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So it was gorgeous in Auckland yesterday, perfect conditions, even if the 7
of us weren't..(a couple of beers and steaks the nite before and bull session to
almost midnite took its toll some!)
I borrowed a futa wall charger from Les Stockely and had my Pike and Stylus
on charge all nite...figuring it would be fun to start my LSF4 bid with a one
hour in New Zealand.
I got to the field and we set the winches...the day was one to dream about
high fluffy clouds light winds and gentle temps..mountains and a lake in the
back ground.
I put up my first launch and ran out my talking timer (always set to count
down 10's) and decided to float around some for a total of just over
30mins.
I got the idea to go for the one hour task so brought it down to check
everything out for the bid....seemed okay, made a quick rest room run and drank
a bottle of water then launched to settle in for the hour.
it was big sky so only had one sort of close sink period bur for the most
part it was 900+ altitude for the whole event (no I am not using my Pic for
anything other than voltage reports and occassional alt reports for the
reference of guys on the field for time tasks or contests).
At about 14mins, my TX low voltage started in. Very annoying but
figure I have time. I kept it up till about 4mins were left and the
voltage indicator said 8.5v.
Everyone was with me at that point and there were at least 3 watches on the
flight. Everyone was just as nervous as me...but I decided to stay with
it. We even tried a momentary fast charge but the RX in the plane wouldn't
rest at zero (PCM would a have been nice then.)
Anyway, like I said, no one wanted or felt it was worth losing a Volz
Powered Pike Superior over, so at about 2mins I brought it down to the top of
the tree line at the fields edge so in case I lost the TX the plane would soar
off to a subdivision or hit a cow somewhere.
Needless to say the stress was huge.
At one min I brought it below tree height to minimize possible
damage. I was going for it...but a sink came thru and while she really
hung in there, and I was heading toward a slope in the field...at 59minutes and
53seconds the nose touched terra firma....and the TX stayed strong for at least
another 3mins!!! :-(
Next time :-)
Gordy
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