Dave Register, thanks for the great report on the Team Polecat effort in XC at the Nats.
Congratulations to Team Polecat for the pioneering effort, flying a 1.5M DLG in a Cross Country Event. It is an inspiration to us all and motivation to explore new territory every time we fly. It wouldn't surprise me if Team Polecat was at the next NATS in XC with a DLG and a strong team, that can complete the task. What an accomplishment that would be. Or course now that such a strong showing was made, you will probably have competition in that class, and a while new meaning to XC flying will emerge. Great job guys! Best Regards, Ed Anderson LISF ----- Original Message ----- From: "Soaring" <Soaring@airage.com> To: <Soaring@airage.com> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 12:44 AM Subject: Soaring V1 #7986 Soaring Mon, 24 Jul 2006 Volume 1 : Number 7986 In this issue: Somebody at Nats..?? Help with lost transitter? Re: [RCSE] Nats Coverage RE: [RCSE] Somebody at Nats..?? Help with lost transitter? NATs F3B NATS newsletter Limited Span XC A few NATS XC photos / I Beat Gordy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 20:44:11 -0400 From: "Brent" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'James V. Bacus'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <soaring@airage.com> Cc: "'Douglas, Brent'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Somebody at Nats..?? Help with lost transitter? Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hey all, I just got back to Dayton, and I'm light one transmitter - I'll call AMA in the morning, but if anyone found an old JR 378 out by the Center Stage area (edge of parking lot / covered area by runway), could you get it to a one of the CDs or a DARTS member (Paul Siegel, Jerry Shape, Bob Massman??). Johnny Berlin might have found it, I was tearing down in the same area as him - I'll call down to AMA in the morning, see what kind of luck I have... I planned on replacing it, just not tomorrow. Thanks! Brent Douglas Darts *It's on Channel 44, says Douglas / DARTS on it.... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:19:30 -0400 From: Ben Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: soaring@airage.com Subject: Re: [RCSE] Nats Coverage Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> James V. Bacus wrote: > Looks like Capn' Jack flew his Ventus scale model into the powerlines!!! > Yeah, he did. I was packing up my tent in the camping area when I heard a clatter that sounded like someone kicking the port-a-potty over. Turned around, and I saw the Ventus spiraling down near the towers. Looked around and saw Capn' Jack walking over from about 1/4 mile. Poor ol' Grover was ejected from his pilot seat :) Some good chunks out of the wing, and it looks like the joiner broke, but the fuse looked to be in one piece. Sad to see it, but I'd be willing to bet it'll be back in the air in the future. ben wilson louisville area soaring society ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:27:04 -0400 From: "Brent" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <soaring@airage.com> Subject: RE: [RCSE] Somebody at Nats..?? Help with lost transitter? Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Found.... Sorry to waste bandwidth! Brent ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:24:25 -0700 From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: soaring@airage.com Subject: NATs F3B Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hi all, Well today finished the F3B contest, XC and Aero tow. Jo & I worked both days assisting with the F3B tasks. Phil Renaud ran a tight ship and things ran smoothly. The only real excitement was when Rick Bothel and myself, while working base "B" for the speed runs, had to take cover when one of the planes appeared to be on a collision coures with our bodys. We both bailed out of the area, hearts pumping, but the pilot regained control just before any accident occured. I didn't think this 61 year old body could still move that fast :-) Anyway, Mike Smith was again the winner today. This is begining to look like the Mike Smith NATs :-) Congrads again to a job well done Mike This is your NATS correspondent :-) George Tomorrow starts 2 days of 2Mtr. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 23:04:55 EDT From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: soaring@airage.com Subject: NATS newsletter Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -------------------------------1153710295 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Daily NATS info, pictures and scores can be found at this link. _http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/natsnews.asp_ (http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/natsnews.asp) . Don Richmond San Diego, CA (Muncie, IN today) [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.hilaunch.com -------------------------------1153710295 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; charset=3DUS-ASCII"> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2900.2912" name=3DGENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=3Drole_body style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY:=20= Arial"=20 bottomMargin=3D7 leftMargin=3D7 topMargin=3D7 rightMargin=3D7><FONT id=3Drol= e_document=20 face=3DArial color=3D#000000 size=3D2> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> Daily NATS info, pictures and scores can be fou= nd=20 at this link.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><A title=3Dhttp://www.modelaircraft.org/events/natsnews.asp=20 href=3D"http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/natsnews.asp"><FONT=20 face=3DVerdana>http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/natsnews.asp</FONT></A><F = ONT=20 face=3DVerdana>.