RE: [RCSE] XC story
Believe it or not, one thing I have learned in this hobby is how to watch and listen. There are some really skilled guys willing to share what they know, but not many guys that are ready just to listen and not constantly challenge what the individual is saying, shortening the lesson considerably. I was very poor at this skill but I have become much better. Peter taught me a lot that weekend, and I assimilated it. And I had a great time too! 8-) At 07:45 AM 9/29/2004, Sheldon - YNT uDesign wrote: I could clearly hear/see him explaining to Bacus everything that was going on. The look on Jimmy's face was like an apprentice standing before the master (and Jim's no slouch on his own!). I hope that sometime in the future I get the opportunity to fly with him myself. Jim Downers Grove, IL Member of the Chicago SOAR club, AMA 592537LSF 7560 Level IV ICQ: 6997780 AIM: InventorJim R/C Soaring blog at www.jimbacus.net 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] XC story
I've always been far sighted. Up to about 4 years ago, I had 20-15 distance vision but needed reading glasses. As I hit a certain age my distance vision started to deteriorate, exactly like the optometrist said it would. I now wear trifocals (actually "progressive" lenses). All this preamble means...that plane is way, way up there! Are you kidding? 5,463 ft? The average flying guy will get really uncomfortable with an open class plane at about 2,000 ft. Orientation is a factor, and so is the fear of losing sight of the plane, if not just for a second. Yet another example of Joe's deal he cut with a hawk when he was a kid. Somewhere there must be a hawk who is really talented at engineering, or else the hawk got short ended on the trade. I hope the extreme altitude numbers don't scare off beginners. You still can have a great time at a lesser altitude. Joe's just in another league! A day XC soaring always is more than just a flying day. It always seems to turn out to be some kind of adventure. It's very cool. JE -- Erickson Architects John R. Erickson, AIA > From: "Joe Wurts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 19:56:02 -0700 > To: "'RCSE'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Bill Rakozy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [RCSE] XC story > I queried the vario at > one point for altitude and got in response 5463 ft in altitude. It was > pretty darned high... and I was scared to push too hard because I was afraid > of using too much down elevator. Fortunately, I finally popped out the far > side of the lift, and I could start breathing easier. 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] XC story
Great thread, guys. Thanks for sharing. 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] XC story
I too got my first sampling of XC at the NATS this year and it was a very surprising, and unexpected I might add, experience. In as few words as possible...What a BLAST! NO, I didn't fly however I volunteered my Avalanche as a chase vehicle for several Teams and, while driving/spotting, had the opportunity to share in part of the experience with them: 1) Dr. Dan - Now here's a guy that is going to have fun, no matter what/how he's flying. Rolls on tow, inverted tows...Let's have some fun. 2) Jim Bacus - Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers...He'd only flown his scale ship, for the first time, the weekend before. Always on the lookout to learn more and share what he knows with others. No matter what your level, Jim will "push" you to do better. You'll have fun doing it and you'll learn a lot along the way. 3) TK - What can I say...Relaxed, knows his stuff, don't sweat the small stuff. His sense of humor, open attitude, and willingness to help are infectious. When he's helping you, he doesn't tell you what to do...He nudges you in the right direction and, when the light comes on for you, he's the one that has a grin from ear to ear - mission accomplished! 4) Peter Goldsmith - Peter, finessing his XC plane around the course is art! If ever you get the opportunity to fly/learn from Peter, 2 words, DO IT! I drove for Peter during his 1st Place run and understood more, during that run, just listening to him explain what he was doing, why he was doing it, and the thought process behind it all. With the back of the AV open, I could clearly hear/see him explaining to Bacus everything that was going on. The look on Jimmy's face was like an apprentice standing before the master (and Jim's no slouch on his own!). I hope that sometime in the future I get the opportunity to fly with him myself. I got to meet a lot of new people, people that really support this aspect of soaring, and now I have a little more understanding of why they're so passionate about it. Heck, they even hooked me...I came away with TK's 4M Discus after he decided to purchase a Nimbus4! On the surface XC may not sound all that exciting however, if you get the opportunity, try it...I think you'll be surprised! Oh yeah...On last thing...My Teams came in 5th, 3rd, and 1st...Maybe the Avalanche helped, maybe not??? All I know is I came away with a new interest and respect for XC which was totally unexpected! Thanks to all of the