oscillator
Mar 08, 2008, 10:58 PM
Just got back from the SVSS TD contest in Davis, CA. This was my first TD contest and only the 4th time I had flown an unlimited TD ship. Let me start by saying I had a blast and strongly encourage anyone who hasn't flown a contest to go out and do so. Everyone was friendly, I got to watch the "pros", and had top notch pilots as timers/coaches. What more could you ask for?
My goals for the contest were simple:
1. Have fun
2. Bring the ship home in one piece
3. Learn something
4. Make a respectable showing(i.e. if I'm last, try not to be last by a mile)
5. Do better than last place if possible.
I was pretty confident I could at least make goal #1, and had a fair chance at #2 and #3. Beyond that I had no idea.
I showed up early and managed to get a flight in off the club winch before the contest began. About midway through the flight I noticed my right thumb was shaking badly :eek: . The contest hadn't even started and I had major jitters. I kept talking to myself (silently, so they wouldn't hall me off for being a loony), trying to clam down. Not surprisingly I didn't find any lift on that flight, but managed to land somewhat gracefully - not exactly in the LZ area, but at least in the same zip code.
I wanted to try a 2nd flight, but the pilots meeting was called. Format was to be "Nickles and Dimes" - two 5min flights and 2 10min flights, with a 100 point landing tape. One point per second, with a 10 point per second penalty for going over on the 5min round, and 20 point per second penalty on the 10min round. The only other twist was you could decide on your 1st flight if you wanted the 5min or 10min task, but after that you had to alternate between 5's and 10's.
There was no scheduled flight order, so you could fly your rounds when ever you felt like it during the "window" - which was never really defined, but turned out to be about 3 hours.
I wisely decided not to be the canary, and waited to watch a few other pilots test the air and see better how this worked. After a few planes had launched, my buddy Joel, who was also flying his first contest (on a ship he had only maidened yesterday!) decided to launch. He had an experienced pilot (Kai) timing and giving him advise. Joel proceed to fly a 4:57 (or something close to that) but didn't quite make the landing tape. I didn't say anything, but wrote off goals #4 and #5 at that point - no way I could land within 3 seconds of my time!
I waited a bit longer, timed for Kai, and finally decided to fly my 1st round. There were about 5 other ships up at that time, and they seemed to be finding a little lift, so I launched. About 3'30" into the flight Kai tells me it is decision time - 5 or 10. I was up high enough that I would have to work to get down for the 5min window, so I decided to stay up and go for 10. The wind was blowing, but not too bad, and I drifted down wind ridding a thermal. Didn't quite speck out, but got high enough that at times I was unsure of my orientation. At about 7 min Kai tells me I need to start getting down - and I have to work at getting the ship down and back near the LZ. Gradually I work it back and touch down shy of the tape with 9'54" on the clock :D (note - times are approx, didn't make a copy of my score card). I was thrilled! I had ranged over the field ridding lift, landed within 10sec of my time, made my 1st 10min task, and the ship was still in flying condition!
After some more timing and watching I launched for my 2nd round. I figured as long as I got a decent launch I would make the 5min time. Got my launch, surfed a little of the wind "wave" that was working at the time, and turned downwind when Kai told me. With the wind blowing like it was I wound up being blown down wind further than I thought, and had to work to make it back to the LZ. At the last moment I realized I was actually past the barb wire fence and below it! :eek: . I had just enough energy to pull up over the fence and land about 20 feet shy of the tape. No landing points again, but my time? 5'00"!!!!! :D I was beginning to feel good about this contest stuff.
More timing and watching, and it looked like the time was right to fly my 2nd 10min task. Turned the plane and TX on, wiggled the controls and noticed the left V tail was way out of trim. Slid the nose off and discovered the linkage had pulled loose from the clevis. :mad: I had bought this ship used at anytime you aren't the builder you have to be ready for the unexpected. Fortunately I caught it before it led to the destruction of my ship. Whew!
Bob McGowen advised me to fly something else and make a proper repair at home, but I was stoked and wanted to see what I could pull off at this contest. The only thing else I had to fly was an EZG - which would have been better than taking zeros for the last 2 rounds, but in the wind wouldn't have been a whole lot better than the zeros. So off I went looking for a soldering iron.
