Flying Reports

F3B Sighting System

Sun, 5 Sep 2010 23:13:20 -0500

Glauco Lago: Since the contest yesterday was unexpectedly short, I had to go back again and fly a little more but this time to practice a little more F3B.
At least I found out why I like F3B, it is the only thing Chris can't beat me. Well, that and number of kids but that one he still has a chance to catch up.
Main reason to fly today was to test my new wireless base B sound device along a few gizmos I decided to add. That is what I've beem working lattely and I'm happy to report it works most of the time. In brief it is a setup where the person standing at base B (150 meters away from me) pushes a button and a horn at base A tells me my plane has flow by base B. I also added a stopwatch and a counter, both foot switch operated so I can time the speed runs and count the laps too.
As a helper at base B was my lovely teenager daughter which was thrilled to wake up at 7AM and spent a bit of time doing nothing. But must say she did a fantastic job, the same for Gabriel who couldn't wait to spend another day at the sod farm.
It was supposed to be windy and the forecast got it right. It should be light early in the morning but moving two kids from home early Sunday and setting up two winches, two sighting devices plus everything else takes a long time so when all was ready it was about 9:30. Those F3B planes penetrate well so wind isn't much a problem but I'm trying to get the slow 180° turns down to a science but the wind wasn't helping.
Later in the morning I decided to remove one of the shells of a winch so the diameter of the drum is smaller, this is done to fly with some wind. But the line I had was 1.1 mm which is a bit too thin for wind and ballast. Decided to launch anyway, hooked up left for the wind direction and half way the line broke. Really interesting, the line in the drum fused to itself and that is why it broke, I can still pull the line from the drum but it is somewhat stuck to each other.
So with one winch, wind, the sun right in front of me and two bored kids I decided to quit and pack all that gear. Would love if more people would fly B, at least I could share the setup time. But it was fun and I can't wait to try my new to me Freestyler 3 that should arrive this week. It is a scary fast plane so it should be interesting.
Glauco

September TD Contest

Sat, 4 Sep 2010 21:20:22 -0500

Adam Quennoz: For an event that I didn't flyin I sure had a great time. When I arrived I quickly assembled my sailplane anxious to shoot a few landing. Turned the radio on, then the sailplane.....nothing. Hmmm....check voltage. .5 volts. Something is wrong!! I hooked up the charger and saw the same result. After many attempts to get some milliamps in the battery I decided not to risk flying. Apparently I have a bad cell in the pack that is pulling the rest of the cells down. After every charge, the voltage meter reads 6.5 volts. That's good for a 4 cell pack but not a 5 cell. I want to thank those who offered me a plane to fly or a battery pack. You guys are the greatest! As a personal rule I don't fly other peoples competition planes. Especially in contests. I won't take a chance. The day was not a loss. I got to time in every group in every round. I timed for Steve Goulet in 2m and Unlimited. He usually flew in first group of Unlimited so I was able to time for someone else in group 2.. I got to time for Chris in the last 3 or 4 rounds. It was a good experience for me as I got to learn quite a bit.

I can't wait until Octobers TD contest. I should be fully charged with extra packs in the flight box just in case. See you then....

Adam Q

Robert Samuels: Hi Flyers: As forecast the weather was really beautiful. Cool and light winds. Sky was clear and the field was solid. We set up along Peruque Ck. Rd. due to the wind direction. Which meant that landings were over the power lines, cars, parked airplanes and winches.

I got there at about 8:00 expecting to be the first to the field. But I was one of the last. Chris had been there since dawn practicing but what is new about that? There was already a canopy set up and the scoring system up and running. Team MILLER soon had the 42 winches, turnarounds and landing tapes set up with a little help from other club guys. Pete Eaton was out practicing shagging the chutes, bless his heart. Pete shagged chutes the entire contest almost by himself. He now has a system worked out that he likes but it requires the chutes be tapped down so they are lined up, more or less. Pete ... we will do better next time, I promise!

2M which normally does not create a high level of excitement was pretty entertaining this time. Steve Goulet had his new Sprite out and was looking to take over the 2M class. In the first round I managed to find lift and buried the next best by over 4 minutes. But then I had a short flight and Steve and Mark M were back in the hunt. But then they had bad flights and I managed to regain the lead. I had a couple of low level saves to max out and managed to stay in front ... but just barely. Whew!!