above for letting me be part of the experience! -Sheldon- YNT uDesign -Original Message- From: John Derstine [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 7:33 AM To: 'Joe Wurts'; 'RCSE'; 'Bill Rakozy' Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [RCSE] XC story Actually a great narrative Joe. I had my first taste of XC (of any kind) at the NATS this year. Granted, the inbound course that was finally adopted for the scale guys was more like driving around a NASCAR track, but it opened my eyes to the potential fun and challenges of XC flying. Before acting as spotter for Pete Goldsmith with his 7 meter Nimbus 2 on the "race track", I went for an attempt on the outbound FAI course. The wind was blowing 15+ and I was flying an old beat up 5 meter Ka6E. This was really stupid, but oh what fun. I made it exactly 1 mile out into a soybean field, clocked forward speed at 5 mph at one point. In contrast, spotting for Pete later in the day on the closed course we were driving 55 mph and Pete was putting in camber so not to fly too far ahead. The potential for scale ships on XC tasks is phenomenal. Pete flew 6 laps on the course without stopping to thermal. There was some lift, but this was almost all aspect ratio and L/D. We were blowing by other competitors struggling to stay aloft. It always seemed to me rather silly to be standing in one spot and flying a 6 meter Nimbus which had an L/D of 40+, now I am hooked, but the problem here in the East are the wooded hills and developed real estate prevent us from setting up adequate courses with safe land outs. JD PS: a very scale like LET Albatross 4 meter won the winch FAI XC in the very windy conditions. Endless Mountain Models http://www.scalesoaring.com email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Joe Wurts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 10:56 PM To: 'RCSE'; Bill Rakozy Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [RCSE] XC story Not much of a story here. 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. 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] XC story
Actually a great narrative Joe. I had my first taste of XC (of any kind) at the NATS this year. Granted, the inbound course that was finally adopted for the scale guys was more like driving around a NASCAR track, but it opened my eyes to the potential fun and challenges of XC flying. Before acting as spotter for Pete Goldsmith with his 7 meter Nimbus 2 on the "race track", I went for an attempt on the outbound FAI course. The wind was blowing 15+ and I was flying an old beat up 5 meter Ka6E. This was really stupid, but oh what fun. I made it exactly 1 mile out into a soybean field, clocked forward speed at 5 mph at one point. In contrast, spotting for Pete later in the day on the closed course we were driving 55 mph and Pete was putting in camber so not to fly too far ahead. The potential for scale ships on XC tasks is phenomenal. Pete flew 6 laps on the course without stopping to thermal. There was some lift, but this was almost all aspect ratio and L/D. We were blowing by other competitors struggling to stay aloft. It always seemed to me rather silly to be standing in one spot and flying a 6 meter Nimbus which had an L/D of 40+, now I am hooked, but the problem here in the East are the wooded hills and developed real estate prevent us from setting up adequate courses with safe land outs. JD PS: a very scale like LET Albatross 4 meter won the winch FAI XC in the very windy conditions. Endless Mountain Models http://www.scalesoaring.com email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Joe Wurts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 10:56 PM To: 'RCSE'; Bill Rakozy Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [RCSE] XC story Not much of a story here. 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] XC story
Joe, Nice story. At 09:56 PM 9/28/2004, Joe Wurts wrote: ... check, I found out about the ~100 ft range on the tow. The plane went up the line, the vario started announcing in a cultured voice, "Attention, attention, attent..." splat. So she never said "Pull Up! - Pull Up!" ? :-) ... and I could do some dolphin soaring in the thermals as we drove along. Exactly what is "dolphin soaring"? Steve 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] XC story
At 09:56 PM 9/28/2004, Joe Wurts wrote Not much of a story here. Sorry but I must disagree. This is a great story. We need more like this instead of all the bashing that has been going on lately. Wish we had more suitable sites for cross country. Chuck Anderson 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] XC story
Hi Joe, Is anyone doing XC with scale ships (big - 6 meter plus say) down your way? Joe Wurts wrote: After the dark cloud hovering over me moved off to a safe distance, Jim Rolle graciously offered up his backup SBXC plane for my use -- Simon Van Leeuwen RADIUS SYSTEMS PnP SYSTEMS - The E-Harness of Choice Cogito Ergo Zooom 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] XC story