Found an iron, but needed flux and solder. Found those, waited forever for the 12V iron to heat up, and at long last tried to re-solder the joint, but it wouldn't take solder. After much fussing around, I discovered that the "rod" was really an AL tube! :censored: Obviously soldering wasn't in the plan.
Lucky Bob had some Kevlar thread and some thin CA, so I scuffed it up with a file, wrapped thread around the joint, and wicked the CA into the thread. For saftey I did the same to the Right hand control - no telling when that one would pop loose.
After over an hour of searching for supplies and making repairs, I was ready to go. Pretty much everyone had finished their tasks by then, but the CD said I could fly my last 2 rounds. I needed 10min for my next round and there was absolutely no one in the sky - so into the unknown I launched. Unfortunaly it turned out to be a massive sink cycle and 10min wasn't in the cards, in fact I was going to be well shy of 5 min! Oh well I thought, at least make some landing points. But it was not to be - the wind blew me back more than I realized, and horror of horrors I was again on the wrong side of that barbed wire fence! :eek: I worked it and tried to pop over again, but no such luck this time, and flew smack into one of the poles. A broken plane AND a zero round? :eek: :censored: As the plane bounced off the pole I noticed the wing seemed fine. How could this be? As it turns out I had hit the pole square on the nose! The plane was fine! Not only that, while the fence was "out of bounds" there was a 15 yard grace zone, so I still got points for my dismal 3'40" something "10 min" round. Back to the winch.
Launched again for my final task - 5min. Easily made the time, AND landed about mid way on the tape!!!!! Yeeeehaaaaawwww!!!! I had just completed my first contest. By all rights my plane should have been totaled by the control linkage failure, or be shy a wing from the fence post, but it was fine! I had no idea where I would be in the standings, but everyone said it was a tough day, so I figured I had avoided last place. I certainly learned a lot (like to keep it very close in on windy days and "hoover" in to land), so I had met all my goals. I couldn't have been more pleased.
Well, I was more pleased. Maybe shocked is a better word. My luck must have been running strong that day as I received 2nd place in Sportsman!!!! (note: should have bought a lottery ticket on the way home, but didn't).
As for Bob, Kai and Joel? I didn't get to see them fly the rest of their rounds, but Bob took first overall, Kai took first in Expert, and Joel made a very respectable showing, avoiding last place, and beating out several entrants in each class.
All told it was a great day - and would have been even if I came in last. Had a great time, met some new people (most of whose names escape me), and learned a thing or two. What more could you ask for?
-Mark
My goals for the contest were simple:
1. Have fun
2. Bring the ship home in one piece
3. Learn something
4. Make a respectable showing(i.e. if I'm last, try not to be last by a mile)
5. Do better than last place if possible.
I was pretty confident I could at least make goal #1, and had a fair chance at #2 and #3. Beyond that I had no idea.
I showed up early and managed to get a flight in off the club winch before the contest began. About midway through the flight I noticed my right thumb was shaking badly :eek: . The contest hadn't even started and I had major jitters. I kept talking to myself (silently, so they wouldn't hall me off for being a loony), trying to clam down. Not surprisingly I didn't find any lift on that flight, but managed to land somewhat gracefully - not exactly in the LZ area, but at least in the same zip code.
I wanted to try a 2nd flight, but the pilots meeting was called. Format was to be "Nickles and Dimes" - two 5min flights and 2 10min flights, with a 100 point landing tape. One point per second, with a 10 point per second penalty for going over on the 5min round, and 20 point per second penalty on the 10min round. The only other twist was you could decide on your 1st flight if you wanted the 5min or 10min task, but after that you had to alternate between 5's and 10's.
There was no scheduled flight order, so you could fly your rounds when ever you felt like it during the "window" - which was never really defined, but turned out to be about 3 hours.
I wisely decided not to be the canary, and waited to watch a few other pilots test the air and see better how this worked. After a few planes had launched, my buddy Joel, who was also flying his first contest (on a ship he had only maidened yesterday!) decided to launch. He had an experienced pilot (Kai) timing and giving him advise. Joel proceed to fly a 4:57 (or something close to that) but didn't quite make the landing tape. I didn't say anything, but wrote off goals #4 and #5 at that point - no way I could land within 3 seconds of my time!
