FxRES July 2023 F3L/F5LMonthly Duration Challenge

[martynk]

FxRES Monthly Postal Rules

This is a “for fun” challenge for UK based pilots. Anyone may enter with:

1. a bungee-launched F3L specification glider using the reduced length Hi-Start. The reduced length Hi-Start bungee has a maximum of 10m of 6/4mm surgical tubing and 50m of static line (minimum 30lb breaking strain). Lighter/smaller/shorter bungee rubber may be used.

OR

2. an Electric motor launched F5L specification glider fitted with an Altitude Limiter set to 60m and a maximum motor run time of 20 seconds.

Object: Fly your F3L or F5-RES glider for as long as possible from a flat field. Each monthly challenge will commence on the 1st day of the Calendar month and  the person who's time is unbeaten at the end of the Calendar Month 'wins' and a new challenge will start. The annual challenge league will end on the 31st December of each year. A new annual challenge league will then commence on the 1st of January.

Rules:

Models must comply with the Model Specification rules for F3L or F5L as appropriate.

You may self-time your own flights

Flight times begin when the tow-line falls from the tow-hook  for F3L or in the case of a F5L glider when the motor stops.

The model must land in the launch field or (if there is no field boundary) within 150m of the launch position for times to count. There is no landing bonus.

If you are using a bungee launch (for this event or any other), then the launch line MUST be secured using a corkscrew dog tether or similar bungee stake to minimise the risk of injury caused by a loose stake.

Scores must be submitted on the relevant monthly postal event posting on the FxRES forum at www.barcs.co.uk/forums/   

Scoring flights must be submitted within 24 hours of the flight taking place.

A flight log graph from the Altitude limiter should also be submitted if entering with a F5-RES glider.

All scoring flights must start with a hand release from Ground Level with (if applicable), the motor running.

No flight information telemetry permitted except for Received signal strength and Receiver battery status.

Submitted scores will be amalgamated into an annual league. Points will be awarded as follows:  1st -25 points, 2nd - 22points, 3rd - 20 points, 4th to 22nd, 19 to 1 point respectively.

You may enter as many times as you wish using as many different models as you wish, but only your longest duration flight will count towards the league position.

Please enter your best/latest monthly scores below in the following format...

ON THE FIRST LINE OF YOUR POST

Model Name : Class (F3 or F5) : Date of flight : Time Claimed

Any text or commentary or images please add afterwards.  Thanks  

[AnthonyB]

This month has not been that good for flying up to now.

This lot were finding it all a bit hard work too, so they decided to have a rest right in the middle of my strip.

As soon as the good air comes, they will all take off and clearly show the lift.

You can't just wander over with your model and wait for the moment, because this will happen. Back off and they will all land again.

[cirrusRC]

Medina e | f5| 9th July | 35.02

Got out at 10 am before wind hit.  Zero wind, sun and lift.   Wind arrived at 11.30.   sun appeared and good lift ( waves of warm air)   No fly zone down wind so pushed forward, the more I pushed the better the lift.   Lots of surfing and slipping left/right.   Couple of climb outs.

Next flight, lift was booming, but I was either going backwards or worried about air frame so aborted.

Was even a handful with DLG so pretty happy with over 30 mins.

[cirrusRC]

... not sure why it double posted, apologies.

Edited July 9, 2023 by cirrusRC

[martynk]

No worries.  A very useful flight to start the challenge off. I am on holiday in South Wales sitting at the top of a hill outside Tenby being well and truly buffeted by the gales and rain..