That was a great story. I love X/C but just don't get to do it often enough. My longest run seems so minuscule now. 8-) P.S. American muscle cars and X/C, what a cool combination! At 09:56 PM 9/28/2004, Joe Wurts wrote: Not much of a story here. Jim Downers Grove, IL Member of the Chicago SOAR club, AMA 592537LSF 7560 Level IV ICQ: 6997780 AIM: InventorJim R/C Soaring blog at www.jimbacus.net 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] XC story
Not much of a story here. I thought that the equipment that was in it was still fine, after all it worked last year... (!) Turned out that the brand X Rx xtal had detuned itself. As I was kinda stupid and didn't do a range check, I found out about the ~100 ft range on the tow. The plane went up the line, the vario started announcing in a cultured voice, "Attention, attention, attent..." splat. The plane had turned around on tow with a 180, and headed down to the ground. It hit at about a 30 degree nose down attitude, totally destroying the fuselage. The wing survived unscathed, which means that at least a part of it can live on. Wiley probably had about 3k road miles on its odometer, so it had certainly performed for far longer than I could ever have expected. As this isn't much of a story, I'll talk about the stuff that transpired afterwards. After the dark cloud hovering over me moved off to a safe distance, Jim Rolle graciously offered up his backup SBXC plane for my use. The great thing was that it was set up with a JR 10X Tx, and even better, was on Ch 21, which was my primary frequency at this years nats along with the F3J WC. I downloaded his setup onto my tx (transfer cable is a very nice feature), and checked it out. It is based on a setup from the midwest (computer storage and transfer of setups is also a nice feature). Still, after some experimentation, I decided to use a setup based on my Icon, which took about 20 minutes to work out. As I had arrived fairly late, then spent time with Wiley, then more time gathering wreckage, I was seriously late by the time I got things ready to go. Several other teams had gotten on the course by 10:30 AM, and I didn't enter until about noon. The task for the day was longest single flight. They had made GPS measured turnpoints around the valley that we were flying in, the goal being to fly from one to another, to another. The only restriction was that you couldn't just fly back and forth between two waypoints. After some flying, I started regretting that I hadn't figured out how much down elevator trim I could safely use at altitude. This really became an issue in the afternoon when there was a patch of serious lift that was a few miles wide. I had thermalled up to about 5k in altitude, and was cruising on course. But, the air was still great, and the plane kept going up. I queried the vario at one point for altitude and got in response 5463 ft in altitude. It was pretty darned high... and I was scared to push too hard because I was afraid of using too much down elevator. Fortunately, I finally popped out the far side of the lift, and I could start breathing easier. The flight went fairly uneventfully until the late afternoon when my patient spouse (and driver) Jan said that we had to make a pit stop. The next time that we flew by the motel, she hopped out, made a run to the room to powder her nose, while I flew around in sink. Why is there never a thermal where you need it? Finally she got back and we headed down the road. Of course, I was in similar straits by then. We came upon another team that had pulled off to the side of the road to work a thermal. They had a spotter in the back of their pickup truck, so we pull alongside, I tossed him my tranny, pointed in the general direction of the plane, and ran off to a bush... got back a couple minutes later, and realized that I hadn't bothered to drop off the receiver for the vario. Of course, more sink was the order of the moment. It turned out that this was the lowest point of the flight excepting the launch and final glide. Scott Meader had finally hooked up with a thermal about the time that I returned, but the plane was down to about 1500 feet. After climbing back up, we were back in operation. We flew until almost 5 PM when the clouds came over and shut down the thermals. We did about another 15 miles at something close to best L/D speed before landing, finishing up with 112 miles. There is nothing like XC, optimizing your thermal, figuring out how fast to fly based on the expected thermal strength, along with what lift/sink you are flying through, as well as whether it was an upwind or downwind leg that you were flying. Sunday was back to the old style classic XC task. A closed course of 22.7 miles, minimum time wins. The wind was up early, compliments of the upper level low pressure that had transited the previous evening. By the time that it was time to fly, it was blowing about 15 mph on the ground, and about 20 mph in the air. But, there were some very good thermals. I set my goal of having 4000 ft before entering the course, but the thermals just weren't cooperating, so we entered at about 3500 ft. We did the first two mile leg of upwind easily, and cruised nicely on the quartering downwind leg. Got down to about 2500 feet, and hooked a great thermal. Went to above 4k, and got back on course. Jan was a law abiding driver and wouldn't go above the post
