27 July 2009

Practice / final setup continues with the awesome weather. The winches were also calibrated today to ensure that they comply with competition (FAI) standards. With the “new” winch rules, the powerful (and very, Very heavy) batteries will need to be charged after every second launch. We understand that the WC organisers will have a power cable running the length of the flight line for this purpose & using the 20 amp battery chargers this should not take too long, but we will “wait & see”.

The practice day was good, but rather tiring – we (well, "me" in particular ) were still exhausted from the day before, the heat & humidity claiming the rest. Michelle fitted our her spare model & the rest performed lots of launches to assess the winches. Craig & Dion flew a number of distance laps to assist fine setting of the models for altitude/air density. Launch settings, etc. being compared & shared to ensure each model was optimal. The highly controversial finish of the new CL's are creating a definite edge for the distance & speed tasks over the other models, improving even further after applying the tensoids.

We were invited to our hosts house (think “Grand Design meets Ikea”) for a barbecue & some “real” Weis-beer, all overlooking their own massive flying field with lush ankle-high grass. We have reached the conclusion that we are in a flying paradise: walking distance to the flying fields, green grass as far as the eye can see, & great (no, read that as "brilliant") beer. After another busy practice/setup day we closed in for the night, with the intent of flying at 07h00 tomorrow morning for “dead-air” conditions & also allow time for the trip to the famous Red Bull Hanger 9.

Parting comment for the day (from Dion "Denny" Liebenberg): “you can see the planes better in left-hand rather than right-hand thermal turns”.

Parting comment from Tigger: "damb clutch was not were I expected it to be" after parking the van into a bench

Day 1, 26 July 2009

A good first day.

We started off with the makings of breakfast that our host & Wolfgang had arranged. Suitably fortified & showered, we slowly setoff for the field, the Crig & Wolfgang heading off to “The Workshop” (capitals being important) to finish Michelles’s Ceres Lift wing & other bits. The field itself was within walking distance of our accommodation & we only needed to drive the winches & batteries to it, the rest choosing to walk the short distance in the warm morning air.

At this point we started to see how pretty Austria is; all the fields are clean & green, and there are mountains in the distance in almost every direction you can look. As a Sunday, we were soon joined by some of the local hobby enthusiasts who soon had their electric powered foam models zipping around.

We set to the task of unpacking the boxes & were gratefull for all the hours of manufacture & packing when no damage emerged. Batteries needed to be charged & we slowly setup the winches on loan to us from the local club. They use massive 85A rated batteries coupled through huge welding type cables to their winches. Three of the winches were on wheeled dollies, but still require hefty lifting to remove from the van. Lines were chosen from the selection Wolfgang had had delivered, and spread across the winches. They use a “quick couple” approach for the negative terminal so that the cable can be yanked out in the event of a power lock.

The models were all soon lined up & ready to fly. Wolfgang however notified us that the wind direction was due to swing 180 degrees, so we rolled up the lines & laid them out from the opposite direction. The wind swung again, but from 15h00 onwards it was mostly cross/downwind. Everyone got a good number of launches in, models were trimmed for altitude & we started a few speedruns. Still air conditions were challenging for launch, but thermal activity was strong & widespread.

Dead tired, we left the field at around 19h00 & headed to the chalet for a shower & then out for supper at a local restaurant. The local Weisbeer supplies were dented & then off to bed!

A great first day.

Day Zero - Travel News

News so far,.....

The trip started off. Well it didn't actually, as our flight was delayed for 12 hours. I was on my way to the airport, about 10 minutes out when the dreaded phonecall came informing me that we would be flyign out at 09h00 the next morning. I turned around & went home for another night with the family. Dion stayed at home, & the Goodrum's booked into a hotel near the airport with all their luggage.

The after hours contact number I was provided the night before was unanswered. However, upon arrival, the departure sign notioned that the flight had been delayed for 24 hours! What! I had to get up at 04h00 to travel all the way to OR Tambo for yet another delay! Waiting until the ticket office opened, we were informed that the flight would indeed be taking off at 09h00. Twits!

We were naturally overweight - but our new chum at the airport, Kingsely, decided that we had been stuffed around enough already & waived the costs! Yes, Karma. Our carefully packed bags & boxes were then lugged off to destinations unknown, undoubtably falling under the intense scrutiny of many eyes. I suspect though that at those wee hours of the morning, the prying hands had better things to do & thankfully our bags were untouched.