Hey-ho

     

     

[Phil Morrell]

X-Dream, F5, 3min 11 sec, July 18th, Bramhall Cricket Club, 

 

It has not been a very good month for weather here in Greater Manchester, strong winds and heavy showers as the jetstream is stuck far off to the south. This morning didn't look too bad so I took advantage with a couple of attempts at Bramhall Cricket Club before the expected rain. This was only the second time out with my new X-Dream following some drive train issues, now solved with heavier duty Deans connectors and a new ESC. I only had four flights in a blustery wind , heavy skies and no real lift about. Despite the conditions, I was very pleased how the X-Dream performed, the climb out was fast and able to get well up wind before the Altis cut the motor. Even in the weak lift it held height in the thermal turns. Once downwind it easily penetrated back  noticeably much better than my Gentle Lady that I have recently been using. The weather prevented anything spectacular but I was pleased with my 3min 11 secs, at least it's something to post. Lets hope for an improvement in the weather so we can all start getting some decent flying and scores to post  before the end of the month

[AnthonyB]

I converted one of my models to 3S. With a 1000kv 28mm motor and a 10 x 4 prop it would still be a bit under its max – but last for ever. (As you would expect) I had to buy a couple of 3S and settled on 350mAH. Which are not big !

Finally – early this morning it was neither raining nor blowing a gale. Time to see climb rate and power consumption. This model is 430g – so not a super-light.

Up it went and got to 100m in 15sec – That must be good enough.

I flew it round for a bit and landed. Changed the battery and went again. It all went very similar, except the air was really good. I decided to go for a 6.5min flight. Then I could just launch to below 60m and notch up a time for here.

I flew for a good while and then decided I should land, because it was the second flight on a very small battery.

Back to the house and download the data.

**If while messing with a set-up, you just blip the throttle, it registers as a flight. Then when downloading real flights, it comes up with a message that the “string” is too short. Well there were 3 at the start of this memory (measuring static current)

When I came to download, it kept saying the disk is corrupted and I should format. Click OK and the message came up again – in an endless loop. Then it finally did download. But there was no throttle trace. No problem, save that and then download again.

Nope – NOTHING. Well I got a download once, corrupted or not. But no second chance. In the end I pressed the format button and put all the settings back in.

You can set it up for more than just F5J (mine) – I can only imagine that it had decided it wanted to be an F3K or even a F3J ….......... F5K height ! ? !

Now it is too windy to re-test !

[Graham Lorimer]

July 20th

Prestbury

Purito E

Time claimed 38 minutes 42 seconds

A very enjoyable morning that provided some near perfect conditions for 2 meter flying.

Very bumpy lift down low, but with three saves from 15 - 20 meters, I was very pleased with this flight.

Spoilers not working properly, (programming fault I could not fix on the field) resulted in two near death dives from altitude a very log way from me, and very hard to tell what the model was doing. Once it is heading downwards at speed vertically, very careful application of the elevator required to prevent the wings folding, scary stuff.

It all worked out ok in the end, but will not be flown again until the spoilers are sorted.

 

Graham

[SteveH]

Model Purito E. Prestbury model flying club. 20/07/23. Flight claimed 62 mins 06 secs.

In the morning there was very strange bumpy turbulent lift below 150m with light winds but then smoothed out the higher you went. Spent at least 5 mins with the spoilers out to avoid losing sight of the model. I then spent another 10 mins going up to 200m ish then using the spoilers and diving to 150 ish. The wind speed increased after lunch and then the rain started so we were lucky to get some flying in at all!

[martynk]

Updated table.. A wet and windy month so far..  

 

[mikef]

Purito EMF : F5 : 20/07/23 : 1:1:05

Curses!  Steve beat me!  I could have done a bit more but beating the hour became the target and I brought it down after that…….  Loser.         Altimeter log shows thermals were big but plenty of sink coming back into wind.  Lowest save at 20 metres!  Max height 350 metres. (I don't know what the 'default' black dots signify or how to remove them and keep the other colours - RC Multi 3)

[SteveH]

49 minutes ago, mikef said:

Purito EMF : F5 : 20/07/23 : 1:1:05

Curses!  Steve beat me!  I could have done a bit more but beating the hour became the target and I brought it down after that…….  Loser.         Altimeter log later.

Now that was close! Beating the hour was my target and I could have done a bit more too! 

