F3J 2015

[Austin]

Then make it "the league".

 End of problem.

 

 M.

 

Then you must use the correct rules?

[Mike]

Austin, we both need to get out more!

 

  The only rules ignored are 'no safety corridor, no rope to mark pulley position, no jury'.

 

 Add 'em back in, bring back hand towing, (???), sit back & watch UK F3J perish!

 

 I'm outa here now.

 

 Anyone else got any comments, suggestions, ideas?

 

 'bye.

  Mike.

[EssexBOF]

There is no control off launch height ,with the correct power train you can zoom well above 200mtr .

Entered once decided its not for me ,seemed to have little to do with thermal soaring ,

But each to there own ,and you have to congratulate Brian on his efforts

How does the quote from Colin's piece on the Cluster, on the BARCS Home Page square with the above:-

 

The on board testing vario confirmed that the average launch height ranged from 205 -215 metres without any “dialing in” or ballast being used.

[Duc750]

So given that I get lost in the plethora of letters and numbers used to describe the different disciplines and the question has been asked (somewhere) "how do we get new people into F3j?" (Or if it hasn't it should have been) hopefully my thoughts as someone wanting to do more with gliders will be useful.

At the moment I enjoy chucking an electric foamie around at my local flying club having got back into flying the last 12 months and I want to take it a bit further.

Now if I want to try my hand at something competitive I'm probably going to have a bash at something electric. Why? Because it's more accessible (or at least feels it) I can turn up with a pretty basic model and fly it (as I understand it and will try to next year). I don't need to invest in a winch, I also don't need a model costing £300 plus.

I guess what this leads to is cost and ease of entry.

If you want more people to fly f3j you've got to make it more accessible.

[Mike]

 the question has been asked (somewhere "how do we get new people into F3j?" (Or if it hasn't it should have been).

"If you want more people to fly f3j you've got to make it more accessible".

You want accessible?

  Come fly with us CATS at Slimbridge Gloucestershire, but you do need a model which can be towed, doesn't need to be a mouldy, a half decent 100" with spoilers can (and has) been used successfully.

 

 Unfortunately we don't know where you're based, but I'll bet you'd get the same offer from any others near you.

 

  Ask, and you will get a result.

 

   Mike.

[Duc750]

Mike, I've had the same offers and that's great but those offers rely on coming on here and wanting to be part of it. I already have an interest, there's a 50:50 chance with me. It's people like the guys in my club who think you can't fly a glider in anything but flat calm that are "untapped potential".

[Fridge]

Austin, we both need to get out more!

 

  The only rules ignored are 'no safety corridor, no rope to mark pulley position, no jury'.

 

 Add 'em back in, bring back hand towing, (???), sit back & watch UK F3J perish!

 

 I'm outa here now.

 

 Anyone else got any comments, suggestions, ideas?

 

 'bye.

  Mike.

Last year I entered one of the leauge comps held at the Malvern Soaring assoiciation; I went along just to make up the numbers and to have a nice day out flying my model and had a good day of relaxed thermal flying.

It was very well run but what a lot of work for Mike setting everything up; do we really need two computors, printer and generator, with a line of speakers just for a league comp?

This year I entered all 4 of the Midland esoaing comps and had a good time at all of them. Cliff Hanman ran all of these and to very high standard 

These are much simpler and could be run with a clock, calculator and loud hailer, if the someone did the matrix the night before.

I would like to see a Midland F3J series, but like most of us dont want to organise it, two at MG and two at MSA would be good.

The F3B people have done well to keep going, and the F3F guys

 I will support Mike if he puts on a comp and dont mind if it is a simpler format, I dont like fly offs they may be needed for some events but are not needed for the league, if people travel they want a days flying'

I do put in something to model flying I publish a news letter each week

As for team selection, We need to get the league sorted first.

I am willing to travel 2 hours to a comp

[Peter]

Running small thermal soaring competition at local level does not require a great amount of equipment. All that is necessary is a flight line with spots, a scoring system ( manual or computer) and a method of timing the slots. In this respect F3J is no different from any other type of thermal soaring

competition and hasn't changed since the 'good old days' of BARCS Opens.

Bigger competitions obviously require a longer flight line with more spots and more speakers on the PA system. The scoring also becomes a much bigger task so a computer makes life easier.

Equipment is not the reason that people are reluctant to organise competitions, it is an excuse for notwanting to make the effort.

[Fridge]

I have a motor cycle MP3 player coming from Hong Kong, also have two Tanoy speakers.
I will do a test with these, 
I have run a few club thermal comps, not that hard if everybody does their bit to help.
Phil

BARCs, MSA and SCSA

[Peter]

Thanks Pete for proving my point. It is not equipment which prevents the running of competitions.

As you correctly point out, CDing involves all sorts of work and some hassle. Nothing has changed, it

always has been the same.

Thankfully some people are prepared accept the responsibility and to put up with this in order to keep our sport going whilst too many just want to sit back and let others do it for them.

Now, lets get back to finding a way of organising competitions instead of finding reasons why it cannotbe done

[Peter]

Well, the New Year is here and the BMFA will soon be publishing the 2015 rule book. As far as F3J is concerned there will be a league of one day competitions with the exception of Interglide which will, of course, be 2 days as usual  (weather permitting!)

 

The best 4 results from these competitions will count for team selection but one of these scores must come from Interglide. An overseas eurotour score can be substituted instead of one of the other events. This is just an overview and full details will be in the new rule book.

 

Dates for your diary:

1st March Sheffield CD Fozzie

19th April South Midland CD Me (with F5J on Saturday 18th)

23/25th May Radioglide CD Sydney (events schedule not yet fixed)

27/28 June Interglide CD Robin Sleight

9th August Retford CD Bob Dickenson (with F5J on Saturday 8th)

29/31st August Nationals CD Sydney (events schedule not yet fixed)

27th September Edgecot CD Graham James

 

There will also be reserve dates in case of re-runs on 14th June and 4th October

 

Roll on Summer!

[satinet]

Good news on the one day comps.

[Peter]

More dates for your diary:

 

Provisional scheduling for Radioglide:

                             Saturday 23rd May      100"  + F5J

                              Sunday 24th                Multilaunch

                              Monday 25th               F3J  + F3K

 

We have 2 fields available each day so there is room for an extra event on the Sunday. Any ideas?

 

Nationals provisional schedule:

                             Saturday 29th August   F5J + F5B + F3K

                              Sunday 30th                 F3B + F3J + Open E soaring

                              Monday 31st                 100" + 2m E soaring