and maybe a few small tools (Xacto, sandpaper, etc) on Friday.
Thanks,
Charlie

[StevenatorLTFO]

If you go south on route 30, through Plainfield, across rt 55, there are two shops right east of the interstate on 30. Leisure Hours Hobbies, which is in the strip mall in front of the mall at the intersection, and another mile or so up the road, Walts. Their website is www.leisurehours.com so you can see their hours and what-not. It is probably a 15 minute ride from the field, and about 10 minutes from the hotel.

Leisure Time is pretty well stocked, you should be able to find most anything you need there. that is also not real far from where most people are staying for the contest.

Hope that helps!

Steve

[StevenatorLTFO]

Leisure Hours address is 2712 Plainfield Road, Joliet IL

[charlie tasto]

Thanks Steve, appreciate it.

[THE EYE]

Hey Bobby I hope you got the flutter thing fixed?????
Good luck to ALL
have fun
and may the best three make the team
JRs kick ass and have fun also
the EYE

[D_Ryan]

So for those of us who can only live vicariously through the exploits of others, will the SOAR Chicago web site be posting scores in quasi-real time?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

[OVSS Boss]

Dave, they said tonight at the pilots brief that scores would be updated by round to many boards and here at RCG. I will post pics each night as well.

Marc

[Chad Sullivan]

Impatient I know. But I'm living vicariously here. SCORES?

[Goinav8n]

Here are a few pics from today Im not sure how the scores stand as some had a hurtin put on them. Tough air in the last round. Here a few pics then Im off to bed

Jeff

[Chad Sullivan]

Thnxs Jeff.

[dhauch]

i just got off the phone with Daryl Perkins for a f3j update.

he's in first, Ben Clerx in second, (sorry on the spelling Ben) other names not sure right where they are, but at the top was Cody Remington, Rich Burnowski, and i think Charlie Miller. (nothing official)

maybe someone there will report tonite.

dh
www.rc-builds.com

[jtlsf5]

Pulled this link off the SoarChicago website. Results after 2 days and 10 full rounds. Not broken down by round, but looks to me like there is one throwout included in this total. Last years Junior WC, Cody Remington, is in the top three. Flyoffs should be very interesting.

Juniors are interesting. AJ Mcgowan, Michael Knight (Sherman Jr.) and Brendan Beardsely have a significant lead on the other juniors flying. This could be soaring's future. Probably no flyoff in juniors with only one group flying every round.

Jim Thomas

http://www.soarchicago.net/f3jstandings.htm

[F3X]

JT, no fly-offs. This TS just goes on for 3 days. 1 throw out in the 10 minute rounds (Sat & Sun) and 1 in the 15min rounds (all day Monday)

Weather is holding out. Close for the top 14!

Tomorrow may shake it up a bit!

Good luck guys!

edit: Just talked to Ben on the phone. If there is not 5 rounds tomorrow only 1 throw out for the entire comp.

[Joe W]

Wow, the scores are pretty close for the top 14! I'd be very interested in seeing both the raw scores, as well as the throwout scores. For the top guys, it looks like it has been a landing contest...

I'm guessing that a few people took some chances with short tows that didn't pan out, as there are some big names that are well down on the list.

The fifteen minute rounds tomorrow will add some spread to the scores. It will be interesting to see how it all sorts out. Congrats to DP, Ben, and Cody on their flying so far. Great to see Cody doing so well, he is living up to his WC title!

[glderguy]

Lets not forget AJ McGowan in Jrs, Id say he isnt doing half bad as well.
Walter

[Joe W]

Walter,

You are quite right Walter!

I'd say that ALL of the juniors are doing pretty well. For that matter, the median junior score is higher than the median senior score! And yes, AJ is doing kinda okay... good thing for the seniors that he is flying with the juniors! Of course, Michael and Brendan are waiting to pounce on the least mistake from AJ!

Good luck to all tomorrow.

[little flyer]

...

[glderguy]

Excuse me, in my enthuiasum for the hometown guy I rudely forgot to say yes, all the Jrs are doing fantastic. My apologies. I dont really know anything about the other Jrs, but Ive watched both AJ and Nick T for some time and boy have they come on really strong this last year. I have seen AJ outfly his dad Bob more than once and that is no easy task! Good luck to all tomorrow.
Walter

[StevenatorLTFO]

I did some timing for the Jrs today, and they can hold their own quite well against the older guys. I timed a couple of flights for Nick, and a couple of flights for Brett, and was impressed all around with the quality of their flying. They both showed a calm cool exterior, and went upon their business like pros!

[little flyer]

Drum roll please.... and the team is....

Sr.

Daryl Perkins, Ben Clerx, Richard Burnoski.

Jr.

AJ McGowan, Brendon Beardsley and myself (Jeff Walter)

Congrats to all!

