The Central Arizona Soaring League
( http://www.public.asu.edu/~vansanfo/casl/index.html )

is hosting the first leg of the "Western States Triad Series" on February 11 & 12, 2006. ( http://www.rcsoaring.com/triad/ )

The CONTEST SITE is at Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek, AZ (45 min SE of Phoenix)

Is anyone here going to keep us updated during this major competition?

There will be some of the VERY BEST PILOTS IN THE WORLD there.
Some of the competitors listed will be Joe Wurts, Daryl Perkins, Mike Lee, Skip Miller and Larry Jolly. Daryl is the defending Champion.

I certainly hope someone is up to the task. I would love to see pictures too.

Bill Rhinehart
ISS

hello Bill

weather is looking good, should be high 70's for the contest

I'm in Southern AZ and today's cloud is just burning off at noon

Flying in Open and RES but won't be able to give you any news until Sunday pm when I get home

180 entries (we can fly multiple classes so it's not 180 pilots) and most better then me but I'll enjoy the weekend anyhow I'm sure

Flying a Polecat Thermal Dancer and a Chrysabubba (Chrysalis 2m fuselage and a sort of Bubble Dancer wing)

Philip

Thanks Philip!

At least one person will be watching the info coming out.

Have fun!!

Bill

P.S. It's Santa Ana Conditions here in So. Cal. so it looks like we all will be "Grounded" this weekend.

Today, the U.S. F3J Teams appearred for a team practice and contest open to anyone who wished to fly. About 24 pilots were signed up and the weather for the day started with cool overcast and variable winds of only 3 MPH. Lift was very spotty and light. We got three round of flying in with lift getting good about an hour into the event. And then came lunch...and a wind storm...and just enough sprinkling rain to make the dust stick your car, your plane, your radio, you...and everything else. Contest ended.

Pilots coming to Phoenix...beware! What looks like grass on the field is actually dried stubs of what once was grass. The ground is hard and there will be carnage to those who choose to dork with any force. Be prepared for lots of dust. And I mean a lot! Even the dead grass has dust that then leaps to your shoes and you look like you have been marching across the Gobi Desert in five minutes. If you have asthma...be prepared. And bring lots of water!

Mike Lee

Thanks Mike!!

Somehow it sounds like our field.

I look forward to your updates and I'll keep the guys updated.

Go get em.

Bill

Been hunting around and have yet to find any reports. Anybody seen/heard something. All I know for sure is the Colorado boys better stay down there for a little while longer. We have "snow & low temps" round these parts.

Oh how I await updates.
The suspense is killing me.

I just read this over on RCSE...

1st - DP
2nd - JW
3rd - Joseph Newcomb

Hi Jim:

I'm dense.

What exactly is "RCSE"?

I have friends that are flying there today.

I can't believe a contest of this magnatude isn't being updated on the Net.

How otherwise are they to generate interest?

This was a major "Fubar".

Bill

Originally Posted by wrhinehart

Hi Jim:

I'm dense.

What exactly is "RCSE"?

I have friends that are flying there today.

I can't believe a contest of this magnatude isn't being updated on the Net.

How otherwise are they to generate interest?

This was a major "Fubar".

Bill

RCSE is short for RC Soaring Exchange, an email list for the RC Soaring community that has been around for years. You usually read this via email, but I will supply a web link to an archive, (which is a little behind the list so it is not up to the minute complete) but at least you can check it out with your web browser.

There has been some SWC reports on RCSE, but still no pictures yet.

Here is the web link for RCSE

Originally Posted by wrhinehart

What exactly is "RCSE"?

Bill,

As Jim said, RCSE is a listserve. It seems to be mostly geared towards competition glider topics these days. Some of the "hot thumbs" in US soaring post to it quite often. You can join it somehow, although I am not subscribed to the list so I can not comment on that. If you want to actively post to it, I would suggest joining.

That said, if you just want to lurk, you can also read RCSE via the yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soaring/messages

Or here on good old RCGroups:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...1&page=2&pp=15

It looks like you already found that mirror. BTW, your reply to the SWC post that Darwin posted may or may not ever make it to him.... Or onto RCSE...

I read RCSE via the yahoo group. You can post to RCSE via the yahoo group too, but it takes a few days for your post to make it to RCSE and sometimes your posts never make it at all. So that is fun! Kind of like gambling though, it keeps you coming back...

Good luck!!!

Ryan

Bill,
Other than World Championships (and not really sure of them) no one is updating a contest during the day unless someone does it via a private e-mail usually, most times the folks running these events are working hard running the contest (remember 170 fliers or so). And usually scores are posted after a complete event, not by the day, even for the Nats. Not sure what you expected, but, as of right now this is the norm.

Marc

very challenging air at the SWC this weekend

lots of off field landings including 2 planes fried on the power lines, (off field starts about 750' from the expected landing site)

a slow start due to the usual winch/retriever/2 miles of string problems and relocating winches to give more people room meant we only had 6 of the expected 7 rounds flown

we didn't get the forecast wind on Saturday and it was blue skies, sunny and warm on both days, mostly downwind launches except for early in the day

think I came 42nd in Open out of 120 ??

think safety - I was assembling my plane ready for a flight when WHAM!! an out of control plane on launch hit the ground and part of my plane, missed me by inches and my timer by a couple of feet. very scary moment I tell you that, put me out of RES too.

Philip

try the " Tucson Thermal Soaring " thread post #158 for pictures from the SWC

Philip

results are up on rcsoaring.com under "Contest Results"

Philip