San Felasco is in the books and it did not disappoint. This is the first F3K contest of the year and it couldn't happen in a better location of sunny central Florida. The weather was warm, the flying conditions were challenging and a good time was had by all, even those that landed in the trees. It started on Friday with some setup and practice flying in the morning, then a nice catered lunch and a 6 round 1M competition. The weather was perfect and these little planes were doing great. 15 pilots joined in on the fun and the top 6 went on to a 3 round fly off where the scores carried over. Here's how it all ended up.
The main F3K contest started on Saturday morning. The wind started picking up early and the back tree line was a good ways out and that meant more land outs than I've ever seen. I landed out probably a half dozen times or more and just couldn't believe it. This also meant that the points spread on the leaderboard could change in an instant and no one was beyond making it into the Top 10 to make the fly offs. It was super fun to fly in these conditions and challenge yourself to read the air.
Sunday started out foggy and we could launch right into it, meaning you couldn't really fly much higher than launch height. The wind was light and you could float for days, but there was actually some lift working if you went back behind the trees. That also meant flying deep into the fog and it was a struggle to even see your plane at times. The fog eventually burned off and the sun came out and we flew until around 2PM getting in 12 rounds of prelims. I somehow managed to end up in 9th in the prelims to make the flyoffs and I was carrying a 571 score! I went into the flyoffs knowing there was no way I could reach the top 3 with the points carrying over, so it was more just for fun. The wind really picked up so I put my heavy ballast stick in and went out for battle. We flew 3 rounds in some of the craziest air I've ever seen. There was carnage, tree landings, land outs and killer sink along with booming thermals. It was crazy! I ended up taking 2nd place in the fly off rounds which only moved me up two spots in the overall standings to 7th place. Kyle won the flyoffs by 53 points, his first time doing that he said, congrats! Here's the top 3 pilots after the fly offs. Great flying guys!
Man what a fun time! I cannot wait to get back here next February. Thanks to all the men and women who worked so hard to put this together, you all are rock stars!
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Whats the electronics box, pic #10?
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Latest blog entry: 93" AJ Laser 230z
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That's the timing electronics that run the whole contest automatically. Mickey built it and programmed it, pretty amazing stuff.
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I live in Central Florida and I fly sailplanes. I have never heard of San Felasco. Where, oh where, is San Felasco? This is a recurring pet peeve of mine. Postings made of some event that does not state where it was held, other than something vague, like central Florida.
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Near Alachua...
The main thread has all the details. Map info is in the first post. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...Feb-15-17-2019 |
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if only there were a way to search for areas you're not familiar with
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Seeing as waveglider has converted myself and two other VA locals to F3K in the last year I don’t think he has anything to do with affecting attendance other than maybe making it go up.
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I agree with many of the points above on friendliness and welcoming . . . on the field.
In the forums, that's always a mixed bag, but I believe Finn's point was "Google is your Friend" is a pretty antisocial answer. Common, sure, but antisocial. In this case, a new guy shows up effectively asking for more info about an article from a poorly publicized event (if you're not in F3K, why would you look at the "Hand Launched" section for a random thread?). Google would not have answered what he wanted to know. It would have pointed to a state park web page that talked about trails, trees and horses, and if it mentions ANYTHING about RC it's that you CAN'T. Wayne pointed to relevant info. Kudos. Kyle . . . pointed to snark, and useless snark at that. Entertaining, for the rest of us, sure, but back to the point, antisocial. Is this why "have trouble getting people to participate in contest flying"? no . . . but it might go some length to edbu1 thinking he might just stay back in ORL next February. Kyle, keep encouraging people to fly F3K . . . but this isn't how. Finn, chill -- no need blowing this bigger than it is. |
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