[glderguy]

Congrats to all the new F3J team members. Special congrats to local flyer
AJ McGowan. Good flying SIR! Ill not refer to you as a kid anymore!!
Walter

[FLY F3B]

Congratulations Daryl, Ben and Rich.... Nice job! Can't wait to hear the stories.

AJ, and Brendan, great job too. You guys really must have flown well. I hear that your 3rd place finisher - Jeff is quite the glider pilot also. Good flying Jeff. You guys are going to have a great time preparing for and competing in the World Champs.

Hope to see you soon.

Mike

[Joe W]

Congrats to the new US F3J senior team and junior team! Both teams will be very strong next year in Turkey. I'm tickled to see Rich make it onto the team for the first time. Ben is the only F3J WC veteran of the six as he was a pilot at the first ever F3J WC, and has a long history of flying F3J, although not so much recently. Daryl... he'll do just fine... he has had a bit of success at WC comps in F3B!

As for the juniors, another great team! The future of soaring is in good hands with this team. And no, I'm not going in on the landing pool against them at Visalia, I'm on a budget now...

Again, nice job of flying for the new US team.
Joe

[Jim Deck]

Joe's right about Rich Burnowski - he been competing hard and supporting the the team trials, both F3b & F3J, for quite a while. The victory hugs he got from his sons when his name was announced were priceless and a real "Kodak" moment. And, speaking of priceless, how about the S.O.A.R. club giving up their beautiful flying site complete with three days of truly excellent holiday weekend weather? That, members of this forum, is a real donation to the F3J effort and a good example to us all.
Jim Deck

[dave_beardsley]

Nice flying all -

I've posted some photos and videos on TWANGO if anyone is interested. These picts came off one of the cameras from our team.
http://www.twango.com/channel/dbeardsl.T3J_TS

Thanks so much to the S.O.A.R. club for hosting this event!

[JetJockE]

Hey,

Let's hear it for all the towmen out there! I personally towed every member of the Damn Canadians to a fair showing and all three Seattle area juniors as one of three full-time, dedicated towmen.

We had a real team effort with timer/spotters and pilots rotating in and out of the other three towman spots - great teamwork to make it all happen for eight pilots.

Knowing what it takes to get your guys aloft, I just want to congratulate all the towmen for putting out a fantastic effort and to thank Skip Miller's guys for helping us out for the last round of juniors - Chris and Blair, you guys were great!

Just goes to show you, feed your towmen Dairy Queen and Taco Bell and you can get some pretty darn nice loft!

[davidleitch]

I'd be interested in any commentary on models that folks were using and any trends thereof.

[Goinav8n]

David

I went around taking pics of models yesterday and will post later. I drove 5 hours after the contest last nite and will drive 8 more today. When I get home and have sometime ill put them on here or start a page of the different models.

Can you say Supra and Pike Perfect. They were the most used models there

Jeff

[StevenatorLTFO]

As Jeff said,

Lots of Supras, of all different descriptions, lots of pike perfects, and pike superiors, and Icons were very well represented as well.

Saw several Espada's, Burnoski, and Cody Remington both had Espadas.

Steve

[davidleitch]

Jeff

Thanks for the post and the photos. Anyone who has ever participated in a big contest knows how much effort is required from all concerned, and of course how rewarding the whole thing is as well.

Dave

[StevenatorLTFO]

The full final standings are now posted on the SOAR website.

http://soarchicago.net/f3jstandings.htm

[F3X]

Congratulations to the new 2008 USA F3J team! Great work guys and from what I heard the SOAR guys did a super job and the field was perfect!

[little flyer]

USA F3J Team Selections - Final Standings

13 Rounds Completed


Juniors

Place Pilot Score Pts Out
1 AJ McGowan
2 Brendon Beardsley
3 Jeffrey Walter
4 Michael Knight
5 Nick Tasto
6 Laurel Conner
7 Brett Carr


Open Class

Place Pilot
1 Daryl Perkins
2 Ben Clerx
3 Richard Burnoski
4 Skip Miller
5 Craig Greening
6 Josh Glaab
7 Jim McCarthy
8 Tom Kiesling
9 Cody Remington
10 Robert Lewan
11 Charles Miller
12 Kelly Johnson
13 Phil Barnes
14 Amy Pool
15 Mike Lachowski
16 Mike Verzuh
17 Casey Adamcyzk
18 Larry Jolly
19 Karl Miller
20 Mike Lee
21 Marc Gellart
22 Paul Sherman
23 Ben Roberto
24 Jim Monaco
25 Tom Kallevang
26 Bill Harrison
27 Jim Frahm
28 David Campbell
29 Dan Williams
30 Robin Meek
31 Jon Padilla
32 Jeff Carr
33 Jack Strother
34 Mike Skube
35 Dave Corven
36 David Portwood
37 Frank Burnoski
38 Bob Burson
39 Bob McGowan
40 Glauco Lago
41 Steve Meyer

[Avaldes]

Congrats to the 2008 team! Man that points spread is tight!

