Hello... Jack Strother, are you there? Are you going to rip this guy a new one too? Are you going to tell him to hug a tree and get on with life or stay home if he doesn't like contests? Are you going to call him a whiner and tell him to practice if he wants to win like you and all the other big boys?
I didn't think so. Joe, thank you so much for your thoughts. >From: "Joe & Jan Wurts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "RCSE" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [RCSE] "TD" contest thoughts >Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 19:58:12 -0800 > >I've not downloaded my email in a while (work...). From the voluminous >posts on the subject, I see that there are quite a few opinions out there. >Decided that I would weigh in with some more opinions. > >First of all, most of the "big" US thermal duration (TD) events that I >attend are mislabeled. They are not at all about TD, but all about >spot landing. In fact, look carefully at the results from the SWC, >at least one of the top ten dropped significant time (~two minutes), >and the winner could have dropped almost two minutes and still won. >Skip did a heckuva job landing, and deserved the win. > >I've dropped out of the local TD contest scene primarily due to the strong >emphasis on landings. The concept of measuring your soaring skills via >sticking the plane into the sod seems somewhat foreign to me. The one >major event that still measures strong soaring skills is HLG, even with >the advent of tip launching. So, I choose to fly more HLG than "TD" >events. > >I applaud the SWC for going to a measured landing event, which is >much better than the in/out of many other major events. But, the SWC >event emphasized landing accuracy in an extreme way. One point >per inch, one point per second of time, coupled with a two day >add-em-up (only one landing to time), results in a contest that measures >almost purely how you stick the plane into the ground. This is >especially true in that making the total time could have been done >by just launching, putting the plane into min sink setting, and waiting >until the time for landing occurred. > >I'm entirely in favor of the type of contest that Tom Copp is proposing. >I'm hoping that this puts the emphasis on soaring skills, and not >landing skills. This might not be the "feel good" everyman type >event, but should emphasize the soaring element. > >If the goal is landing measurement, I'd recommend using short >bungee launches with 1 minute target times. Gets rid of the boredom >of waiting for time to land, and would allow for many more rounds to >be flown. Then, we could go with the truth in advertising and have >the "Spring Landing Festival", Fall Landing Festival", etc. > >A cool way to modify the events flown recently would be to institute >some form of triathlon into the contest. This would at least add a >way to measure the aircraft handling/positioning with respect to >time. How about a 10 point/second penalty for errors from whole >minutes? This is still not soaring, but at least it measures a >different skill than precision sod hole drilling. > >I still enjoy the major events, but not in a competitive way. I use >them to see the folks socially that I have come to know over the years. >To me, these are social events, not competitive events. The little >fringe events that occur around them answer my urge for >competitive behavior (HLG golf, misc. HLG fun-fly events, >friendly wagers on landings, etc.). The actual event itself >is not something to chase for me anymore. Just do not >have the drive anymore to endlessly practice landings, and >my contest results reflect this. > >The current emphasis on precision landings leaves this pilot >hungry for soaring events. Fortunately for me, there is F3B, >F3J, and F3K, although these events are far too few for my taste. > >Joe > >PS It was really cranking on Parker this past weekend. It was >blowing high 40's, low 50's with gusts up to about 60 mph... > > > >RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and >"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
