I didn't find that pattern that Walker, Clarke and Brown were talking about worthless at all! R. Browns philosophy seemed to be 'if you can't see a sign of lift, don't fly 'til you do'. At a big (40+ pilots) that's not usually a problem. Someone is *always* in the air. However, I've encountered many opportunities (if you consider being *required* to fly an opportunity) to launch w/out any indicators of lift. In the scattered Northwest, many contests involve only between 15-25 pilots, and I have seen many large blocks of time pass by w/every pilot entered "waiting" for that sign of lift to come by....the result of which was empty winches for 15-30 minutes. We frequently use flight windows...reduces the opportunity to wait it out. Even then, though, I remember one contest where the first 8 pilots up dropped out in about 3 minutes. People started waiting it out, but the conditions just didn't change. 30 minutes later one of the pilots (who had already flown, and was getting upset about people bagging to badly) went up again on a 'test flight' of a plane for a friend. His words, right before launch, was "I'll show you weenies there's nothing to be afraid of!" Well, he flew what came to be know as the 'pez pattern'. A windless day, he went straight out into sink for 45 seconds...turned and flew to the right into sink for 45 seconds, turned again to the right into sink for 45 seconds, then flew back to his feet...in sink...for 45 seconds. Another 3 minute flight! You can guess that got the winches moving again....NOT! The last 15 minutes of the window were so busy that I don't recall if the all the remaining pilots made it up or not. (Everyone forgets that with a lot of pilots to fly, timers become scarce!) That's the worst case I've ever seen, and it did generate a lot of heated discussion about the 'legality' of that test flight in the middle of the round. It was an ugly contest!!!! But, back to the point, I find an upwind (if there is a wind), zig-zag on the way out pattern pretty productive. Takes you continuously into the new air instead of passing repeatedly through the same stuff, keeps it such that you *should* be able to get back to land (unless you *really* press it out), keeps the plane at a more or less side profile which makes it easier to see the impacts of any lift. In fact, if you read the soarin' buzzard book, I think that's very much like the pattern described in the book. (got to borrow that book from someone once...read the whole thing overnight between contest days. Would have helped my performance the next day if I hadn't been so tired..but I couldn't put the book down!) I use the books pattern search regularly, modified to head to the 'traditional' lift areas if I know them. But if you're new to field, it's early in the contest, the signs aren't there and the locals aren't sharing....seems the best option to me! I'd really like to hear advice from the cream as to their opinions though! Guess that's why I'm still... Les Grammer, Searching for the Thermal Wizard. RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