[Goinav8n]

Here are the pics of the planes that were flown

Enjoy

[little flyer]

The "Frankenplane" is a Barnes Supra wing, on a Cobra fuse and bagged tail feathers. Its a GREAT flying plane.

The "not sure" is Micheal Knights Perfect.

The ?? is a Graphite.

[nuevo]

Congrats everyone. Way to go Richard.

[nuevo]

Anyone got any stories of heroism, cheating death in the air, etc? Jeff, a special congrats to you. You'll represent us well.

That pink/green pike is interesting. :D

[jimsoars]

I thought I would tell the story of one of my more memorable flights. As most of my flying buddies know, my vision is less than spectacular. My regular callers know this and are generally ready to send me somewhere else when I have reached my limits. On one flight on Sunday I was out approaching the limit but not there yet, circling beautifully, heading downwind. Suddenly I could not see the airplane anymore. Now this was not the normal "I can't see it at that part of the circle, but I know it will come around" kind of loss, but a complete loss of sight. When I couldn't see it for a few seconds I told my callers that I could not see the plane and they were a little surprised because it was showing up very well for them!

So I made a few more circles and still could not reacquire the plane. I put it in low rate so I would not do anything stupid and my callers started coaching my turns. I indicated I wanted to come back, so they told me when to roll out and when to level the wings. There was still about 5 minutes left in the task. As the plane got closer I finally picked it up again with a new problem, there were now 2 airplanes where there should be 1...

My buddy Mike gave me a precious piece of advice - "Fly the one that is going up..." I continued to fly both airplanes smoothly back to the landing area and had about 2 minutes left. On approach I hit a bubble and managed to eke out the last 2 minutes and get my landing. Now all I needed to do was let my pants dry out...

Thanks to my callers I got my plane back AND got my time :)

I figured that what happened is that I failed to eat properly in the heat and had a blood sugar issue (I take medicine for it) and that affected my vision. I went back and ate a sandwich and the problem went away. The rest of the day and Monday I ate something about every hour and did not have any other problems...

Jim

[Bob McGowan]

Thanks to S.O.A.R. for a great contest and congratulations to the USA team members.

Is there someplace where we can see the round by round detail rather than just the grand total points?

Bob

[little flyer]

I've contacted Pat in search of the round by round scores or possible the score cards themselves.

Jeff

[OVSS Boss]

Bob,
Thank you for asking for the scores, I asked on the field and they said that no else had asked and were not really hip to fulfill the request. I would also like to see them too.

Marc

[jimsoars]

I asked Pat at the contest to send them to me and I post them on usf3jteam.com. He said he would send them, so hopefully he will.
Jim


Bob,
Thank you for asking for the scores, I asked on the field and they said that no else had asked and were not really hip to fulfill the request. I would also like to see them too.

Marc

[SOAR-Steve]

Anyone got any stories of heroism, cheating death in the air, etc?

It was a lot of fun. The tough part is there is little time to gather in everything that is happening. I was usually flying or helping my team mates. When the juniors were flying I took a break for fluids or food. It was amazing the level of competition at this event.

I started Saturday with my Supra since winds were light with light thermal activity. Everything went well my times were all in the 9:54.50 range, however with one 85 landing I ended the day in 15th place.

On Sunday the field was turned 90 deg the wind was bit higher and it appeared the lift would be a bit stronger. I ended up flying the Supra and Perfect. The Perfect has better "legs" so I flew the Perfect the most. My scores were not good and I slipped down the page, I think it was 20 something.

Monday was the beginning of round 11, a 15 minute target time. I was in the first group and the Juniors were not flying first today as they did on Saturday and Sunday. So I decided the Supra would have the best chance in the light morning air.

My strategy since I was not in the hunt for a top spot was to hold back on a launch for 1 or 2 minutes to get a good read on the other planes. About 1 minute into the round I launched and picked a spot that looked good. Soon I was working a light thermal about 400 meters away at about 300 meters in altitude. Some pilots were even coming in and taking there re-light, so far so good.

Suddenly the Supra went into a vertical death dive, heading nearly straight down towards a steel building or gravel parking lot. I was actually hoping it would hit the parking lot.

Yells came up that somebody was going in. I held my transmitter up high, walked towards the plane, pulled flap, and yelled, "I don't have it". At the rate of the dive it was only going to be 4 or 5 seconds til death. It was slow motion for me, waiting for the visual followed by the sound of my plane becoming a scattered pile of composite and electronic pieces. I stirred the right stick hoping for some sort of reaction from the plane.

About 25 meters above the ground the plane came to life, flaps sucked in and the plane made a quick recovery loop. Fastest loop ever, many were impressed. I righted the plane and headed it straight for my position, it was too early in the morning for any low level thermal saves. Besides at that point I wanted to just see my plane in one piece.

