Easter weekend Postal contest

[oscillator]

The "Do you fly in Contests?" poll and the postal contests in the Elec forum got me thinking, why not a postal here? So I'm posting one.

Pick any day between now and March 24th and go fly any TD glider you like. Launch from a highstart, winch, or hand toss, use a DLG, woodie, unlimited glass ship, what ever you like. Make as many flights as you like, but you must make at least 2 flights on the same day.

Report your 2 best flight times (from the same day) only, along with ship used and launch method. Photos and prose encouraged. Your best flight time doesn't count, but must be reported. Only the 2nd best flight time counts. Highest time aloft wins bragging rights.

In addition to keeping it simple, my idea is anyone can get lucky and launch into a hat sucker, so we throw out the best time. Having it max time (or next to max time as the case may be) with unlimited attempts (within a day) hopefully allows everyone a reasonable chance regardless of airframe or launch mechanism.

Enjoy!
Mark

[rogerflies]

Sounds like fun. Count me and my trusty Lovesong in.

Roger

[quigley257]

I like it.... should be fun. I need to charge up my old Riser100.

--quigley :D

[tinkrerpilot]

quigley257 , You flying a Riser 100? Please do jump into the electric sailplanes and show us what you have in the Retro Riser build, please. Would love to hear from other that have built one.

On the other hand, if I had the time thuis weekend and not working, I would be more then happyto join you guys here, Souinds like fun. Maybe we can get Bon in Seattle going on this.

tink

[rdwoebke]

I'll try to put some times up.

[ejett]

Meee ttoooo!

EJ

[Kenny Sharp]

I'm in with a DLG XP-5.

[schrederman]

Houston Hawk with 2000 mah NiCads... And the Clovis weather looks nice...

I'm in...

Jack

[oscillator]

Cool! Should be a fun contest. There is a group of us who plan to fly this like a local contest on Sunday. I'll take some pics and post the scores.

Joel Taylor and I went out today for some launch/land practice. I had intended to try for times in the contest too, but Joel landed his Onyx in a tree (got it out with minor damage) and then the park flyers took over. After some schmuck buzzed my Escape on final we decided to go home. Joel goes to pick up the turn-around and nearly gets nailed by a Jet.

Oh well, there was too much wind and little lift anyway. Only managed a few lights and they were all around 5min, so nothing worth reporting. But at least my ship is fine, Joel's is repairable, and we got a little landing practice in.

-Mark

[rogerflies]

Friday was marginally nice, so this afternoon I went out to Monticello, FL, with my Lovesong and ClutchWinch. Shifty winds less than 10 and clear skies. Some of my times were OK, though.

5:39
2:31
14:30
25:35
3:15
23:48

I may try again tomorrow.

Roger

[oscillator]

Nice job Roger. That puts you in 1st place with 23:48 (throwing away the 25:35).

-Mark

[schrederman]

Today was extremely nice at Clovis, 5 mph wind, 74 degrees... so I went out. Never stretched the high start, though. I decided to do landing practice with the Bantam I put it together and had 41:27 on a hand launch... :p Next flight was 0:21. Next flight 0.22. Final flight was 19:90. These were all hand launches with a 100" model... do I get any style points? O.L. Adcock, Tom Martin and I are flying together tomorrow... I'll post times... :D

Jack

[schrederman]

Ya mean I gotta throw away my 41:27?!?! What a rip! I guess I should read the rules a bit better... Wish I coulda throwed one away at SWC...

Jack

[oscillator]

Ya mean I gotta throw away my 41:27?!?! What a rip! I guess I should read the rules a bit better... Wish I coulda throwed one away at SWC...

Jack

Does make it interesting egh? The other fine print is the 2 flights have to be on the same day, so today you get a 19:90??? (so is that 21:30 or was there a typo?). If you fly tomorrow you have to throw away the high score from that day.

