...hottt.... ;-) F3B World Champs report 1:
The conditions were brutal - mentally, physically, and even soaringly.... if that's a word. Every direction you looked, I swear it was downwind. We launched off of lighter and thinner line than I've ever used in my life. The heat and humidity made for very poor soaring conditions - hot and humid = less air molecules per cubic foot of air = poor performance for our models. I've never seen it effect the performance to this degree. No big deal, F3B is man on man right? I know there were some questions about the scores received. I'll address my speed task in this long drawn out report: My first zero - I think it was round 2: I launched at the horn, it was crap. I don't just mean normal crap, but the model could build no tension on launch. The winch spun freely. The model practically raced the chute to the turnaround. I got about 1/2 to 2/3 launch height in comparison to the previous competitors. No biggie, we'll just sit and wait it out. Told my team to hold, and launch at the 2 minute mark - just in case I needed a third launch. Oh great, it got worse... the model wasn't flying, it was falling - quickly. Called for a very quick abort, and relit one more time, very short on working time. Air was still horrible - Entered at about 1/2 height to most of the competition, maybe 27-30 seconds left on the clock, would have had to fly perfectly for a 21/22 second run. This meant nail the turns. First turn - no horn. Oh well, it's a throwout anyway, no point in going back to get it. Might not even finish within the working time anyway. That'll get ya a big fat zero. And btw - it really pisses people off. ;-) The air was sooooo bad, it was humorous. Most of my competitors were afraid to talk to me, they just looked away, assuming I'd be angry I think. Until Gregg Voak from Australia came up to me, we looked at each other, and just started busting up laughing. He looks at me, and emphatically proclaims... in his very heavy Aussie accent - That was the worst [EMAIL PROTECTED] air I've ever seen, Mite! But hey, what are ya gonna do? It's a long contest, ya just keep pluggin' along, right? Just no more mistakes. Next round, I decided to change my "juju." Switched models to a model I was much more familiar with - the Warp T. Hey, it worked last time, right? Stepped up to fly speed, the guy in front of me had great air - went 17 I think. It took great air to go 17 at this contest, and nerves of steel. I launched quickly - pretty high. But I wasn't happy with the air on course. Would have probably netted me a low 17, or maybe even a 16 second run if flown well. So naturally....... I aborted. As I was coming down, my flap wiper came out of the wing - bitchin! DZ gave me a piece of plastic to put it back in with. The plastic piece was super sharp, and cut the wiper. Took maybe 20 - 30 seconds to put it back in. Then it happened - hey what's that sound? Is that line tension? Is the winch actually bogged down? I launched to the moon, in killer air. 3 or 4 wraps, and I was higher than anyone I'd seen all week. The thermal was in the perfect position on the course. I came back and entered. That's when I got my only 1,000 point speed round for the contest - a fairly nicely flown 15.1 something. (Even if I do say so myself) Since there was no headwind, or crosswind, or... well, wind... we had to fly pretty light to guarantee getting some sort of tow. So even if you were fortunate enough to get a thermal, you weren't heavy enough to really go. 19's were keepers in this contest, with most of the top guys going mid 18's in between the lift or sink. Next round - back up in speed. Had a 17 second launch, and a 16 second run going, so I thought it would be neat to cut another one and net a 21. Still don't know what happened, I didn't think I wasn't even pushing the margins. Just got no horn. I was told later by the helpers that both of my cuts were less than one meter away. One was decribed as inches. These guys were very well trained to not give away anything, and to not push the button until they were certain the model had crossed the base. The term speed lotto was used by some of the competitors. But I still believe that over the course of a long contest, the air will pretty much even out over the competitors. As a competitor, you must optimize every slot. I had my crap, I had my thermal, and all kinds of 18 potential if flown well. My second cut took me out of the running for a first place finish, and I was mentally spent, and it was only round 4. Flew speed conservatively and cleanly for the rest of the comp - too little too late. I'll address the other tasks and the team's World champs from my perspective in a couple of more reports. If they bore you, or you're not into F3B - use that delete key.... ;-) Former/past/ wcx4 ;-) D __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.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.