I was about to change to the Perfect but I figured if I was going to toast a plane the Supra would be the one. Many thought I was crazy to re-launch the same plane but this plane has been rock solid for a year in every contest, maybe this was just a fluke. I re-launched and headed downwind straight towards the thermal I lost.

The Supra climbed to about 500 meters as I pushed it around the thermal that drifted down wind until the white tops of the Supra disappeared in the haze and backgound. After losing sight and position of the plane I lost the core of the thermal. It even appeared that possibly the failsafe was kicking in because I sure was not flying it well.

I placed the Supra on a path upwind to a row of trees 200 meters at the end of the field. I traversed trees just holding an altitude of about 100 meters. The Supra was straight down wind over the trees when the plane suddenly decided it wanted to dive straight down again. However this time it was for only about 2.5 seconds the plane recovered about 3 meters from the ground right in front of the trees. It was over I managed to set the plane down but with only 2 minutes left I opted to take the zero.

After putting away the Supra I put the Pike Perfect up for round 12. It flew without any glitches, however working my way back upwind I hit the worst patch of sink all weekend, pushed through that and decided to make an early landing it looked like the Pike was going to make it when another sink hole at 80 meters just pulled the Pike right down. I was short by less than 5 meters, another zero. (disgust)

Well maybe good things could happen in round 13. Launched the Pike Perfect and all was working fine, at about 7 minutes I flew back from a downwind to a thermal near the steel building. Glauco Lago my handler, spotted a thermal that Richard was riding. I knew Richard was in the running so I gave enough berth for him to lead in the thermal. We both worked our way down wind, at about 400 meters in altitude my Pike Perfect decided to do a death dive just like the Supra. Same sh*t different plane. The recovery was quite low and at about 700 meters away I could tell the fail safe was kicking in. I was unable to see the plane after it went behind the hill and I left full flap in the hope that it made a controlled landing, it didn't. The Perfect sustained repairable damage to fuselage and wrinkled the center panel.

It was a horrific ending and embarrassment.

At this point it appears like an issue with the JR R790 PCM receiver (scan select). I have faith that JR sells excellent equipment and when they did not recommend extending the antennas I left it stock, (just taped to outside of fuselage).

However before I even had a bad flight on Monday there was discussions that the R790 has a problem, earlier 2 other pilots had suffered premature landings at close range. Those planes have extensions on their antennas. Another competitor lamented how they had many issues in their club and he had stop using them.

Well the radio and receivers are on their way to Horizon to see what they can tell me. BTW none of my teammates had any radio issues and none of them use the R790.

Any info I will follow up.

[Gldrpilot]

JetJockE,

Thanks so much!! It was our pleasure to help out! We had a fantastic time. Our Team (Skip Miller, Cody Remington(F3J Junior World Champion), Charlie Miller and Bob Lewan) put in a great run for the top 3 slots but a couple of small things prevented it. There were many top sticks there, it could have gone to any one of them.

The Juniors were awesome too! I know they would have given most of the seniors a run for their money...

It was really great to meet people I have met through RCGroups and the RC Soaring Exchange and finally put faces to the names.

I hope all made it home safely too...

S.O.A.R. guys, Thanks so much for a great contest!!

Chris Keller
U.S. F3J Team Towman, 2006 and hoping to be on the 2008 team

[rdwoebke]

It was a horrific ending and embarrassment.

I guess I would say welcome to the club Steve, but you actually flew a solid contest for a lot of the weekend...

Ryan

[Glauco]

So at the end of Saturday my team mate Bob Burson and I are struggling to remove our giant ground anchors. Ground was really hard and neither of us could move the stakes an inch. While we are there breaking our backs comes this guy from the neighbor lane. He introduces himself and asks if we needed help. He then proceeds to pull all off the ground like if it was a toothpick in Jell-O : )
Big thanks Gldrpilot Chris Keller. You are not only a nice guy but one strong dude.

Congratulations to all that either flew or helped and for those three Soarnuts crazy guys that did both, Karl, Ben and Robin. Sorry for your airplane Robin, I wasn't even close : )


Big congratulations for my two soaring friends that made the team. Rich and Jeff please start practicing your autographs to sign my F3J team shirt once it is out.
Jeff, you may not know yet but you already got the OVSS Sportsman 07 title. As previous Sportsman champs myself, Burson and Crosby you are cordially invited to fly as master next season. Hope you put your new JR 9303 radio to good use in Turkey next year.

Glauco

[davidjensen]

Congrats to all and especially the Jr's. I spoke with Mike Knight yesterday and he took it all in stride and will be back again with a new Supra.

[sbxcflyer]

I was privileged to fly in the Team Selections this year. I was amazed at all the names of great pilots I got to fly with. The air in Chicago was awesome.
There was lift all the time for some. I learned how to launch with towers and land when there was a crowd. I owe big thanks to the team I flew with. Steve, Glauco and Bob. I can not tell you how much work it is to put on a contest of this magnitude. There were at least 12 timers each day as well as score keeper, set up people and a great CD. The SOAR club deserves perpetual recognition for the level of organization and execution of this contest.
F3J Rocks
Thanks to all

[StevenatorLTFO]

Congrats to all and especially the Jr's. I spoke with Mike Knight yesterday and he took it all in stride and will be back again with a new Supra.


