FxRES August 2023 2m F3L/F5L Monthly 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  

[martynk]

I am on holiday until the 6th August.  I'll update the table when I get back. Happy flying..

[cirrusRC]

Can we add boats to the rules!?   This weather sucks!

[martynk]

It does indeed...  

[StraightEdge]

On 31/07/2023 at 17:09, cirrusRC said:

Can we add boats to the rules!?   This weather sucks!

I can confirm that this weather sucks for boats as well!!

[cirrusRC]

Jet stream shifting back middle of next week, should have a period of flyable weather.   Anything possible though.

[AnthonyB]

My flying spot is a lake at the moment.

I had a cREst model for sale and to show how it flies I stuck a small old key fob camera on.

I really wanted to get it done, so I had to fly 300yds nearer the road. Over which you would never fly.

So here is the video -

 

The model also happens to have a Nano in.

So here we have the flight log. My interest came when you compare the 2.

On the log there are very small climbs, because another circle and I would have been over the road. Well the wind was a good 8mph.

But – would I have ever got back again, without extra down trim and loss of flight duration.

Had I been in my normal spot I would have got 3 or 4 turns in.

These happened at 45sec, 1:45 and 3:15.

All my flights look the same and the frequency between these bubbles is very short. This is not about finding a boomer, but rather working every little bit – never possible previously because the models were too heavy.

This is NOT a duration entry, but interesting whilst nothing is going on.

[AnthonyB]

cRESt / F5RES / Aug6-23 / 6:00 duration.

It's wet and it's windy and horrible.

Just emptied a model and so I put the Altis etc back in old faithful – 606g of fun.

I looked out the window and it was not that windy or wet. What am I doing sat here messing. I had just wiped and re-set the altis to 60m, all was ready to go.

Launched – off up and away it went, then I said (to myself) - “That is over 60m !” But the air was nice and this model does fly fast and it would do no harm showing it the sky. About 8mins, not bad for (as it turns out from 90m).

Best would be to just guess at 60m, but enjoy flying whilst I could.

So here is the deed...........

This was the 90m launch one.

I think Andy Harrold was asking about battery usage on glide (F3L) – I left the voltage trace on and it never seems to drop on glide – a whole lot when pulling 20A but not on glide.

To the north black sky which went right down to the ground and to the south blue sky. Amazing, but the rain did stop play.

Will this last a day without being thrashed ?

 

[martynk]

I think I got this right. All that purple was upsetting my OCD..  

     

[AnthonyB]

7 minutes ago, martynk said:

I think I got this right. All that purple was upsetting my OCD..  

     

Yes it is really irritating. Why on earth it does not just show the battery voltage as a line I don't know.

6 mins is irrelevant, I expected it would be trounced that day. The lack of any voltage drop, just on glide, was more important, as there has been so much fuss about batteries draining.

[AnthonyB]

Above I posted flights 1 and 4.

It is the motor that drains the battery.

Here is flight 3, after a climb to 100m and to 60m. It starts at 8v and the initial surge smacks the voltage down to 6.5v. You can see that the voltage recovered slightly from the initial surge, but as the voltage fell, the climb rate also fell.

After motor off, it recovered to 7.9v.

As I said, it's the motor that smacks the battery – the 4 digital servos and a little simple Rx take very little out.

[Stewart Walker]

F5-RES, Fresh, Bramhall, 5min 1 sec

6 flights, 1st was the best

[Graham Lorimer]

Fish Meadow

Purito E

Time 18.00

Not an easy day of flying, wind was a bit strong and lift very patchy, easy to go up but then seemed to come down quicker.

Had to be a bit careful going too far down wind, after the spoiler issues last time, today the motor restart was not functioning, so really did not want to be caught too far from the field.

At least it is a time on the board

Graham

[StraightEdge]

Medina-E      F5RES      09/08/23      10mins:02secs

Oxford Port Meadow, late morning.

Thermals were initially coming through every few minutes and lift seemed easy to hop into, but it was harder to hold altitude between them and harder still to re-acquire anything once below 'floor-level'.  Then it went overcast and my slot was over.

[JulesGrocott]

Bramhall cricket club, F5 Blue Phoenix, 1min 32seconds. I had a much better flight but for some reason my nano was on the blink and no record of motor stop shown and it went higher than 60meters. Still this may get me a point or two at the end of the month. Got a weeks holiday in Italy then back with a vengeance.  

[SteveH]

09/08/23. Fish Meadow. Purito E. Flight claimed 26m 05 secs.

Flew with Graham today and as he said conditions were difficult with patchy lift and a slightly stronger breeze than ideal.

Going downwind was tricky having to constantly consider if you were going to get back.

Visibility was also poor and at 290M I was using the spoilers to come down.

Hard work but good fun.

[cirrusRC]

Medina | F5 RES | 9th August 2023 |   1hr 57 minutes 6 seconds

Took the day off to make the most of the weather and get a decent flying session in.    Headed to second club field which I've not been to for 6 months.    Plenty of other members had the same idea.

Got away nicely with first launch on the Medina around 11.15am.     Apart from a Chinook doing laps of the field, the first 50 minutes were quite straight forward,  periods of strong breeze, calm, sun and cloud.     I was experimenting with losing height on the flaps and nearly blew the hour as lost too much height,   had a decent save and got away again for the hour mark.

Next 30 minutes were challenging as the lift went narrow and wind picked up, had to work hard following lift down wind, pushing back up wind and repeating.     At the 90 minute mark, I had a spectacular save under 10 meters right in front of me.    Wind indicator swung 180 degrees and I managed to center in the lift to get away again.   Wind now started to drop and smooth lift.     

Concentration was waning and on my last climb out from 100 meters I was sharing the lift with an F5J model,   I was spending more time avoiding a midair than staying in the lift.    I ended up losing the good lift and coming down.

Landed with 11.4 volts left in the 3s 550maH battery (around 35% left),   so I didn't have too much left in the tank but should probably have made at least 2h20.

Forecast was for it to cloud over but it actually stayed really nice for rest of the day, wind dropped to almost nothing.   Lift was near perfect but my neck wasn't up for another long flight.   Flew bungee Medina and DLG for rest of the day.  

It's worth noting that my Altis Nano trace reckons the flight was 1hr 53.     I've tested my Taranis timer against a stop watch and its perfect,  so I'm not convinced the nano timer is super accurate over long periods.   One to keep an eye on.

[StraightEdge]

Stunning flight - well done!

[martynk]

Mad Hatter 2e | F5L | 09/08/2023 | 17:05

Got out yesterday evening. It was the weekly BATS glider contest at Seal Road so I went up an hour early to try and get some F5L practice. Left in glorious sunshirne, arrived to a horrible cool breeze, flat grey skies but fairly calm winds (about 5-8 kts).

9 flights, apart from this the best was about 3:30, a few sub 2 minutes flights as well.  

The lift was horrible. Long periods of sink with very short lifty windows. Eventually gave up trying to guess when the lift was coming so walked up to the top of the field and went for a short vertical climb in one of the brief warm moments, which paid off. Not in the same league as CirrusRC and SteveH but for me a  respectable 17:25 - 20 seconds. 17:05 claimed.

 

[martynk]

Updated table