I waited a bit longer, timed for Kai, and finally decided to fly my 1st round. There were about 5 other ships up at that time, and they seemed to be finding a little lift, so I launched. About 3'30" into the flight Kai tells me it is decision time - 5 or 10. I was up high enough that I would have to work to get down for the 5min window, so I decided to stay up and go for 10. The wind was blowing, but not too bad, and I drifted down wind ridding a thermal. Didn't quite speck out, but got high enough that at times I was unsure of my orientation. At about 7 min Kai tells me I need to start getting down - and I have to work at getting the ship down and back near the LZ. Gradually I work it back and touch down shy of the tape with 9'54" on the clock :D (note - times are approx, didn't make a copy of my score card). I was thrilled! I had ranged over the field ridding lift, landed within 10sec of my time, made my 1st 10min task, and the ship was still in flying condition!
After some more timing and watching I launched for my 2nd round. I figured as long as I got a decent launch I would make the 5min time. Got my launch, surfed a little of the wind "wave" that was working at the time, and turned downwind when Kai told me. With the wind blowing like it was I wound up being blown down wind further than I thought, and had to work to make it back to the LZ. At the last moment I realized I was actually past the barb wire fence and below it! :eek: . I had just enough energy to pull up over the fence and land about 20 feet shy of the tape. No landing points again, but my time? 5'00"!!!!! :D I was beginning to feel good about this contest stuff.
More timing and watching, and it looked like the time was right to fly my 2nd 10min task. Turned the plane and TX on, wiggled the controls and noticed the left V tail was way out of trim. Slid the nose off and discovered the linkage had pulled loose from the clevis. :mad: I had bought this ship used at anytime you aren't the builder you have to be ready for the unexpected. Fortunately I caught it before it led to the destruction of my ship. Whew!
Bob McGowen advised me to fly something else and make a proper repair at home, but I was stoked and wanted to see what I could pull off at this contest. The only thing else I had to fly was an EZG - which would have been better than taking zeros for the last 2 rounds, but in the wind wouldn't have been a whole lot better than the zeros. So off I went looking for a soldering iron.
Found an iron, but needed flux and solder. Found those, waited forever for the 12V iron to heat up, and at long last tried to re-solder the joint, but it wouldn't take solder. After much fussing around, I discovered that the "rod" was really an AL tube! :censored: Obviously soldering wasn't in the plan.
Lucky Bob had some Kevlar thread and some thin CA, so I scuffed it up with a file, wrapped thread around the joint, and wicked the CA into the thread. For saftey I did the same to the Right hand control - no telling when that one would pop loose.
After over an hour of searching for supplies and making repairs, I was ready to go. Pretty much everyone had finished their tasks by then, but the CD said I could fly my last 2 rounds. I needed 10min for my next round and there was absolutely no one in the sky - so into the unknown I launched. Unfortunaly it turned out to be a massive sink cycle and 10min wasn't in the cards, in fact I was going to be well shy of 5 min! Oh well I thought, at least make some landing points. But it was not to be - the wind blew me back more than I realized, and horror of horrors I was again on the wrong side of that barbed wire fence! :eek: I worked it and tried to pop over again, but no such luck this time, and flew smack into one of the poles. A broken plane AND a zero round? :eek: :censored: As the plane bounced off the pole I noticed the wing seemed fine. How could this be? As it turns out I had hit the pole square on the nose! The plane was fine! Not only that, while the fence was "out of bounds" there was a 15 yard grace zone, so I still got points for my dismal 3'40" something "10 min" round. Back to the winch.
Launched again for my final task - 5min. Easily made the time, AND landed about mid way on the tape!!!!! Yeeeehaaaaawwww!!!! I had just completed my first contest. By all rights my plane should have been totaled by the control linkage failure, or be shy a wing from the fence post, but it was fine! I had no idea where I would be in the standings, but everyone said it was a tough day, so I figured I had avoided last place. I certainly learned a lot (like to keep it very close in on windy days and "hoover" in to land), so I had met all my goals. I couldn't have been more pleased.
Well, I was more pleased. Maybe shocked is a better word. My luck must have been running strong that day as I received 2nd place in Sportsman!!!! (note: should have bought a lottery ticket on the way home, but didn't).
As for Bob, Kai and Joel? I didn't get to see them fly the rest of their rounds, but Bob took first overall, Kai took first in Expert, and Joel made a very respectable showing, avoiding last place, and beating out several entrants in each class.
All told it was a great day - and would have been even if I came in last. Had a great time, met some new people (most of whose names escape me), and learned a thing or two. What more could you ask for?
-Mark