Were they able to retrieve the downed supra from the waste management mound?

I felt bad for the little fellow, after the mid air, I had a good line on the second supra to go in, and he came out and told me the second one that crashed was his, but unfortunately, the first one that went in was his, and the second was the other fellows. We spotted the other one, but it was behind two fences on the waste management property. I could tell he was pretty upset by it all...

Steve

[SOAR-Steve]

Cool article with aerial photos from the perspective of a Powered Paraglider.
http://footflyer.com/log/2007/09-03-Polo-Harryport/index.html#SOAR

[Daryl Perkins]

I think it was on Saturday. We launched and the air was pretty bad all over the field. I did the normal thing, I ran.... I chose to go to the north to get off the field... maybe 1/3 the competition was following behind me, the other 2/3 went to the East. The guys on the field were sinking like stones, and the guys behind me were drillin' as well, and didn't come out as far as I did. That's when I popped a super strong thermal. It was still within reach for the guys behind me, but not for the guys that went East. I didn't want to mark it until the guys inboard of me got too low to get there... so I pulled about 2/3 flap, and let it flounder around in a circle. My yellow wing on the Bumble-Bee Supra was so visible, and with the flaps down, I thought it was so apparent what I was doing (but nobody bit), my back up caller Jeff starts saying quite loudly, "Daryl - what's wrong with your plane?" "Shhhh.... I've got my flaps out..." I whisper. I flew like that for about a minute or so, until I was out of reach for my competition, and I could clean up and keep my thermal to myself.

Unfortunately, the east began to pop, and so did the guys inside of me. We got a couple of guys on that flight, but initially, it looked like it was going to be a full field bury.

[StevenatorLTFO]

Sneaky :D

[Phil Barnes]

This story will be from memory alone. I may get some days or rounds mixed up. There is no way to confirm anything until someone posts detailed contest results. I think the story will convey the essence of the truth even if I mix up some details due to defective memory.

I think it was round two on Saturday morning. We were doing the full five minute prep time on every round so I was able to stand around for almost five minutes prior to every launch and watch the wind shifts. With very low prevailing winds, the wind shifts were easy to read. Whichever way the wind blew was where there was a thermal. Prior to this launch, the wind had been blowing steadily towards the sod farm building for about 2 1/2 minutes. All the warm air on the field had been sucked away so it was clear that a run off field would be needed. I headed towards the sod farm building with one other model ahead of me going in the same general direction. A pack of models headed off on a vector maybe 30 degrees to the left of my heading. The pack that headed more left was sinking quickly. I mostly watched the guy in front of me and adjusted my heading a bit away from where he was going because he wasn't hitting any great air either. I got a nice read on some air as I flew over the sod farm buildings and started turning. It was a light thermal but just strong enough that I could keep a read on it. I was determined to lock that thermal turn in and drift with that thermal as long as I could see the model. As I drifted farther off field I walked down wind to help keep the model in sight. It took almost my full concentration to fly the model effectively at that distance but I caught glimpses of a couple other models well below my altitude in the same general area. I also could tell that many models were landing early. It must have taken about three or four minutes just to fly back to the field for the landing at a slow cruise speed. After the flight (actually not until Sunday) I learned that Craig Greening was probably the only other pilot who made his time in that group. He was flying from a lane on the other end of the flight line and felt completely different wind patterns and flew in an entirely different direction. I also learned that Cody Remington was flying one of the models that I had seen below me while flying deep off field and that he had dropped out into a corn field.

On Monday Cody Remington and Skip Miller were flying from the lane right next to our team ESL lane. The first round of the day was round eleven and it promised to be a challenge with the 15 minute working time in the early morning air. I was in fourth place at that point and I imagined that my time near the top of the standings would likely soon end. I looked up and down the flight line. I saw Ben Clerx in the lane to my right. I saw Cody in the lane to my left. Farther up the flight line I saw Daryl Perkins. Yes indeed, relish that fourth place for the final few moments before it is gone. The strategy was to take a full, high launch and then fly slowly in the direction of the slight drift. I would fly slowly and carefully, wasting no launch height with fast flight or abrupt maneuvering. My callers were Tom Kielsing and Mike Lachowski. I was flying slowly along on the wind vector feeling out the air. At some point Tom said something that sort of indicated that he thought I had flown through the lift I was looking for. I turned back and searched a bit and still couldn't see any lift there so I went back to my original search path. I could tell that Tom was still thinking that the lift was there but if I can't see the lift myself, I can't fly it. A little farther along my search path I ran into some stronger lift and I proclaimed out loud; "I can see that", and I began circling. After a full circle Tom said "Yeah, that's the best lift I've seen yet today". I began working this air as it drifted slowly downwind but this time the air would not behave so predictably. There were a few other planes working the area this time. There were different patches of lift and sometimes it was necesary to recenter the lift or to move to a different patch of air taking cues from other planes or from wind shifts. There were times when I was getting worried after losing touch with the lift and other times when I would find a nice patch of lift. I managed to stay up for the full 15 minutes and as I was beginning to set up for my landing approach I noted Ben Clerx and Cody on the ground and overheard Skip Miller asking Tom if I had relaunched or not. I didn't hear Tom's response but the truth was that I had not relaunched and Daryl had made the full fifteen minute flight also. My landing skidded about six inches outside the 100 point circle on the wet, dew covered grass. If not for that slide, I could have broken into the top three. As it was, I peaked out at less than two tenths of a point behind Rich Bernoski, still in fourth place.