Unlimited was hotly contested and the good lift conditions made landings rather important. I think that Chris' 57,623 practice landings may have paid off as he once again won unlimited. But things are looking a lot different this year in unlimited. I don't know if you, the reader, has noticed but we now have a significant crop of young studs making like difficult for us old timers. Chris, Glauco, Paul, Brendan, Steve Goulet, Adam and now .... Brody.   By now I should be used to be beaten by kids who are strong and skilled. Been happening to me for many years ... several times a week ... on the ice rink. Now it's at the field .... Darn!

HIGHLIGHTS

MOST IMPROVED FLIER: Harold Weaver gets this award. Harold is trying to break into the soaring scene with a 2M Vista that is not exactly a high performance ship. During one flight while I was desperately trying to find lift at about 5 minutes into the flight my timer told me that far away the entire rest of the field was skying out ... including Harold. Way to go Harold.

WINNER OF THE LIMBO TASK: Even though I announced that we would not have a limbo task Ed Rau decided he would nevertheless include it in his flights. Ed was having a great flight in unlimited and was last man up when he decided to show off and do a limbo run under the wires. He misjudged by a little and ... darn ... hit them. But the damage to his plane is repairable as is the damage to Brody's father-in-laws' van. However Ed was not daunted by this little mishap so he attempted it again with his 2M. Unfortunately the results were the same. But less car damage. But since he was the only one who attempted this task he gets the award!!!

CHRIS SAVES MY 2M: Chris was timing me in 2M and I was waaay up. I crossed in front of another plane and darn if I didn't lose track of my plane and I started flying someone elses. Bless the fact that Chris has the ability to track every plane in the sky as well as the direction of the blowing fluff, length of shadows, temperature variations, stock market report, my blood sugar, most everyones date of birth and whatever else is going on in the world at the moment. He noticed I was happily looking north while my plane was over the Busch property doing loops. He was able to direct my laser like focus back to my own plane .... Whew!!!   I definitely owe him another whatever.

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Adam, one of our newest stars, drives 4 hours up from Bolivar and finds his battery is not working. Darn!   On the other hand it meant that I finished one level higher than I would have otherwise. But Adam took it in stride and having him there is always nice. Better when he can fly but .... oh well.

If you were not there ... you should have been!

El Roberto

Final standings:
Unlimited
Chris Lee 5468.33
Nelson Itterly 5329.31
Glauco Lago 5200.65
Brody Wilson 5156.61
Robert Samuels 5078.31
Paul Luebke 4782.32
Art Frost 4406.83
Brendan Miller 4283.80
Mark Miller 4250.33
Steve Goulet 4034.07
Ed Rau 994.95
Harold Weaver 520.392-Meter
Robert Samuels 4878.62
Steve Goulet 4323.82
Mark Miller 3088.51
Ed Rau 1805.78
Harold Weaver 1226.21

Round-By-Round Scores for Unlimited and 2-Meter.

