Bubba... Well, if there were more than 2 glider guys within 2 hours of me, I'd put on a couple a year. I've been CD at more than my share of contests, beginning in 1975. Clovis MADS club may well host a glider contest this year. It's going to be a stretch, and I'm going to have to count on folks coming from out of town since there are only 2 of us in Clovis. The winch (1) will benefit from all the talk and thoughts of this and other posts.
Gordy, I'm not sure where you've been in the USA Soaring world, but I will assure you that the winches I launched on 33 years ago are indeed eclipsed by many of the winches in use today. The look is the same, FLS motors, etc., but they pull a heck of a lot harder and faster. Read the challenge... Who am I challenging? The status quo and the ongoing escalation... Do you think I'm so dumb as to not know the challenge is greater from a lower altitude? Are the guys that practice and take this seriously going to win? Of course they are. This has nothing to do with some pie-in-the-sky crap about letting beginners win. As I said... put some challenge back into it. Airframes have advanced along with launching systems so that making your time isn't really too tough, anymore... especially if the lines are really out there. I put my winch out in Houston once at 300 meters. I could have flown to Galveston and back on that much altitude. Please read what's written, and don't read anything else into it. It's not there. By the way... the challenge says standardize, not weaken... if that means 6V winds with real balls, so be it. As to the skeg piece... Why not take that crutch away. Make the landing tape 40' long instead of 25', and still measure from center just like now. If you're really interested in what "hard on airframes" I believe that sudden stop is probably harder on them than about anything. Go ahead and let this escalate, and see where the attendance goes. Strange that I don't remember you from those days when the winches got totally out of hand and the kits (and lots of the builders) went away... and the attendance fell way off to not very many. Those that don't know history are bound to repeat it. Jack -- schrederman ------------------------------------------------------------------------ schrederman's Profile: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=13218 View this thread: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=794683 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