BTW - very nice showing from a hand launch. 10 out 10 for style. :cool:

[schrederman]

Yep, 19:90... I don't see 21:30 in any of my posts...(?) If you're gonna cheat for me make it a 24:30 and get me ahead of Roger... :D

[cosmicpossum]

Count me and my just completed Sagitta 600 in. I need to maiden it anyways.

[kwmtrubrit]

Oh man, do this again soon, PLEASE. I would join in but water craft are the only things you will find at our flying field.

[rogerflies]

Well, I flew Saturday afternoon without improving my best time. The weather was clear with shifty light winds before turning overcast. The times were:
9:55
11:36
5:37
22:05
4:58
2:47
17:12

My flying buddy didn't fare too well. That's his ASW26 in the tree. Bummer.

[schrederman]

I went out and flew with O.L. Adcock and Tom Martin. I had one flight of 21:05, but no longer ones... We flew off an F3B winch and 100# mono. Very nice day, boomer thermals, but a long lapse time. You could be specked out and leave the thermal, and be on the ground before another one came through.

Congrats to Roger if no one else whoops up on him...

Jack

[Hossfly72]

I have a silly question. When do you start counting? For example, if I launch a HLG... Do I start counting when it leaves my hand or when it levels off from the throw? I would think when it levels off since that would be equivalent to coming off of a winch or Histart, but since I'm a Taurus, I like things spelled out for me.
Wish I could have gotten out today but too many errands to do. Tomorrow will be lousy for HLG. Sixteen mph winds and no usable slopes around here for miles!

Happy flyin' and many hat suckers to ya'll,
Hoss

[rogerflies]

I start the stopwatch as soon as I have the plane stabilized and the trims adjusted. That only takes a few seconds, so I'm not going to quibble about it.

I had a Chuperosa a long time ago. I had to stop flying it after several months. I was listing to the right because of the massive arm muscles I'd built up. My longest flight was about four minutes.

I vote to let the hand launch guys start the clock when they pick up the plane. :)

Roger

[oscillator]

Roger,

Bummer about your buddies ASW26. Hope you managed to get it down. Other than some leading edge damage it looked like it should be fine.

Hoss, for HLG, you can start the clock any time after it leaves your hand. Remember the winch guys start the clock as soon as it leaves the hook, but then zoom up over 100' more. Since the hand launch is only 100' or so there isn't much difference between counting your entire launch as flight time and counting their zoom as flight time. In fact a good zoom can be several hundred feet. Not to mention the zoom starts with the glider already several hundred feet high.

Ideally there would be a handicap system that accounts for wing span/area, launch speed, launch height, etc, but such a system would be difficult to implement and highly prone to error. By giving people unlimited attempts it hopefully allows everyone a fair chance regardless of equipment.

-Mark

[rdwoebke]

. When do you start counting? For example, if I launch a HLG... Do I start counting when it leaves my hand or when it levels off from the throw?

Time starts as soon as the plane leaves ground based objects. Since on a high start/winch, when it is connected to the line it is still connected to the ground. So, this means time starts when it pops off the chute or when it leaves the hand of a hand launch glider.

Time stops as soon as the plane first touches any ground based object. Tree, power line, etc.

Ryan

[oscillator]

Took the winch and the Escape out this morning. Ran out all the winch line I had (about 700 ft to the turn-around from measurements on Google earth). There was no wind and my launches weren't as high as I expected - not sure if it was the lack of wind or the drag on the winch line. Micheal and Kai brought their DLG's but didn't time any of their flights. Wayne brought his Pike Perfect to maiden, but was unsure about the radio setup and elected only to hand toss.

The air was good and I certainly found some lift, but my times don't show it:
6:43
2:13
7:42
5:52
13:45
7:49
6:15

So that gives me a 7:49...oh well. The SW on my TX must run extra slow...yea that's it. Couldn't be my lousy flying.