Mark Miller: Satuday's contest was wonderful. Great weather and a new plane to fly. I made wholesale changes to my radio program Wednesday night and planned on getting to the field after work some evening before work. That didn't happen and so Brendan and I arrived at the field before Chris even. We assembled our planed and got out the bungie. I went up and had to add piles of down trim in all flight modes to get it to fly level. I found that somehow my basic center point was way off so I brought that back to where the plane flew with the trims centered. Even the elevator compensation was close. We launched a few more times and I declared things good enough.
As for Team Miller while we do our fair share of work it is really the membership that makes things happen at the field. I think we are so used to getting set up that everyone has a preferred job and it all gets done. It is kind of like if I drove the van to one of the bad parts of the bronx in New York and parked the van and walked away. You come back a half hour later and things are gone. it's like a pack of vultures when I pull up to the field. Thanks guys.
2 meter was fun except that I blew my first flight and dropped back quickly. In 2 meter you best have a good plan or glom onto someone else's plan and do it quickly or you are toast. No time to dawdle if you have nothing. I had a few good rounds but no one else messed up as bad as I did so there was no catching up.
In unlimited the new Zenith flew well. I quickly got comfortable with it and found that between the different flight modes and some extra camber and reflex on a slider it was like having gears in your car. Depending on your needs just put it in the right configuration and it did what you intended. I still have a lot to learn about the plane. I did get a zero flight one round as I did the old working low lift and made one to many a turn.
Brendan stripped a gear on one of his aileron servos so he went back to his Espada and had a good contest with it. We used the new Airtronics 9489 servos for aileron and rudder. They are tiny and a sturdy gear train and good torque. He had kind of a hard landing the flight before and I think it damaged the gear then. We noticed something weird just before the flight where it blew out completely. We will retrofit his plane with 761's if they fit well. Mostly because if one has a problem they can be swapped out quickly with the servo frames. The 809's are glued in. I am going to start importing some CNC cut servo frames soon and have already contacted them about making one for the 809. I will keep the 809's in my plane and see if it may have been damaged from handling while building. We all turn the servo arm to move the servo but it puts great stress in the gear train as it is not designed for that action. usually we get away with it but sometimes not. Daryl Perkins used the 809/761 servo arrangement on his Worlds winning Icon 2 without an issue. I'm not going to count the servo out yet as a good one for ailerons and rudder.
I too had vision problems at this contest as did others. Art, you are not alone. It seems that those of us with white planes flying to the south with the glare of the sun suffered the most. I originally ordered a red Zenith but had been having vision issued with red in a bright blue sky. When the plane came white instead of red I was excited but now I'm not so sure. a few times I left lift that was down wind to go fly up with with the sun at my back so that the white plane showed up better and I felt more confident. I never suffered from landing early as the lift was everywhere anyway except no one left the down wing choice. Watching Brendan's plane, orange is looking like a good choice for me. Looking at Chris's collection of planes he seems to agree. I may have to get another Zenith or two in different colors and sell off the white one.
Mark Miller

Paul Luebke: I also lost sight of my plane for a short period - maybe about 5 seconds. This was the first time with my yellow Pike S. and the pucker factor was increasing exponentially. Checking my Zlog data later I saw that I was up to 1800ft on one flight, although I'm not sure if that was the same flight.  It was a very nice day though and I had a great time. Thanks to the Millers, Pete, Brody and Robert for the work required to make it a great contest.

Sunday F3B Practice

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:38:25 -0500

Glauco Lago: Was able to get a special permit with the wife for some Sunday morning flying so loaded the car Saturday night, was up by 6:30 on Sunday and made to the sod farm at 7:30.
The idea was to practice F3B so another 45 minutes to set up both winches and by 8:15 had the first launch. Actually the first plane to launch was the Aspire since I wanted to test the fuse repair and nothing better than a B winch since it can rip any moldie wing. I went easy on the launch but that darn one way brake keeps adding tension even if you are off pedal so I got a very nice snap and zoom without anything falling apart. Not much lift so just cruised back.
Time for the always scary Tool. Not much wind so to warm up decided to launch without ballast and have a thermal duration flight. Then none else than Chris and wife showed up at the field, just passing by on their way to Columbia. Chris wanted to see a speed run so I loaded the Tool with full ballast, all up weight was about 120 oz and let him throw which scared him a bit but all went fine.
Launch wasn’t too good and the simulated run was slow so went for another try, this one was a little faster. After about 5 minutes they left unimpressed with the “speed” and I went back to the original program, removed most of the ballast to launch the plane myself. Usually on B you refer to ballast as a percent of total weight your plane can carry so 100% would be full ballast.
Due to the small V tail, the Tool needs a good throw to get it flying and after I broke one on launch I’m always scared. So for the distance runs I started with 40% ballast without too much trouble throwing it, then settled to 60%. Mike Lachowski passed me some tips saying I should try to find lift before getting in the course, easily done considering you are flying a 100 oz, 118” WS unstable V tail plane, nope, not easy but fun trying.
Thought the roll was a bit slow on distance so added some aileron throw and for fun some more elevator throw. Wow, really glad to have tested this configuration right after launch, while the aileron was fine, the added elevator caused the nastiest stall and spin I have ever seen. It seemed the plane took forever to recover.
At this point the wind had picked up a bit so went for 80% ballast just to see if I could launch. All went fine and after a couple more speed runs decided to quit wasting my luck. By 11:30 all was packed and I headed back home.
Glauco

The Tool looks nice and straight coming out of the hand, but boy did it do a nasty snap to the right heading out horizontal to the ground. Glauco calmly steered it back upright. All that practice seems to be paying off.

