Weak links? How do you know as a competitor how much line tension you're pulling at any given time? So you're suggesting penalizing a competitor who has his model properly set up, pops a thermal on tow, gets windgusted... etc....
The problem with the "you break it, you fly it" mentality is....We are not breaking the lines at anywhere near their rated breaking strength. What's going on is, lines are being abused, worn, and damaged over normal usage. This is going on at different rates at every winch. You are then penalizing a competitor for having weaker line than the next guy. I broke the line at my last Nats a couple of times while tapping. I didn't have monster tension, and was not in any way abusing the equipment. I was told by organizers to bring it down and relight. I also personally witnessed competitors at the first Masters intentionally breaking lines for the opportunity to relight at the end of the group. Line breaks will always be a part of any contest. The way to completely eliminate it as a problem, is to switch to FAI type rules and winches, and make the competitor responsible for his own launch equipment. In the absence of that, (and that may never happen here in the states) we need to make it much harder to break the lines. That means less power. There it is - the Supra solution. Mike - Insanity and Sharon are identical in span... for some reason. Darylperkins.com LLC. 1600 McCulloch Blvd. 5B Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403 www.darylperkins.com > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: RE: [RCSE] re:contest launch equipment vs large models > From: "Gospodarek" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Thu, December 20, 2007 4:35 pm > To: "Soaring" <soaring@airage.com>, "Daryl Perkins" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I like the idea of a weak-link. > If you want a level strength playing field for launches and don't want to > remove the winch tap skill or add new equipment just try this. Make up short > weak-link loops (ahead of the first contest make 50 for the year) to attach > between the line and the ring. If you use 250# winch line, use 200# weak > links. If the line breaks you get a re-launch. If the CD sees that the > weak-link is what is broken, then the pilot is docked a % (CD option say > 15%) of the flight time. Simple but effective! I'm sure that you would not > have many re-launches. > John > -----Original Message----- > From: Daryl Perkins [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 4:12 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Cc: Soaring@airage.com > Subject: [RCSE] re:contest launch equipment vs large models > Mike Smith pretty much hit the nail on the head. The problem isn't the > line. The problem isn't the size of the model. Our TD style winches are > unnecessarily strong. I'd love to see the winches restricted at major > contests. > I'm always going to fly large wingspan models at an UNLIMITED thermal > duration contest. I like the way they perform. Period. Sorry, but my > newest model is 3.9M or 153.5". It wasn't designed for F3J. It was > designed for US style UNLIMITED thermal duration. > I often hear CD's complain about guys launching hard. I understand your > need to keep the contest moving. But blaming the competitor for being > competitive???? Ummmm... it's a CONTEST!!! We're competing. You can't > expect a competitor to back off on his competitive spirit. He needs to > be allowed to do whatever he feels he needs to do to gain a competitive > advantage. > Using the line as the "weak link" is not only unfair, it's dangerous. > Limiting winch power is a great way to guarantee winch equality across > the board. Visalia's winches are unbelievably weak, and they have very > few line breaks. SWC winches are usually pretty strong, but are > inconsistent from one winch to the next, and change over the course of > the day. The NATS has the strongest winches I've ever used, and they use > rope line to keep things going. I know... the darn things ruined a > perfectly good Insanity. > Don't limit the models. Don't limit the line size or perceived breaking > strength. Limit the available winch power, and you'll begin to see > models optimized for that available power. > Darylperkins.com LLC. > 1600 McCulloch Blvd. 5B > Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403 > www.darylperkins.com > 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