Last flight was interesting....left a nice thermal to avoid a full size helicopter that was transitioning the area at about 500AGL. When I saw he was coming I turned and ran. He apparently saw my plane and turned toward it and followed me for awhile. Too bad no one had a camera. I kept the nose down and got out of there. By the time he was gone I was too low and the lift was gone.

-Mark

[ejett]

I did not get to fly any day this weekend. Got sick Thursday and got to feeling a little better yesterday, but decided I needed to cut grass. When I got done with that I was too washed out to do anything else and I have not felt like doing anything today either, plus today's conditions didn't look to good at my field. Even the buzzards were grounded. Actually, I don't think the conditions had them grounded, but I didn't go check out what did.

Well, not a total waste, cuz I did get some repairs done on my planes.

EJ

[Kenny Sharp]

I flew my DLG from 10:30 am to 2 pm.
The temp was 28 when I started, and 36 when I finished.
The wind was pretty steady all day... from 11mph with gusts to 17, to 10 mph and gusts to 14.
The sky was clear blue with a few high cirrus in the morning.

At first, I only got 30 seconds to 1 minute.
After a half hour, my times went up a little but I never managed to break 2 minutes untill well after noon.
Then things improved somewhat.

My times after noon are as follows in the order flown... with a few short flights (less than 2 min.) mixed in:

2:25
3:37
6:20
4:27
7:05
10:06

So, my final score is 7:05.

The last flight of the day for me was the 10:06. It was so high and far downwind that I started to panic somewhat because it was getting hard to see. As I brought it back, it blinked off a couple of times because my eyes were getting a little tired.
Against a pure blue sky, nothing much stood out, and everythig started looking the same.
When I brought it back and successfully landed, I felt I'd had enough...even though the last flight was the longest.
I'll take the 7:05 and be happy.

Thanks for the contest Mark! :)
I hoipe you do it again.

[ejett]

I think this was a really cool idea. Why don't we have a monthly contest with this format? It gives us a good motivation to get out and fly.

EJ

[rogerflies]

ejett, thanks for mentioning Google Earth. Wow.

What's the plane in your avatar?

I flew today, but there was no thermal activity. I got some decent times riding a wave over a tree line, but nothing better than Friday or Saturday.

We found out who owns the property where the tree is. We're going to try to get permission to cut it down, since it's got a large diseased place on the trunk. Hopefully, the plane will survive the ride down.

Roger

[histarter]

Friday was marginally nice, so this afternoon I went out to Monticello, FL, with my Lovesong and ClutchWinch. Shifty winds less than 10 and clear skies. Some of my times were OK, though.

5:39 6
2:31 6
14:30 12
25:35 12
3:15 6
23:48 12

I may try again tomorrow.

Roger
Interesting Roger.
Doing the statistical math (my way) you averaged 9 minutes doing a 12 minute task; Soaring Factor was 0.5 [Rather low!]
Jacks data comes out with the same low Soaring Factor 0.5 but is irratic - not enough sample size.
Rank newbies in the HAM system grade over 0.6 SF by the system. :rolleyes:

[ejett]

Rogerflies:

I am a fan of Google Earth, but I didn't mention it in this thread. Maybe somewhere else....

Anyway, that's my Oly III in the Avatar. It is a nice looking ship. I'm still working on getting my wing incidences to match. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'll keep fiddling with it until I get it right. Nice thing about wood construction is that it is fairly easy to fiddle with. Of course, if I had set it up right the first time, I would not be having to fiddle with it now. :o I guess I need to invest in an incidence meter so I can check this stuff more accurately. I generally just use some strip stock taped to the bottom of the wing to check it. I thought I had it right, but I get a little "left aileron" and I have to counter with right rudder. Could possibly be flap trim, but they look right. Anyway it is a "trim issue" that I have to get sorted out.

It's a big plane. The older I get, the better I like big planes. :D

EJ

[rdwoebke]

Roger,

How high is the tree/the plane in the tree? A much safer retrievel method (for the plane) would be a collapsing pole or if the tree could stand it, a repeller. A friend of mine treed a plane at the top of a ~85 foot tree a few years back, and lucky for my friend I worked with a guy that repells and he got the plane back easily.


