No pictures, but we tried another F3RES contest format on Saturday.

Six pilots, so we set up three hi-starts and ran two heats. We did three rounds. We had three of the current F3RES ships, and three "regular" 2-meter, traditional ships.

Mike flew the X-RES ship in our test pool, and scored 2928 points out of 3000 possible. He got landing points twice.
Greg flew the Slite in our test pool, and and scored 2492. If I'd got landing points, I would have looked better, but....
Kirby flew the PuRES in our test pool, and scored 2058 points. He scored landing points in ALL THREE ROUNDS, including a 100-pointer!
Dan flew his 2-meter Whatever, and scored 1805 points. He scored both a 92 and a 100 point landing.
Steve flew his Lil Bird (which be featured in the flight test. He even had a 1000-point round, flying without glide path control.
Efrain flew a genuine Gentle Lady, and scored 1348 points. Efrain couldn't stick the soft lift but had landing points twice.

John, our local Queen's Own representative to the colonies, lent his brass lungs to be our window caller and line judge.

I have come to love my Slite, but Mike really waxed me good with the X-RES. I flew in the same heat with him twice, but I timed for him in the third round, and did it to myself. I fancy that I was able to coach him into a real landing approach, and he garnered 85 landing points. He'd a beat me, anyway.

I was very gratified at how some people, who have never before tried competition, found that this sort of flying lifts you up a notch. Our club is an inclusive club, so everyone who tries is given all the help possible to succeed. In fact, on Steve's third launch in the first heat, he was coached into what lift there was, and buried the others by almost 2-to-1 in flight time. Now that's what club competition should be about: everyone flying better. I love just getting out and noodling around, but unless someone starts needling me to do better, I tend to stagnate.

And so, now, I'm foot stomping our contest for November 4-5. F3RES, as many hi-starts as we can line up (possible eight), and as many competitors as we can attract.

In Tucson, Ray K., Jerry R. and myself flew F3-RES with one of my short "Unofficial high starts" (15mt. HK blue, 50 mt. line). Ray had his Allergo lite with his conventional fuselage that flew great. Jerry and I took turns flying my AndREaS, since Jerry's 2 meter plane had battery issues. We all made some 6 minute flights, with Ray's Allergo refusing to come down, all this before 10 am...
We are planning to get together at Sage next Saturday(March 18th), starting around 8:30-9 am. if you feel like driving again! Cloudsniffer is also planning to be down with his new Tarantula Hawk..
Cheers,
JR

Sounds like fun

Greg
I am really looking forward to your contest in November!!

Sounded like fun !

This "IS " a lot of fun, AND you get exercise as the timer/helper with multiple launches.

"Hey John, how much time is left?", was the most commonly heard phrase.

One thing that really was illustrated was that with low wind speeds, light lift and the official high starts, the old style 2 meters such as the Gentle Lady and Spirits get terrible launches and can not really compete with the latest F3RES gliders that are much lighter and have excellent airfoils.


Mike

Did any of you guys log your launch altitude on these flights? So far I have been flying my X-res by myself until some of the other local guys get some planes finished. I have been using about 60 meters of mono instead of 100m to fit the flying field. The wind always seems to blow across the field rather than along the length. My FrSky vario is telling me that I am launching to 75m in a 5-10mph wind, which is about the length of the unstretched histart. Just wondering if the full length histart gets much more height for the extra length.
Another thing I have learned is that if the wind gets over 10mph and is turbulent, retrieve your plane quickly or it may blow downwind all roll itself up into a ball of balsa and covering.

Mike
Interesting observation about the older designs. Did you see any correlation between launch height and eventual finish position? In your estimation which design launched the highest? Did you guys get close to 6 minutes each flight group? Thanks L

We didn't log any launch heights - no loggers out that day. I would say the older ships suffered, although good lift spotting skills can make up for a lot of other disadvantages. The lift was soft early on, but in evidence from the earliest flight. You just had to be patient with it, and it would first hold you, then gradually lift you. The Slite only had to re-launch in one round, and though I had to follow lift a long ways, there was enough. Steve got his 1000-pointer flying his Lil Bird, and logged 5:54. He wasn't able to log that much again. Mike never logged less than 4:30 with the X-RES and the spoilers on that bird work real well. Mike seemingly had the advantage. And, the three F3RES birds (X-RES, Slite and PuRES) finished 1-2-3 in that order.

Thanks Greg. Looking forward to sharing Sky soon. L

Originally Posted by Larry Jolly

Mike
Interesting observation about the older designs. Did you see any correlation between launch height and eventual finish position? In your estimation which design launched the highest? Did you guys get close to 6 minutes each flight group? Thanks L

In a way yes.

If I had to re-launch and one of the heavy gliders had to re-launch at about the same time I was confident that the X-RES would launch a bit higher and get a longer flight if the air was soft. When the air was more active the X-RES would still get a higher launch. Also, the lighter gliders would indicate weak lift much better. There was little or no zoom off the launch for any of the gliders. I thought the three F3RES gliders launched about the same.

The X-RES is a great little sailplane, and if anyone is wondering what to buy-the X-RES seems as good as the best, and maybe easiest to build. Greg built the one I was flying and would know.

Mike

A few pics from our F3RES 'duration' tests this morning. Fly in dead air as long as possible with minimum control input. I don't know who/what was longest, I guess Greg will post results.