Having decided that electric launched sailplanes are still sailplanes (same as HL, winch launch, hand tow), we the Greater Detroit Soaring and Hiking Society have decided to have a contest this year to try out this format. Basically it is an F3J format with electric motor power rather than people power and you can read the rules etc on our web site at
www.gdshs.com under the "F5J Contest" button on the navigation bar.
I put this out on the RCGROUPS (electric sailplane forum) a month ago and got a lot of positive feedback from the NEAC fokes. This first year will no doubt be a learning experience for us as our normal fair is open winch TD because of past field limitations making a 5 or 6 up MOM difficult. This spring the park has opened up our field and a 5 or 6 up MOM with electrics should be fine.
I wanted to get this out to the contest sailplane contigent that may be interested so they can see if it fits in their schedule. Hope some of you can make it to help us get a handle on this new event and if I am correct (unlike Gordy, I was wrong once) this format and launch system is going to be a big boost for the sailplane community. We now do impromptu MOM duels that would never happen with one winch out. No one has to run the retriever and we use a count down tape in a boom box for a timer so timers are not needed (not super accurate but good enough for fun)---great when sport flying.
We (the club) got a lot more flying in this winter because none of us would put up a winch in the snow and we could also fly at several different fields that could not sustain winch line length. Now that spring has spung the winch is coming out more, but not much.
What to fly? We fly a lot of small stuff (about 2 meters) but I have a Graphite II electric and a Super AVA coming for electric so size, and performance is not an issue. Check
www.kennedycomposites.com and www.nfmodels.com for examples.
I am a dealer for both of these fine guys in my area as Barry has the big stuff and Kurt the little stuff and that way the field is covered. Kurt got me going on this last year and I am hooked.
Sorry I took so long, but I got wound up about this.
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Jack Iafret
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- [RCSE] F5J or X5J Contest - August 19-20 Jack Iafret