All weekend long, whenever anyone would mention anything about my place on the results sheet I would be sure to mention that if by some fluke of nature I ended up in the top three at the end of this contest, I had no intention of taking a team position. There are simply way too may holes in my thermal soaring skills and it would be a near certainty that I would fare very poorly at a world championship. I would soon prove my point in the remaining two rounds and I would soon wish that I had gotten a chance to tell Skip and Cody about my intentions.

My round twelve launch got a little screwy. The launch needed a little correction to the left. Somehow I over corrected so the launch now needed a bigger correction to the right. The new correction was overdone again so now the launch needed a huge correction back to the left again. can you guess what happened next? I ended up just trying to get off the line without the ability to correct the trajectory first. The model zoomed off to the left, across many flight lanes, and through a launch line at the other end of the flight line. The model came down in at least four pieces with the tail boom torqued so hard that it split lengthwise and broke off aft of the pod. Well that sucks, but I get a reflight. The reflight group is called at the end of round twelve. They call three other pilots randomly to fly against me. I listen intently as they call the names. I don't really know either of the first two guys they call but then they call the third name. Cody Remington. Oh fudge, I'm in trouble now. Cody was not really in the running to make the team anymore after his round two and round eleven flights. I felt bad about that at first. I wanted Cody to make the team. But then I realized that on both of those flights, I was not the only one to make my time so I can't feel responsible for knocking Cody off the team. Unfortunately, Skip Miller was lurking in sixth or seventh place and he was eager for any chance to knock off a top five pilot. As the last few seconds ticked off prior to the launch of the reflight group, I heard Skip telling Cody to; "stick with the plan". I didn't know what the plan was but I was pretty sure that it somehow included my demise.

As I took my full tow I could tell just from the sound that Cody had taken a sub two second tow and was running off towards some presumed thermal that he and Skip had discussed. "Fine", I thought. You can have your two or three second advantage. The few points that will cost me won't hurt too much. The other two guys in the reflight group landed early leaving just myself and Cody. I was working iffy air and drifting downwind at maybe half launch height. I listened to a running comentary of Cody's flight which was not running according to plan. He didn't get into the lift he ran toward and clearly was not going to make his time. Yipee for me, I've survived the plan! But wait. I've forgotten about plan B. Plan B involves Cody sending up his backup plane with about eleven minutes remaining in working time. As that launch takes place, Mike calmly tells me that I will now need to fly the full fifteen minutes. Unfortunately for me, I'm now a bit downwind and my iffy air is even iffier than it was before. Not only do I not make fifteen minutes but I land outside 75 meters and have to relaunch with only about seven minutes left in working time. Skip moves up one place in the standings and Cody has his revenge. No need to feel guilty though, Cody. I wasn't really trying out for the team anyway. And besides, my round thirteen flight was just as bad as my round twelve flight, proving that I don't belong on such a team.

[Chad Sullivan]

Good story Phil.

[little flyer]

Phil, the stack of three of you way way way out when Cody landed in the corn was you, Rich B. and Cody.

[nuevo]

Thanks Phil. Wow. Just like I was there watching it all.

[Neil Stainton]

Thanks for the great write-up Phil, your posts are always so illuminating and educational.

My competition flights are usually smug self satisfaction if I connect with lift, or mind numbing rising panic as I sink ever lower. If I manage a save it is usually because I stumble into lift rather than know where to look.

Regards,

Neil.

[Pheasant]

Nice writeup Phil.

That Saturday flight was interesting. As you mentioned I was at the other end of the line, we were actually the end group. Which can be good and bad at times. On that flight I didn't have much of a read until within a minute from launch and noticed some swallows in and beyond the trees by the port-a-potti's. I hadn't really decided to go until halfway up the line, but headed over the houses and started a search. It was very light but definately there, ended up being a steady ride downwind with a fairly low climb rate that made the distance being traveled a little uncomfortable. More important than making the field on the return was staying out of the houses, which would bring a 100 point penalty. The Pike travels really well, I headed back with a little less than four minutes remaining and made it with time and altitude to spare.