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DVerdana></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=3DVerdana></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT lang=3D0 face=3DArial size=3D2 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" PTSIZE=3D"10"= >Don=20 Richmond<BR>San Diego, CA (Muncie, IN=20 today)<BR>[EMAIL PROTECTED]<BR>www.hilaunch.com</FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></H = TML> -------------------------------1153710295-- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 22:18:31 -0500 From: David Register <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Soaring@airage.com Subject: Limited Span XC Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Just wrapped up 2 days with Team Polecat at NATS XC. Got to observe a number of very well crafted XC ships, some great flights by some great pilots and 3 (yup, that's THREE) LSF 5 Goal and Returns on Sunday. (In addition to several IIIs and IVs). I'm sure those directly involved will post more on that. Although the weather on Sunday was great, the distance tasks were well earned and the smiles on the Level V qualifiers were both for the satisfaction of the task and probably some relief at making it around the challenging Nats course. But what started as a 'fun' attempt at 1.5m XC wound up being a really interesting task and merits further consideration. Entering a 1.5m ship (DLG) in XC was an idea hatched up by Ed Franz and Denny Maize. Shane Spickler, Doug Harnish and I took the bait and helped out. Saturday was too windy to effectively use the course (pretty much the same for the large ships as very few even made it on the course). Sunday was much more favorable and Denny was one of the first on the course in the AM. Didn't quite make it to the graveyard but we were encouraged with the .35mi distance as a starting point - at least we weren't going to be skunked!. During the day, the lift continued to improve and the experience gained by the team was invaluable. Ed went out on a run to guide us through some of the details and wound up achieving 0.9mi. Later in the morning, Shane and Denny made1.1 mile goals. Right after lunch the lift looked good so Denny, Rob Glover and I took off for what turned into a 1.75mi goal (past the graveyard, around the corner of the HQ building, through the 'valley of sink' by the hobby shop, around the second way point and down the road towards the tree tunnel before getting downed by the wind shadow behind the tree line around the first farm house).From that experience we learned that a DLG had to cut the 2nd way point corner a bit to miss the wind shadow. Last flight of the day was with Shane at the helm, Denny coaching and the whole rest of the crew in the bed of my Ranger going pell-mell down the road to try and beat the closing bell. Cutting the corner and cruising over the bean field helped as we got 1.9mi down the course. Certainly not trophy class distance but we will claim that as the new XC record on the NATS course for a limited wing span (1.5m) ship. Although perhaps seen as a humorous entry, we were all quite serious about the attempt. After experiencing XC with this class of ship, we would all probably agree that the setup of the plane, flying skills, teamwork and perhaps even the plane design set this apart from both conventional XC flying and DLG contest flying. The skills needed to get down the course are very different from the launch and timing skills in a DLG contest. The teamwork needed to make the whole effort come together is very satisfying and is also quite different from the experience of a DLG contest. The way the pilot (and team) has to work the course is VERY different from that of the open class XC ships. A 1.5m ship simply cannot achieve the altitude of the XC planes. Consequently, ground effects that large ships cruise above become the most significant parts of the 1.5m experience. Wind shadows from tree lines and houses, the roll of a hill and the pressure/downwash sides are critical encounters for a small ship. Cloud shadows and sunny hillsides can make or break the run. Cruising the cloud base is inaccessible to a DLG. Diving at 80+mph is so far off the polar profile for the smaller ship that it's simply not an acceptable alternative even if the altitude is available. Guys, flying a DLG on a XC course is a really significant challenge. Flying open class XC certainly helps with the team, driving, spotting and other operational skills. But flying below 800ft brings on a whole new set of XC flying challenges. It also brings on a whole new set of challenges as compared to those needed to effectively fly DLG contests. Driving that ship all over the map over different terrain with different contours producing different effects each time you come by is really tough to figure out. But it's really satisfying when you've got it. Each run got longer based on the experience learned by the previous team pilot on the course. I'm not sure how much farther we could have gone but with some more time and experience 4 miles or so on that course would be quite possible (not past the tree tunnel - no way we could have run the plane over that element). Based on this experience, I would certainly encourage others to enter 1.5m ships in XC, especially at the Nats. After Friday's DLG contest, participating in XC was an equally satisfying experience. 1.5m XC flying is so very much different from open class XC that it may merit some additional discussion and development. Since we launched from a hi-start both days, a non-discus rated ship would work equally well for this event. I think our conclusion would be that the launch method and initial launch height really doesn't matter. You simply can't launch a 1.5m high enough by any means to effectively do the course. The advantage of a really booming hi-start launch will be gone in the first 0.4mi or less. After that, it's work and terrain reading and pilot skills and teamwork. The pilot is so focused on running the plane while bouncing around in the back of the truck that the other team members HAVE to spot effectively for him. Team Polecat isn't the first to try 1.5m XC. But I can't imagine another group having more fun than we did. You've gotta try this. It really works!! - Dave R (BTW, the 1.75mi run was from a hi-start launch while the 1.9mi was from a discus launch). ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 23:46:46 -0400 From: Ben Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: LASS Soaring List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "soaring@airage.com" <soaring@airage.com> Subject: A few NATS XC photos / I Beat Gordy! Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hola folks -- I've posted a few photos I took on Saturday during XC with the Team Polecat XC crew before I split on my own cross-country trip to Detroit: http://louisvillesoaring.org/gallery/20060722nats Shame I couldn't be there with the Polecatters - sounds like a fun day was had. Right now, I'm sitting in a hotel in Detroit (just saw a Tigers game!), and I'm cutting out the all-new I BEAT GORDY buttons specially designed for the 2006 NATS. Obviously not as collectible as the *original* MidSouth I BEAT GORDY buttons, but if you beat him at the NATS, you can get one from him :) http://louisvillesoaring.org/tmp/ibeatgordy-nats.jpg ben wilson louisville area soaring society <gordy>detroit tonight... muncie on wednesday</gordy> ------------------------------ End of Soaring V1 #7986 *********************** 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. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format 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. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format