Another amazing karmic experience was that the majority of passengers the night before had booked onto alternate flights, so the flight SAA made up for us was empty - about 150 passengers on the Airbus A300'sh (a white one for those more interested in the technical details, Simon). So, once we started into the climb, everybody climbed out of their seats & spread out across the aircraft with 4 seats being used as sleepers etc.

The flight was uneventful after that, the service on SAA was excellent, food good & the leg room, even in economy was a good 20-30 cms more than the Emirates sardine can. The fact that we were able to fly direct to Munich was also a godsend, not having to wait for the connecting flight in some pit of hadesso made the flight infinitely more pleasurable.



The best past was arriving in Munich (hell, the police & customs are friendly) we collected our unopened baggage, nothing to declare (except Denny (Dion) that was stopped at customs - he claims it was due to his Tx case, but we all know the real reason was his somewhat guilty look), out into arrivals & Wolfgangs friendly smile. Of course a quick round of Starbucks was called essential (such a clever marketing ploy - they have their shop next to the exit with the smell of fresh coffee wafting across). The packing of the bus was somewat challenging, but we were soon all squeezed in, radio tuned to "Bayern 3", because Wolfie claims it gives the best traffic reports, & we were soon whizzing down a virtually trafficless highway. The crossing from Germany to Austria was marred only by a frantic scramble for passports - which was not necessary as their was no border control anymore & Wolfie giggled for virtually the rest of the trip to our wooden ski-hut style accommodation in the quaint farming hamlet of Hallwang (approx 5 km's from Salzburg). Everything was unpacked (with a dash of speed), and we shot off to the Hallwang festival for a round of beers & supper.




What a brilliant day.

Regards,
Lionel Brink

F3B World Cahmpionships 2009

http://www.f3b2009.com/
F3B WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2009



The „RC MODEL KLUB BRNO“, as a member of the Club of Aeromodellers Czech Republic and Association of Modellers of Czech Republic, has the pleasure to invite all members of the FA I to participate in the 17th F3B World Championship.
It will take place on the new Model area in Ivančice near Brno (Czech Republic) from

August 3 – 9, 2009.
Here is the downloadable Bulletin # 1

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League #1 ETB

On Sunday 25 January the first of the F3B Leagues was held at ETB. The previous weekend the HTL was held at ETB and becaues they had had the grass cut it was decided to hold the F3B league there.

The call went out on Monday for entries and by Friday 15 pilots had responded. Craig and Michelle and Myself were available for the morning only due to other commitments, so I decided to make this event into a Speed and Distance clinic.

I was very nice to see some new faces amongst the usual group. It was especially nice to have Jono from Australia. Craig and Michelle lent Jono one of their models and he had some early scary flight with it until he discover that the nose weight was missing completely. Once that had been corrected things got a little easier. Also nice to see some fairly new F3B Pilots, Roberts and Juniors, Steven and Jason. And not to forget Craig (Piglet) Baker back in the frey. Hope to see even more new pilots entering the next F3B League event scheduled for the 15th March.

As always helpers are difficult to find, so I asked that each team provide their own. This however didn't happen. So I arrange three man teams, with one pilot flying, one timing and the other team member was used as the flagman at Base B. As soon as the slot was over the Base B flagmen would go and fetch the chute and one of the other pilots would go down to Base B. This system worked fairly well and we were able to turn each distance slot around in about 15 minutes.

Because of the shortage of helpers and to keep some sort of momentum going it was decided to fly all the distance rounds back to back.

We got off to a very late start, so we only managed 5 full rounds of Distance and 3 rounds of Speed, before we called it a day at around 2;30pm.

Derek has promised to pretty up this article with some photos, so check back in a few days please.

Overall Distance scores below.

Individual Round score below

Speed times below. Robert and Lionel also had to leave early and Jono and Jason elected not to fly. It's interesting to see that Craig Baker was able to put in the second best speed time of 18.5 seconds. Well done! As always, Craig Goodrum was very consistent and fast. Michelle and Dion have some catching up to do! Also of interest is to see guys like Piet & Herman now consistently flying in the mid 20's. It won't be long before they too can clock sub 20 second runs.

F3B World Champs - Ivančice near Brno (Czech Republic) from 3 – 9 August, 2009

The link to the 2009 F3B world champs is now available;

http://www.f3b2009.com/

Bulitin No. 1 has been posted.