LSF V 10km Goal and Return Attempt

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:00:18 -0500

Robert Samuels: It was not for want of trying ... that Chris did not make his 10K G & R attempt.
Hi Flyers: Chris scheduled today for his 10K G & R. I met him and Glauco at the levee just off the JB bridge on the Illinois side for this effort. I was selected for my superb air reading skills and also because my presence is so calming to all. Glauco came into the picture because he has a pickup truck.
Chris launched his Pike Pet (with onboard telemetry) using his bungee. He quickly found lift and quickly lost it. Oh, well. A second launch was made and up he went .... and then down he came. A third launch saw him in good lift ... for a minute and then back on the ground. A fourth launch .....    and so it went .... for a long time.
The vario Chris was using was interesting. Every 10 seconds it would squawk "ALARM ... TEMPERATURE 290 DEGREES". This glitch never ceased.
Finally Chris found some decent lift and we jumped in the truck. Soon we had to stop so Chris could regain altitude and then we took off again. And soon we had to stop so Chris could regain altitude. Didn't I just say that? Well ... we did it a bunch of times. And finally at about 3 miles into the outbound leg he couldn't find lift anywhere. And had to put it down.
So we went back to try it again. While Chris charged up the plane (he spent a lot of time circling) Glauco made a run to the store for snacks and beer. Drink the beer, eat the snacks.   OK .. let's do this again. Bungee launch and look for lift. Darn! Launch again ......
Finally got some lift and it looked a lot better than the first round. Way up and we are in the truck and barreling down the road. Sure we had to stop a few times to get altitude but it was looking a lot better. Until ...... we were 1.5 miles from the turnaround point. Then Chris searched upwind, downwind, crosswind but lift was not to be found. And another land out was made. DARN!!
The drive back was not the happiest but what the heck, it was fun anyway. Glauco was happy as always, I had 24 ounces of beer in me thus I was well composed and Chris managed to take it well also.
Overall not a bad time. A few hours on a beautiful day with friends doing what I love to do. I can't wait for the next attempt.
El Robert

Glauco Lago: Must say we did much better than last time. This cross country stuff is hard for beginners like we are, 10 km is a long way and took us almost an hour to make 7km one way so I assume it would probably be a 2 to 2.5 hour flight for the complete goal and return.
What it makes specially difficult is the terrain of the course. There is the Mississippi river on one side and then flooded fields, corn fields, power lines and a bunch of stuff we can even see. So it is hard to predict where thermals are generating and where exactly to stop to get some altitude.
And from my little 2 km experience, the worst part is the pressure since there are two guys there that could be doing something more useful than watching you coming down. One example is rolling the high start since we can’t leave it at the levee, you launch and have to make sure you stay up since the high started isn’t there anymore.
We found out Robert was a bit slow driving compared to the speed of Chris’ Perfect so we bought Robert a beer for the next attempt and it indeed helped, he stopped paying attention to the runners and concentrated on going fast and pointing out Chris’ plane was going up.
But it was fun, we learned a bit more about the course and will be better prepared for the next try.
Glauco

First attempt in BLUE, Second attempt in RED

Link to the SkyTrace GPS log files (.kml format)