Prior to heading out for this event I decided to try something new. Ordinarily when flying I wear sunglasses with a mild prescription, problem is they are not particularly dark. I picked up a pair of over the counter sunglasses that were much darker, and they definately made a difference. Felt a lot less eye strain and was able to concentrate more effectively as a result. I did have a some issues at extreme distances but should be good to go when I get a darker set of prescription lenses.

Congratulations to Daryl, Ben and Rich, you guys flew great and I'm sure you'll represent us well next year.

Craig.



This story will be from memory alone. I may get some days or rounds mixed up. There is no way to confirm anything until someone posts detailed contest results. I think the story will convey the essence of the truth even if I mix up some details due to defective memory.

I think it was round two on Saturday morning. We were doing the full five minute prep time on every round so I was able to stand around for almost five minutes prior to every launch and watch the wind shifts. With very low prevailing winds, the wind shifts were easy to read. Whichever way the wind blew was where there was a thermal. Prior to this launch, the wind had been blowing steadily towards the sod farm building for about 2 1/2 minutes. All the warm air on the field had been sucked away so it was clear that a run off field would be needed. I headed towards the sod farm building with one other model ahead of me going in the same general direction. A pack of models headed off on a vector maybe 30 degrees to the left of my heading. The pack that headed more left was sinking quickly. I mostly watched the guy in front of me and adjusted my heading a bit away from where he was going because he wasn't hitting any great air either. I got a nice read on some air as I flew over the sod farm buildings and started turning. It was a light thermal but just strong enough that I could keep a read on it. I was determined to lock that thermal turn in and drift with that thermal as long as I could see the model. As I drifted farther off field I walked down wind to help keep the model in sight. It took almost my full concentration to fly the model effectively at that distance but I caught glimpses of a couple other models well below my altitude in the same general area. I also could tell that many models were landing early. It must have taken about three or four minutes just to fly back to the field for the landing at a slow cruise speed. After the flight (actually not until Sunday) I learned that Craig Greening was probably the only other pilot who made his time in that group. He was flying from a lane on the other end of the flight line and felt completely different wind patterns and flew in an entirely different direction.

[SailorMac]

This was my first time at an F3J event and my first time towing. I was working with Karl, Ben and Robin from SOAR, although my most memorable story comes from towing for Capatain Jack on a Re-Flight. Our team had a bye round and Jack's team was towing for someone else so he rushes over to our lane, winded, last second frantically trying to get a plane ready. As a tower, for me the anticipation is incredibly great from the time of pre-load until seeing that leg kick. Jack is throwing for himself, so he begins to preload and then kick, we take off running for tow. Only, from what I was told by other teamates, he doesn't get a good toss and needs to re-light right away. So we quickly get over to the other line and again pre-load and leg kick, then snap! Line breaks. Only this time I believ Jack hasn't tossed the plane yet, so we run over to the other line again and kick off we go for a third launch (luckily one of our other teamates was still in the middle of the launch area working the line to get our first one ready again so quickly). Wow! Towing can be really exciting! A quick side note, in between rounds we re-tie and then next launch the line breaks again; definitley no twists or anything, just snap. So we switched to a different line and pulley for rest of the day with no problems. Just thouhgt I'd add a little different perspective to this thread.
Jeff

[Phil Barnes]

The results are posted:

http://www.soarchicago.net/f3jdetails.htm

[Joe W]

Wow, never thought that I'd see a 9:59.82 time recorded in a ten minute slot... :-)

I'd be betting that there was a typo on the entry of that one. Good thing that the 6 points that it cost Rich Burnoski didn't knock him off of the team!

[SOAR-Steve]

The results are posted:

http://www.soarchicago.net/f3jdetails.htm

Coool.

Now I can relive my screwups. :o

Curious, how does one get a 9:59:82 for flight time?! :eek:

[FLY F3B]

Duh, She did it with a .1 second launch and landed .08 sec. before the horn. I'll bet the 6' launch she got really made the flight a tough one to max. :cool:

[Phil Barnes]

Tom Kiesling managed to reorganize the results onto an excell spreadsheet. He emailed that to me and I then further modified the results into the attached table. The bottom few pilots got cut off because they didn't fit on one screen so I added a second view showing the rest. Note that the juniors are included in the table but the juniors did not fly against the seniors so when counting places you should separate out the junior pilots.

[Bobalew]

9:59:82 Really??

[Phil Barnes]

See post #87 ;)

[Phil Barnes]

The seniors and juniors on separate tables.

[Joe W]

9:59:82 Really??

Round 8, heat 2, 9:59.82 / 100 was the 1000...
the second best (RB) 9:55.54 /100, and received a 993.88

I woulda paid to see a 9:59.8... :p

[Amy P]

Round 8, heat 2, 9:59.82 / 100 was the 1000...
the second best (RB) 9:55.54 /100, and received a 993.88

I woulda paid to see a 9:59.8... :p

Me too.