F3B Team Trials - Groengoudt - Nov 2008

Below are the round by round results of the F3B Team Trials held at Groengoud on the 22 November 2008.

In order to make this event as "man-on-man" as possible and because there were only 8 pilots competing, all pilots flew together in Duration. The Distance task was divided into 2 slots per round with 4 pilots at a time and matrixed into different groups for each round so as to give all pilots as much chance to fly against different combinations of pilots. The Speed task were, as per normal, one after the other.

Round 1 started bang on the advertised time of 08:30 (a first for us F3B pilots. Well done guys and girls). Duration first, then distance, then speed. Then Round 2 started with speed, then distance and then duration and round 3 duration, distance, speed etc. etc. This format worked very well and was very well received.

Congratulation to all the pilots for a very good event and of course all the helpers.

F3B is impossible to run without flagmen and base A timers. I cannot put into words just how grateful I am to those special people that always willingly and selfishly offer their help whenever there is an F3B event. You guys are very special.

THANK YOU ALL.

The Team trial scores are added to the best of the two qualifiers.

Well done to Craig Goodrum, Michelle Goodrum, and Dion Liebenberg who qualify for the 2009 SA National F3B Team. Paul Carnal as first reserve, Herman Weber as second reserve, etc…






A more detailed report can be found on the MGA Blog. http://mgasa.blogspot.com/ with more on the BERG Blog http://www.berg-gliders.blogspot.com/

F3B Qualifier No 2 Pictures

F3B Qualifier No 2 Results

On Sunday the 17 August the second of the F3B Qualifiers were held at BERG.
The plan was to start early (Around 08h00) so we could try and get in 6 rounds. Craig and Michelle had set up the speed sights the day before into, what was considered to be the normal wind direction. But as Murphy would have it, Sunday dawned cold and overcast and of course the wind at ninety degrees to the way the sight were set up.
So when everyone had arrived, a brief discussion was held and the vote was taken to reset the sights. With everyone chipping in to help, the sights were dismantled and set up in the right direction.
In the meant time Martie, had the breakfast on the go and after about a 45minutes delay to move the sights and have something to eat we were ready to start.

Because of the stiff breeze blowing straight up the winch lines the launched were good if you didn't blow the line. In fact, broken lines and waiting for teams to get them fixed was the main reason for the slow rotation of slots. Something that will have to be addressed for future comps.

Despite the inclement weather the day produced some surprising lift patterns with some slots having an easy time while others were very challenging.

Speed times were good on average with high launches possible and the stiff breeze helping.

Of the 12 pilots that entered, only 2 didn't make the start and Rodney and Derek suffered equipment failure with their models so they could not complete all the rounds.

In all we managed to squeeze in a total of five rounds, with some juggling of slots which helped to reduce round duration. In fact the last two slots of duration were flown after the sun had set and despite this the pilots were still able to get 10 minutes flights. The last landing was in almost total darkness.

Well done to all the pilots and helpers. Especially the helpers. Without you guy, this type of event will be almost impossible. We salute you!! Thanks a million.

Results and round by round break down below.
If anyone wants a copy of the spread sheet, send me an email and I'll post it to you.

Evan

F3B League - round 1

Hello All




We held the first round of F3B league on Sunday and despite the small entry I think fun was had by all (I know I did) Evan has worked out the scores (with the handicap etc - think he used a Cray Super computer) and some interesting results emerge.

The Results were as follows:

Pilot Ave Raw Score Handicap End result Rank

Michelle 1854.15 1.0321 1989.61 1

Peter 1621.11 1.1898 1928.84 2

Craig 1913.72 1.0000 1913.72 3

Piet 1587.69 1.2034 1910.55 4

Dion 1580.24 1.0676 1687.05 5




B League
Robert 1600 1.0000 1600 1

(Sorry about the clunky format - I don't seem to be able to generate tables properly - If you need the spreadsheet of results drop me a mail and I will forward it to you)





I would like to than all who helped - Evan for CD'ing - Tony, Gordon, Peter, Edmund and Samantha who sat out in the hot sun, Justice for running lines in the same hot sun and Martie for keeping us fed and watered. Also Derek for providing the photos.




To those that flew - thanks for putting in the effort (even although there was some discussion about using egg timers and/ or calendars for timing the increasingly inaptly named "speed" task!) I hope you enjoyed it and that you will be back next time.
To those who missed out - you missed out! Come and join us next time (remember league every second month)