The FF guys have been using 8m poles for thermal streamers for years. A 12m pole with a guy line isn't that expensive or hard to set up. If you don't get out of the turbulent layer, you will never get a decent reading, and there will always be sufficient turbulence to drop the reading below 8m/sec, even if it is 16m/sec out of the turbulence.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DiWe...722166919.html

If you really want any sort of realistic measurement, the present and proposed techniques aren't going to get you there. A hot-wire anemometer has a small probe size, and many of them already come on a telescopic stick:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DiWe...722166919.html

Or you can continue to stare at the random number generators in the ground turbulence, and end up flying in model destroying conditions.

Kevin

Thats why i 'm in favor for a Max measured at the ground. That where we start and land and where the damage rate gets higher. Setting a number measured at the ground might not be the standard rule to measure but it does represent the conditions we start and land on.

True it isn't ideal but cheap and easy to do.

Originally Posted by kcaldwel

...
Or you can continue to stare at the random number generators in the ground turbulence, and end up flying in model destroying conditions.

That's exactly what Krikkens is trying to ask: if the rules say 2 metres (too low) we break stuff, if we measure at 50 m (with a drone ??) we never fly... How do others interpred the rules?

I went overthere, but didn't start... It's a lousy feeling, driving back home knowing that the others are flying. (sort of... , 40sec flights) Afterwards, I received some mails: you were right not to fly.
But in the case you' re interested to go for the points: you 'll have to!
I'm glad one of the Belgian top 5 guys asked the question here, and I heard other 'big' pilots had their concern about yesterdays weather too... So I hope we (in Belgium) can come to a proper interpretation of the rule (or adapt it to our needs)

Maybe we have to look at the Dutch DLG comitee: they post an announcement the evening before if a contest is going to take place or cancelled... How do they make up their decision?

In Holland they cancel for expected Rain but not for wind if i'm correct.
I have flown very Windy contests in Holland aswell.


I really think we where close to the limit this contest, it was just over it but not by much in my opinion. i'm not in favor of only flying when the sun is shining and little to no wind conditions.
It is a contest and difference's are made when it get's nasty. We do have ballast for such conditions.

But i believe we do have to set a limit somewhere just below what we had last sunday.

40sec flights occured but 4minute flights aswell

I also understand your decision Chris, everybody can make a decision for himself, absolutely no shame in that. It's important to feel comfortable flying...

For me the morning was very flyable and others agreed but at the end of the contest it got worse. General consensus was.. We went this far so we might aswell continue. Not sure this is a good reasoning but we did it and if i'm correct no planes got damaged after the voting.

What i'm sayin is we should not set rules so all pilot's feel comfortable, it should be challenging but somewhere we need a limit.
If no pilot's decide not to fly do to wind then the limit is set way to low i believe...

Originally Posted by tom43004

As for rain, in the US sometimes CDs drive us to fly through rain. I won't fly in rain.

I won't either. I am not a top competitor though. I can understand how those looking to go to WC would feel pressure to do things they wouldn't normally do.

I had a transmitter behave oddly with light rain serveral years ago when I was into RC Helicopters. Well... actually what happened was that I was under shelter waiting for the light rain to stop. I had not gone out into it rain before that. It stopped raining and I went out to go fly. What seemed like a single drop of water fell from my roof right into the gimble area when I was carrying everything out. I just happen to be looking at the transmitter when it happened. The Tx stopped functioning within a few seconds after that. It was several years ago so I don't remember the details of how it behaved unfortunately(EDIT: it is coming back to me... the screen locked up). Luckily it recovered after I turned it off and let it sit for a day or so under a light bulb to keep it a little warm. I spent almost the entire next day just testing it on and off to make sure it was still ok to fly with. In hind sight I probably should have sent it in to be safe but luckily it worked perfectly after that.

We had Nationals in 12m/s average, and that's a boring game.
best is I lost my ballast because of the airline company and flew empty all contest...