Ryan

[sixty9mustang]

Yep, 19:90... I don't see 21:30 in any of my posts...(?) If you're gonna cheat for me make it a 24:30 and get me ahead of Roger... :D
I think what he was trying to say is that there is only 60 seconds in a minute. So your 19:90 would equate to 20 minutes and 30 seconds, not 21:30 :p .

Happy FLying
Chip

[kwmtrubrit]

I think this was a really cool idea. Why don't we have a monthly contest with this format? It gives us a good motivation to get out and fly.

EJ

"I second that emotion." All joking aside, I think that this is a great idea. For those of us that don't get to contests, or have a club large enough for such a thing, this would satisfy the competition juices.

Keith

[cosmicpossum]

Two 15 minuters were about all I could muster this weekend until the cold front swept in and killed what little lift I could find today.

Well done to those that got out there and found it!!

[oscillator]

EJ,

Glad you liked the contest. I agree, we should have a monthly postal - I would suggest making it run the entire month. BTW - this contest is still running until end of day tomorrow. Hopefully some people have tomorrow off and will post more flights.

Roger,

Bummer the plane is still in the tree. Hope you manage to get it down.

I was the one who mentioned Google earth. In case someone out there hasn't noticed, there is a measuring tool on Google earth. Very useful for determining the size of a field, distance between points, etc. This is how I verified my winch setup was about 700 ft today.

Thanks again to all who posted. Hope we get a few more tomorrow. I have some ideas for an April contest which I will post in the next few days.

Cheers,
Mark

[Kenny Sharp]

I for one, flew again. I got off work, and went to another local airport.
It was 5:30 pm and winds 11 mph, gusts to 17. Temp was 38 F.

My second throw was 9:35. I was happy and thought I could easily break my 7 min. mark of the day before.
I was wrong.
After that, the lift (not the wind), steadily died down and the best I could do was sub 5 min.

I'll have to let the previouis days score stand.

[rogerflies]

I estimate it's about 30 feet to the lowest limb and a little over 70 to the plane. The ground around the tree is several feet lower than the road. Then there's the high voltage power lines, which are about 5 feet this side of the foliage above them.

The plane came to rest with both wings in a crotch, so it's going to be tough to just push it out.

Roger

[histarter]

Lets tuck this one in, Easter is over. Try a new line of postal events or a better subject.

[danstrider]

OOh, I just found this thread! I flew on Friday the 21st (gotta be the weekend, school was out Friday ;-) and posted 15.17, 80.58, and 48.85 minute flights. Lift was good and batteries got low, so the last flight was cut short... I now have some li-ion cells for the same weight and double the capacity waiting to go in. Anyhow, they say post more details. Flew an old SBXC off a standard TD winch. Launches were right around 500ft for the 11.5lb plane. Max altitude was 3805ft. Rode one particular thermal up 3000ft continuously. Oh joy for low wind! Oh joy for a vario too...
I wrote a little flight report up too: http://goosetech.homelinux.com/soaring/journal.php#55

Fun to participate, thanks for starting up the thread Mark.
Dan


Oh yeah, also flew the Bubble Dancer to pick up an LSF level 2 flight. Quit at the 16.3 minute mark because wanted to get the beast in the air. My buddy flew the BD over 30 minutes later in the day and picked up a few landings for his level 2. We're just getting going on LSF. Really fun though. Only have pictures from the BD flights; hands were kind of full for the big bird. I have SBXC pics on the above link if you really want to see some though.

[rdwoebke]

Oh yeah, also flew the Bubble Dancer to pick up an LSF level 2 flight. .

Dan,

Great write up. Nice pics. Congrats on your L2 flights.

Also, if you want to join in, we have a thread going on for LSF performance task work:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=832596

Ryan