Chris Lee: This final LSF Level V task is proving to be elusive, but I think that’s the way it was meant to be. As I’ve said before at various stages, the League of Silent Flight achievement program is about the journey, not just the destination. Each attempt, whether you make it or not, helps you grow as an R/C sailplane pilot.
The 10km goal-and-return is a bit different than most of the other tasks in that you can’t just go out for a fun fly day, recognize ideal conditions and decide to try to get this one done. In addition to lucking into optimal weather conditions, it takes a lot more logistics before the plane even leaves the ground: picking a day when two LSF II or higher witnesses are available, finding a suitable area with plenty of land-out spots, an obstruction-free course for 10km, a launch/landing location. And then there’s the small matter of actually flying the course.
I scouted out the course via Google Earth a while back and it’s pretty close to ideal: sparsely traveled roads, flat terrain with few obstructions and a fairly straight shot from the start to the turn around and back. It’s in the large Mississippi River valley so most of it is flat farmland and there is a levee system running parallel to the course. A bit further west is the actual river, but with the southeast winds we had, it was not in play.
As Robert mentioned, it took a handful of launches (four, exactly) from the bungee to hook into some lift. Conditions were very similar to the day before at the sod farm, cloudless sky, cool temps the previous night but with the forecast for a high in the low-mid 90’s. The thermal conditions were basically the same as what we experienced the day before, big lift surrounded by big sink.
I was able to find lift at the starting point fairly easily but there was a moderate wind (forecast said up to 10mph) and the initial leg was a bit cross but mostly upwind. So whenever we stopped to thermal up to altitude, we got pushed away from the course and had to cross the same territory again before making headway. I got comfortable with the terrain around the starting point and would have been able to stay up for a reasonable amount of time, but this task is all about covering ground, and that’s where it got tricky.
Every time we stopped to look for lift and gain more altitude for the next push, it was like arriving at a whole new flying field, with all new features, lift areas and sink holes. I dropped low a couple times but got saved by the tree-lined levee as thermals sweeping across the flat valley floor finally found something to butt up against and build in strength.
I think along two stretches we pushed on course and the plane maintained altitude or even climbed a bit just flying straight and level, but this was more the exception. Usually, heading out on course led to a persistent “groan” from the vario as the plane traversed large areas of sink before hitting the pockets of strong lift. So the game was to get high anywhere you could find lift, then point the plane straight ahead and try to keep up with it in the truck. As soon as some lift was encountered, it was important to work it back up to the same altitude or higher and then repeat.
At least, that was the plan, but in practice it was a lot harder. There are lots of things going on trying to fly while on the move and concentrating on the flying bit was on the back burner for me. I’m not used to the vario and found myself trusting it too much, leading to chasing my own stick lift a lot. I found it was really helpful on the long straight runs to know I was in sink and needed to keep pushing or if I encountered lift to try to take a wrap in it. But my thermaling skills suffered when I would take some of the speed from the straight-line run and interpret it as strong lift when I started my initial turns.
This led to more hapless circling in the edges of the lift (also known as “sink”) and it would take awhile to settle down and sort things out. Glauco took to turning off the vario whenever we stopped so I could just concentrate on reading the plane and flying it. This helped a bit, but it was hard for me to constantly switch from “flying the vario” to “flying the plane.”
Still, in this manner, we managed to work a good ways down the course and when we arrived at the previously flooded-out area, I remembered the first attempt when there was good lift over the depression, but not much after it, so I concentrated on getting some good altitude. The vario altimeter said I reached 1200’, the GPS log says closer to 1400’, and when we set out on course again I was feeling pretty good, plenty of altitude for a long run.
But just as quickly as I had gained the altitude in the strong thermals, I lost it all on the course and in the end got stranded in a really flat, featureless area by a sod farm. I had one chance to work some lift when we first arrived, but I took a couple sloppy turns and decided to leave lift (!) to look for “something better.” Instead, I found a quick sled-ride to the ground with nary a bump after that. The GPS showed the plane was only 1.5km shy of the target at the farthest point.
My concentration was shot by that time, it was 50 minutes into the flight, and this was after a first attempt that lasted an hour. It was three hours since the first launch. So even though the conditions were good (maybe not ideal, but at least manageable), we had all the logistics worked out (aside from the vario receivers running out of battery) and I had the two people I really wanted there to sign off on my last LSF task, we packed it in without much argument from anyone, least of all me.
Some things I hope to improve on the next attempt:
• a bit better preparation, the vario receivers dying in the middle of the course on the first attempt was not too good when I just got used to relying on them
• work every little piece of lift for all it’s worth and gain all the altitude possible. I felt a bit rushed knowing the other two people had nothing to do while I got to flit around and enjoy all the thermal flying, so I was always setting out on course lower than I should have. It’s not a race, and it’ll take even longer if I rush and end up not making it at all.
• recognize features on the ground and plan stop points around them. On the first attempt, we stopped next to a house with trees on the right, high-tension power lines running down the left side and some other obstruction on a third side. I got boxed in and couldn’t find any safe area to even search for lift. On the second attempt, I got much higher before this spot and we barreled right through it till we were in open ground again before stopping.
• treat my spotter/driver better. Hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy some celebratory suds after the next attempt! Or at least a Diet Coke for Glauco. Thanks again guys for giving up a Saturday for me, I look forward to returning the favor.