[cirrusRC]

Medina E | F5 | July 20th | 42m30   

Got out to field after a tough day in the office.    First flight (25min), the lift was strong but squirrelly even over 200m, was also much windier at height than at the ground.     2nd flight the lift had smoothed out and wind dropped.   Spent first 10 mins in the blue sky before traversing to the incoming grey.    The model boomed well over 600 meters,   I wanted to go higher but knew getting it down would hurt.    Lost a little too much height and paid for it.   Conditions started to change (no sun, cool air and breezy).   Managed to get another 10+ minutes right on the edge of no fly zone along the tree line, up to 300m.

Sadly, the conditions deteriorated and prevented me from challenging Mike and Steve's time.   Packed up and headed home for tea.

[martynk]

Welcome back Mike =  EMF - Engineered by Mike F or Electro Motive Force  

Great Scores..

PS - that was a lot of bumps, one every 5.5 minutes.  Well done..

[AnthonyB]

Model cREstX  F5 / July24th / Ribble Valley / 22:37.

The full flight with it all working after a format.

The actual landing, showing time after chopping off launch.

And the glide part. The lift was in tiny bits and as soon as I came out, it was bounced about. At the start it was hard and irritating. Towards the end it was more of a battle but fun. Once bounced out it was really hard (mostly impossible) to find it / get back in. I kept imagining they would get better with height, I just could not get it high enough though.

Really pleased with the 22:37 as it removes the previous flight which I did not want as an entry. What I have done wrong now I don't know, there is none of the writing or arrows (Yes – I have ticked to show them).

The ground was really wet after all the rain – I mean really wet. Fields down the road had lakes in them yesterday. It probably needs to dry out a lot before it can warm.

[martynk]

Updated table:

[Stewart Walker]

Bramhall, F5-Res, Fresh, 4min 40 secs. Martyn, please read and I'll leave it to you if it counts

The month has been against me, weather and commitments so I had to have a go before the end of the month, Had a go this morning with 6 flights, 5 were under 2 minutes but one i think was 4min 53 secs. when I got home and connected my Nano there was no data, Ive plugged the battery in and it now has recorded something so I dont know what ive done wrong. I know I deleted all the data on the Nano after my last session but i cant understand how I can connect and disconnect at the field 6 times and not record anything yet do it at home and it works. I think ive deleted todays data when connecting to my PC but dont know how. Anyone got any ideas

 

thanks

[AnthonyB]

5 hours ago, Stewart Walker said:

Bramhall, F5-Res, Fresh, 4min 40 secs. Martyn, please read and I'll leave it to you if it counts

The month has been against me, weather and commitments so I had to have a go before the end of the month, Had a go this morning with 6 flights, 5 were under 2 minutes but one i think was 4min 53 secs. when I got home and connected my Nano there was no data, Ive plugged the battery in and it now has recorded something so I dont know what ive done wrong. I know I deleted all the data on the Nano after my last session but i cant understand how I can connect and disconnect at the field 6 times and not record anything yet do it at home and it works. I think ive deleted todays data when connecting to my PC but dont know how. Anyone got any ideas

 

thanks

When mine lost the plot last week, the software said "format." I did that and all was well again. But you do have to put all the settings back in again.

[Stewart Walker]

Thanks Anthony, I've powered the glider up about 20 times, run the motor and everything has worked.

The only I think I did differently is to connect the nano while the pc was booting.

Hopefully I will have another flight tomorrow and I'll take my laptop with me to check

[Phil Morrell]

X-Dream, F5, 6min 35 seconds,  July 25th, Seal Rd Bramhall

The weather was reasonable for once this morning, warm and partly cloudy 10kph westerly so I tried a postal for an  hour at the BATs flying site. This is the best of six short flights. I managed to hit some lift after a couple of minutes reaching 100m before having to track back  for fear of getting too far downwind. This was a similar pattern for all the previous flights as I just couldn't gain enough height to confidently travel downwind. At least it is a better flight time to post than my previous although it will not take me any higher up the monthly placings. Weather permitting, I will try again tomorrow and fingers crossed for more lift.