[RCSE] Nice morning of flying
Today (2004-10-24) I took my newly minted, 2 meter Gnome, and currently my only sailplane, out to the Sunday edition of the Silent Wings Soaring Association's fun fly. I guess I officially maidened it yesterday out at the Harbor Soaring Society's site but without the spoilers. So after 3 hours of spoiler rigging hell yesterday :), I must say they seemed to work great despite still not being perfectly rigged. My first flight was 9 minutes right off the bat and an 83 (out of 100) landing. Then I had several launch, make a left or right circuit of the field, not find enough lift, and land flights. I call those flights landing practice :D. Yeah... that's it. :D Nonetheless... one of those landings was 96, and another was an 80, and another a 63. I think they were the standard AMA 25 foot tapes, 100 points. A few landings were, of course, off the tape (stuff happens). I slid past a few better point landings, but also slid into a few good ones. So it evens out. Guess I'll try a skeg... Temps were a comfy 70-75 (21-22C) under blue skies with very light breezes as I wound up the morning with 20 minute speck out. I finally deployed the spoilers to get down as it was getting hard to see. AND of course!... I missed the tape altogether... ain't that just the way! :( Built almost box stock except for carbon in the spar, the Gnome wound up at with an AUW of 35 ounces or roughly 1kg. I used full size Futaba 3003s, a HS-81 size for spoilers, a HiTec 535 DC RX, and a 1800mah AA brick pack. Add a 1/4 ounce of lead. It balances right on the back of the spar. It took forever to build (11 months) as I was injured for a bit, and then moved so everthing was packed away for several months. Thanks to all at SWSA, especially Gene and Dan (and at HSS - thanks Hugh!) for their advise and counsel and to Dan for hauling out the equpiment! Geez its nice to write about flying for change! Best wishes, Jeff = --- Jeffrey D. Gortatowsky La Habra Heights, California Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child -- if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender. - W.C. Fields What wretched scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch? - W.C. Fields RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
Re: [RCSE] Nice morning of flying
Jeff Gortatowsky wrote: ... snip a great contest story ... 83 (out of 100) landing. ... one of those landings was 96, and another was an 80, and another a 63. I think they were the standard AMA 25 foot tapes, 100 points. Jeff Jeff, those landing results sound outstanding for a newbie flier! (I should know, I am working from upgrading from newbie to intermediate status myself). I sure hope you are an LSF I or II aspirant with those landing scores. It sounds like landings are a snap for you! Best of luck! Stuart RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
Re: [RCSE] Nice morning of flying - landings and skegs
--- Stuart A. Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Jeff Gortatowsky wrote: ... snip a great contest story Jeff, those landing results sound outstanding for a newbie flier! (I should know, I am working from upgrading from newbie to intermediate status myself). Thanks... but a correction, it was just -fun- flying... not a contest. If it had been a contest, I'd have landed in the next county over everytime! :D And I did missed some completely. SWSA is a club in Southern CA with many friendly competitors so even fun flying brings out the landing tapes. And why not? After all, if you are going to fly, even for fun, you might as well shoot the landings as practice. Know what I find in my limited (VERY VERY LIMTED) experience? I have to fly a smooth pattern or I am hosed. I have to make my turn on final and be 'reasonably lined up'. If I have very few corrections to make, I can really zone in on the glide path. Especially with the spoilers. But if I have to make more than a few minor corrections to line up, I am all over the place and will lose enough energy to fall short or wander way off to the sides. Guess that is one of those 'masters of the obvious' paragraphs huh?? :D I was thinking though as I was in the shop the last few hours, maybe my landings would have been WORSE with a skeg? I am not sure now. Obviously without one, every landing but the one 80 point one was a 'slide to a stop'. There was one I buried the nose in the soft turf (rained like hell here a few days ago). But I don't want to make that a habit... its a wooden ship. I need to pay more attention to where I touch down and see if maybe I'd be better off leaving well enough alone... As for LSF... no I have not joined yet. I guess I've been putting that off. But from what I read here, it's not something one rushes through anyway. :D Thanks and best wishes... Jeff = --- Jeffrey D. Gortatowsky La Habra Heights, California Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child -- if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender. - W.C. Fields What wretched scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch? - W.C. Fields RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send subscribe and unsubscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