SkyAssistant Vario Logger plot from second attempt.

SkyTrace GPS altimeter plot from second attempt.

Brendan’s LSF IV One Hour Flight

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:45:36 -0500

Brendan Miller: Hey guys just got home and man what a day. I got to the field at about 1, and Art Nelson and the ever elusive Mark G were there getting set up. Art and Nelson had been there since 9am, soon Harold Dave M and Chris showed up and we got to flying. I started off with a decent launch and found lift right away I specked the plane out and soon Chris asked me if I started a timer, I said no and proceeded to do a speed run. I found something light a foolishly took it down wind and I ended up in the beans. I did a couple more launches and never really got above launch height. Finally on the last flight I found lift and it wasn't really strong, I heard Chris launch and he soon joined me. I was still circling in the weak part of the lift when I noticed Chris going up fast then me so I turned and burned down wind and found the same lift he was in. I was soon skied out and down wind, I then started to walk down the road in between the corn and the beans going to the north end of the sod farm so I could see my plan. I am not going to lie there were some scary moments where I lost the plane on was when I looked down at the stopwatch on the transmitter and looked up and couldn't see the plane! I pulled up twice and finally regained sight. I was standing there counting the beeps on the transmitter as they went past every minute, soon I found myself down and needing lift I looked at the string on the transmitter and went where it pointed and I was up and out again. Soon Mark G came over to help out in telling me how much time was left and helping me walk back to the field, which I was glad to get that help. Soon the hour mark pasted and I was happy that I could now look straight ahead instead of up to relax my neck, I cam in for a landing and I put it right at my feet.
Today was a good day to really see the lift cycle in action, first the wind would die down and it would get warm and then there would be a breeze. I must have worked 4-5 thermals but at a certain height the plane would not come down. I am really happy with this plane and may get another one for next season, I kept saying that if I would have flown my Espada I might not have made it. Don't get me wrong the Espada is a great plane but the Zenith just does some stuff better.
Thanks to all the people who helped and Chris for the pictures.
Brendan

Harold Mantz takes Art Frost’s Xplorer for a test spin.

Mark Gauding: Guys,
What a great day today! I showed up about 1245 and Art and Nelson were already flying. Dave McGwire and Brendan were just behind me along with Chris and Harold to make a nice group today.
I have not flown in about 2 months so was anxious to fly the Pike ET today after doing some radio tweaking of my setup this morning. Overall not too bag but need to work on the launch set up a bit more. I had some good flight today with a couple of good skyouts but had a great time being with good people!
I helped Dave with his SD10G program for his Pike Perfect with seemed to smooth things out for him and he had some really good flight today!
As Brendan mentioned, he made his one hour flight today after a couple of tries. On the flight that counted he was up flying with Chris and Chris came over to me while I was flying asking why is Brendan walking toward the corn? I said jokingly that he is trying to be one with the corn but he was just trying to get closer to his plane since he was way up and downwind over the levee on the northwest side of the field. I finally walked over to him with about 10 min to go and helped him walk out of the corn to the landing zone after he made sure he had made 1 hour of flying time! I think he made out with about a 1:05 flying time! I think the Corado aka Zenith is working out well for him!! Congrats Brendan!
Nelson was flying his elusive Pike Perfect today! I say look out! He was getting the Zoom down on launch and with a few tweaks of his program from Chris he was doing all right! Nelson was like awe shucks but we know how deadly he is with Daedalus, his Pike will do the same for him!
Art was flying his red Zenith along with his Explorer. Chris had his Explorer and Pike out and Harold had a old Sagitta 600 converted to electric that he was having fun with!
Most of us packed up about 400 but Chris was still their working with his Explorer and Pike! A great day wish more could have been their!!
Mark G.