I bought a wind meter a few years ago to be used at NZ contests. The meter averages for a period of 30 seconds for its normal wind velocity (it updates the wind every 30 seconds). The wind meter also has an alarm one can set if the wind exceeds a set value. We set the alarm for the 8m/s value and halt the contest if the alarm sounds. Sometimes it is a temporary halt. Most of the time if the wind starts blowing it isn't likely to lighten up.

I'd far rather use an average wind instead of the current rule as written.

Add: I mount the wind meter at 3m above the ground. The wind meter transmits the data from the meter down to a remote display (where one sets the alarm).

hi Joe,

that sounds ideal , don't know about the cost of such a system , could you please share what you are using?

thanks

Originally Posted by nickbox

We had Nationals in 12m/s average, and that's a boring game.
best is I lost my ballast because of the airline company and flew empty all contest...

no ballast in 12m wind ? then i guess your flight times wheren' t long or the model was quit heavy . it takes quit a steep dive in speed mode for a light model to maintain positive groundspeed .

i think we had an average of around 10 most moments on sunday , barely enough for a 80gr ballasted model to keep level in speed mode and have and have an average of zero groundspeed

Originally Posted by krikkens

no ballast in 12m wind ? then i guess your flight times wheren' t long or the model was quit heavy . it takes quit a steep dive in speed mode for a light model to maintain positive groundspeed .

i think we had an average of around 10 most moments on sunday , barely enough for a 80gr ballasted model to keep level in speed mode and have and have an average of zero groundspeed

i think the guy who got 1000 in AULD had won with a 50 second flight

Originally Posted by ThomasLee

i think the guy who got 1000 in AULD had won with a 50 second flight

the most incredible round i flew a was a last 2 flight round , there where people scoring 14 sec flights that counted! that's from let's say 50meter launch height !
a 30 sec flight for sure was a keeper that round , lol

i think i got lucky , i kept pushing and at the end of the round i think i made it to almost 1 minute for my last flight killing everyone else on the field.

winds where high but not huge back then , i think average around 8-9 but man what a period of sink

Ok, my suggestion, partly in line with the proposal for rules change:

Don't use three measurement points in a sliding window. That would ask for parallel loging from the second trigger. Complicated.

Set a limit, say 12 meters per second. If exceeded, start a timer or buzzer. If it exceeds again within 2 minutes, stop the task and pause for half an hour. If within that half hour there is no new buzzer and surpassing within two minutes, restart flying.

If there is, wait another half hour.

If there has been a forced pause for three times, stop the contest.

No measurements during planned pause.

Originally Posted by krikkens

hi Joe,

that sounds ideal , don't know about the cost of such a system , could you please share what you are using?

thanks

I'll hunt down the details of what I bought when I am on a real computer instead of an android... the cost was about $45 USD. The only annoyance is that the wind speed is shown in either kph or mph only. I set the wind speed alarm to 29 kph. A side note is that the display also keeps and displays peak "instantaneous" (30sec avg) and "average" (5 minute average) winds. The two data points are useful to better understand the delta between long term average and the sustained gust. If the average stays well below the 29 kph, we may just do a temporary wait for the blow to pass through.

Here is a link to a similar system to what I have... they evidently have changed it a little since I bought mine...

https://www.acurite.com/acurite-digi...ill-00634.html

It can be found at Walmart for $57USD at present.

Reading the instructions, the "average" speed posted is for the average of the previous 2 minutes. My testing showed that the "current" and "peak" wind speed was actually an average over 30 seconds for the unit that I purchased. This simple system works for me in terms of defining what is appropriate for holding a contest.

I will comment that our local contests tend to cater to the more casual flier. We have put contests on hold in the past, and a few of the rather keen pilots continued to fly for fun while waiting for the wind to get back to a more manageable value. In my view it is far better to pause the contest in order for the intermediate pilots to not break things as opposed to continue in very adverse conditions where only the most keen pilots can fly safely. Where this pause should occur should depend on the composition of the competitors...