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We weren't sure we would get to fly. Hurricane
Isabel had just raced through Pensyllvania and upstate New York, and Windcast
was forecasting high winds for Long Island. In spite of the forecast 8 CRRCers
drove to Long Island for the contest: Fritz Bien, John Nilsson, Dave Walter,
Bruce Schneider, Jan Kansky, Mark Drela, our remote member - Jose Bruzual, and
Anker Berg-Sonne. Miner Crary was registered but we didn't see him.
Saturday morning was calm and sunny, and as the day
progressed it stayed calm with light breezes from the East and temperatures in
the 80's with high humidity. The thermal conditions were quite poor with weak
thermals spread far apart. A far cry from the forecast.
The contest format was man-on-man with experts
flying against experts and sportsmen flying against sportsmen. Landings wre
graduated tape landings, but just 5 feet long with 10 points per foot. Winch
lines were short, just 500 feet, with 250 lbs line to minimize line breaks. I
don't think there was a single line break all weekend! CD John Hauff was tough
as usual and gave everyone, also sportsmen, one popoff per day, and also one
line break per day! The tasks were a 5 minute task, then 6 rounds of 8 minute
tasks and finally a 15 minute task to separate the boys from the men. Because of
the poor thermal conditions the scores got spread out quickly. Team CRRC didn't
have any equipment problems at all, a rare ocurrence. The contest also ran
incredibly smoothly with no hangups, a relief, because the spring LIST contest
had been plagued by frequent line breaks. The only major excitement was George
Hill, who flew the wrong plane and crashed his new Aegea Mantis in the woods.
Using my hand bearing compass he was able to find and retrieve it. The wing tips
were pretty badly damaged. Terry Luckenbach also ended up in the woods. He
usually manages to come back from flying far out and low, but this time he
got caught. His plane was unscathed.
At the end of the day our sportsmen had
done really well. Bruce Schneider was in second place, Mark Drela in third,
and Jose in fourth. Luis Bustamante took first. The CRRC experts fared less
well. Fritz ended up in fifth place, I in sixth, Dave Walter in eigth, and John
Nilsson in 12th. John was flying his new Aegea Mantis for the first time in a
contest and was extremely pleased with it. John's old center panel was on Jose's
Mantis.
The forecast for Sunday was for light breezes out
of the East again. It became very variable with light breezes shifting all
around the compass, usually pointing straight at the thermals, which were big
and almost continually present. There wasn't a cloud in the sky all day and the
air was crisp and dry. It simply doesn't get better. To make it something other
than a landing contest, CD Paul Bell called for 10 minute rounds after an
initial 5 minute tune-up round. The 10 minute rounds didn't make a big
difference, and it ended up being a landing contest. As far as excitement goes,
we had more. On my first launch I fluttered my ailerons on the zoom, and found
that both aileron servos had stripped after landing. Fortunately they worked
well enough that I could complete the flight and get my time. When I switched to
my backup wing I omitted to change models on my transmitter in the rush and
stripped a flap servo when it jammed against the stop. I flew with the stripped
servo the rest of the day and had my backup ship all assembled in case the
primary rig became unflyable. During one of my flights I heard a bang followed
by a huge crash from the launching area. It turned out to be Fritz who had
thrown his plane into the back of his head. After impacting the plane got pulled
straight into the ground by the winch line. In spite of the violence of the
crash his wing is repairable, but his fuse was broken in two places. George Hill
managed to fly the wrong plane again and crashed his backup moldie far into the
woods. My hand bearing compass led him to it again and it was pretty badly
mangled. At the end of the day he bought Hand Wiedekehr's Aegea Mantis. A pretty
expensive weekend for him. John Hauff launched once without power to the
receiver and servos. Luckily the plane looped until it and the ground hit the
same spot. Luckily, the damage was only cosmetic, and John could fly the next
round after checking it thoroughly.
At the end of the contest team CRRC again had a
strong sportsman result. Bruce Schneider in first place, Mark Drela in
second and Jose in fifth. Our experts did a bit better. I made second, Dave
Walter made fifth, John Nilsson in eigth, Fritz in 11th (one zero round) and Jan
Kansky in 12th. What happened, Jan?
I have a way of rating contest difficulty. The
percentage of contestants that come within 90% of the winner's absolute score
will be very high for an "easy" contest, and very low for a "difficult" one. I
have seen it range between 2 and 50 percent. Saturday was a 21, which is about
avarage. This is surprising when you consider how light the winds were. Sunday
was a 48, which is about as "easy" as they come.
Again, I have to say that this was one of the most
smoothly run contests I have ever been to.
Anker
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