Good job Bob! I too had a great time. I think I was lucky with the air I drew. I never got any air that was horrible. This venue does allow some DR technique. I imagine that it is not as drastic as the European slopes at the last VR, but at Mammoth there was a lot more volume than the slopes I am used to.
While watching you fly, it didn't "seem" like you were kicking our asses that badly. Partly I think this is because runs far out from the hill look slower. Also watching your turns as a judge on several occasions, it seemed like you were flying a long course. Even after the initial repositioning of the pylon sight lines at the beginning of the race (due to a converging course!), it may have been that the course was shorter the farther out you flew. This would imply that even if you apparently flew long on a big DR run, you might actually be flying a pretty tight course. On several occasions, when your air wasn't quite as good, it looked ugly as you got down there below the lower ledge, but your scores prove that maybe DR does dampen the variation in times when you get mixed good/bad air. When I think of trying to apply DR to my local slopes though, I just can't see it working. You really need a high mountain slope with some volume out front. For my part, I used a mixture of techniques. I had the luck to follow Thuro (spelling?), the Austrian designer of the Skorpion, on several occasions when he drew crap. (Flying a super nice prototype carbon Skorpion - coming soon - looks GREAT!) Because of the constant cycling, if the guy before you got crap, then you were probably going to do okay. I liked starting high and closer in to the pylons. If the air was good, then you were rewarded with fast close-in "traditional" F3F, very fun. If it wasn't as good, you could move out deeper looking for better air and/or doing a bit of DR. I only used DR to any degree when the air was bad. If you made a turn and the plane "fell", just go with it and stay on the lower line, in other words: DR! On my fastest run (37.x on Sat), I was far out in a monster thermal, but not really doing DR per se. I think Dan's fast run (34.x on Sat), it was similar, not DR per se, just way out in a monster thermal (flying a Skorpion BTW). For any pilots out there wanting to get the chance to practice DR in real conditions (maybe to get ready for another European venue?), Mammoth is very cool. You do need a 4WD to get up the jeep road, but the scenery is awesome. One word of caution, flying at high altitude (the course was at about 10,500 feet) requires less ballast! Maybe 30% less ballast as a rule of thumb? Several planes flicked hard and some went down, maybe partly from travel volumes too high for the thin air, and maybe partly from being over-ballasted in the thin air. I had a great time racing with the SoCal boys too. This is my third Mammoth race and I am definitely hooked! Like Randy, I'd be up for more NorCal / SoCal races too. I have the most fun each year at Davenport ISR and Mammoth F3F. Like Bob said "great vibe" at both venues. I'm looking forward to your photos too Bob! -- James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Bingham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: rcse <[email protected]>, Yahoogroups <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [F3F] Mammoth redux Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 09:10:21 -0700 > > Wow, just got home to San Diego. Man that's a long drive. For some reason > coming home takes twice as long as going. > > What an event. This was my first time for F3F in Mammoth and it was > certainly worth the effort. I had taken Gary's tip a couple of years ago and > managed to get up there for some fun flying, but without either a radar gun > for DS or beepers for some turns, it was hard to judge the potential of the > hill. I think times in the 30's show that this site can deliver. Dan's > smokin 34.xx was simply amazing. I think just about everyone had some good > and some bad that an inland mountain slope provides. Feast or Famine x 10. > > Nathan's launch when he couldn't get his plane to actually go down even > though he was pointed in that general direction as he promptly went from eye > level to 500 feet in about 3 seconds was a highlight for sure. The silky > smooth landings on Sunday were a nice addition as well. After we moved the > cars from Sat to Sun, the top part of the slope became more laminar on the > backside and made for some precision perfect Torrey Pines style landing. > Sat, however, could be a bit bumpy (as my crunched wingtip attests). The DS > is truly great. With the evening air starting to ebb, we still got some > 170's without much effort. I can only imagine that site with the wind we had > earlier in the afternoon on Sat. > > Future: I think we better get a pre-registration out for next year. With > proximity to every kind of lodging and food choices, great alpine > atmosphere, loads of other activities for the family, Mammoth is really a > great spot for a large two day event. Thuro has promised to bring some > Austrians over and I'm sure we could coax some of our other currency rich > Euro friends to visit as well making this a true international event. > > The RaceM likes the mountain air. I never flew more than 17 oz wing loading > even though it was blowing 30ish or more at times. I flew an abreviated > alpine dive course out on top of the double chin slope and easily made it > back to eye level within a few seconds of the finish. Since sometimes it was > on, and sometimes off this essentialy gave me substantial advantage to be in > the 40's almost the entire comp with one 30 and one 50. Not hero work by any > stretch, but consistency wins in this case. No cuts help as well because of > flying so far out, I certainly waited for the beep or risk disaster. > > Overall, very fun, very good vibe and great fishing on Monday morning as > well ;-) > > Bob 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