[Joe W]

Howdy Amy!

Sorry to hear that there isn't an amazing story of an extremely low level line break save to be told!!!

On a more serious note, going over the score sheet does show the very high level of competition. If you didn't consistently get a 100 landing, you were not a contender. Also, it demonstrates that going for really short tows is generally not a winning strategy in a longer contest.

There were only two pilots that maxed all of their flight times.

With the throwout round, one could take a little bit of risk, but the scores recorded hint at the risks of a shorter tow or pushing the horn in a longer contest.

It has been enjoyable to read the stories that have been posted, I'm hoping for more!

[Amy P]

I did have a line break that I flew out on that flight, but it wasn't that low. It was probably my longest flight because of the break, but the best it could have been was a 9:56 by my estimation.

[Daryl Perkins]

Hey Joe,

My strategy all along was to take full tows, and shoot 100's for the first day to day and a half, check the scores to see if I was in the hunt, and then tighten up for the remainder of the contest if need be. You could watch the guys pushing the time on the back end screw up the occasional landing. I saw one competitor have to dump it just short (90 or 95) on 2 separate flights to keep from being late. It took him off the team.

I had only flown 2 contests all year long, and those contests were my only landings to time, so I think F3J nerves got me on landing timing. There was also something in the cadence of the official countdown (between 10 and 7 to go) that made me clean up just a bit, and I'd end up quite early every flight. On a long F3J contest, scored the way our team selects are, probably not a horrible thing, but I'm not happy with leaving easy points on the table. It won't fly at the Worlds. Don't worry people, I'll tighten up.

I don't think anybody knew about Amy's flight until just now. They weren't posting raw scores by the round, so there was no way for us to have seen the mistake. I'm glad to see it didn't change the results of the top 3, although it almost had a dramatic effect.

I was also told that some competitors were actually badgering and negotiating with official timekeepers to obtain better times. The timers were doing the best they could, but for the most part, they weren't seasoned sailplane competitors. The timers would come up after the flight and almost ask the time. 9:53.61??? with a hint of a question in their voice. It was usually off by about a second or so to the short side, but hey, they're the official, ya gotta live with it right? Or request a reflight. Oh wait, I forgot the other option, beat on them until they give you a better score. What is wrong with you people? It's toy airplanes for Christ's sake!!!

I'm glad the team worked out the way it did. My team mates are great guys, and ethical ones, and the AMA also decided to fund Cody's return. So we have a senior team of 4. The juniors are super strong, and nice kids.

I've had some bad luck at F3J team selects before, so this is my first time on the F3J team. I'll try to do you guys proud.

dp

[Pheasant]

This is absolutely the truth Joe. I haven't practiced in a long time, and it showed in the circle. Saturday and Sunday morning both my first flights had 90 landings, the stick was in the center of the circle but a little too shallow and with a fraction to much energy. That plus a couple of 95's elsewhere made a big dent. I haven't done the math but would be close to being the difference I think.

Craig.


On a more serious note, going over the score sheet does show the very high level of competition. If you didn't consistently get a 100 landing, you were not a contender. Also, it demonstrates that going for really short tows is generally not a winning strategy in a longer contest.


With the throwout round, one could take a little bit of risk, but the scores recorded hint at the risks of a shorter tow or pushing the horn in a longer contest.

It has been enjoyable to read the stories that have been posted, I'm hoping for more!

[Kiesling]

Joe,

From my observations, there were very few short tows. There may be been one or two people that were hurt by short tows that were contenders, but that was it. My two bad flights during the 10's were a result of me getting my stab caught on the line on tow. The first one I had to relight since the line didn't come free. The second one, the line came free, but it was enough of a mental distraction that I was short on time (stab was out of whack but still stayed on). This was the first two times I have ever caught my tail on tow that I remember. I think I know what happened, but it is just a lame excuse.

My shortest flight (1st 15) was my longest and highest tow. No one got their time in this group. One person was close (14:30), but that was it. In retrospect, I should have covered the group since I had the height advantage. Covering has generally been a tactic that has not served me well in the past so I flew my own flight. I ended up seperated from the group. Worked three or four weak thermals that just seperated me more from the group. When a few guys finally hooked up, I was too seperated and flew through a bunch of bad air getting back to the field.

My observation was that people flew extremely conservatively. By F3J standards even the people that were pushing (me, Cody, and Larry) were still on the conservative side.

I am a little disapointed to hear that people were badgering the official timers for better times. Our team had some timers that matched our watches pretty close, and we had some timers that were consistently about a half second shorter than the times our team got. We never considered lobbying for a better time. We were grateful just to have officials out there spending their Labor day weekend with us. Thanks officials for your help!!!!!

If Daryl thinks he is happy that Amy's score not changing the final results he should try on the shoes of the team selection committee chairman!

We missed you out there Joe - hope you make the New Zealand team soon!

Tom