mikef Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 Another Free Flight class is being flown here is F1E - ‘gliders with automatic steering’. These models are flown from a slope and use the earth's magnetic field or a gyro to steer the aircraft. The slope here is small, rising only about 20 meters above the plain, as you can see in the distant view below. However, there is a pit dug in the area behind the man-made 'hill' where gypsum has been mined, open-cast. The 'hill' is the spoil from the operation. Flying to the east, there is about 40m of slope into the pit. Ian Kaynes is the only GBR flyer here in F1E. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 Friday. We are out test flying in bright overcast conditions - there is virtually no wind. We have had only one windy day in the last eight. Today is the F1A Max Men contest but as we have nobody in the event, we are in a separate area about half a mile away. Here's our camp…. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Back in the Motel at 1800 (0200 your time) having Just watched F1A and F1Q fly-offs. F1A has three left after the 8 minute round. Jes Nyghen (DEN), Per Findal (SWE) and Jama Danier (CAN). They will go for 10:00 in the morning. The glider launches are going up to about 120 metres off the 50 metre line. Imagine a perfect F3K launch starting at 50 metres - that's what it looks like - amazing! F1Q looked like another win for Dieter Paff (GER) over Jack Murphy (USA) but I don't have official results yet - I was timing a glider flight. Ian Kaynes had his motor come loose and didn’t make the fly-off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 F1A fly-off. Approximate unofficial times…. Jes 8:13, Per 6:30, Jama, less after a spiral dive burnt off a lot of height. Jes must have gone about 4km in the strong, cool, breeze. Per went 3km. Models easily recovered using GPS systems. F1B/C to start in ten minutes - temperature warming slightly, wind not increasing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 The dawn delivered again…. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Per left, Jes right . Per's airfoil - flapped wing. Note rough upper surface and smooth lower surface… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Young Reema Bharadwaj, USA. dropped round one in the Max Men F1B with a 3m16 (4:00 max) - made 3 minute maxes in round 2 & 3. Holding the model and waiting for air - prop blades locked and feathered - then away for a max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Ken dropped the first F1C round - probably maxed but disappeared behind a hill to drop a few seconds. Maxed 2 and 3. Alan Maxed round but had a tough retrieve and missed round 2 - he has retired. Mark Benns has 3 maxes in F1B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Mark made the fly-off in F1B but has two slightly damaged models There are 31 in F1B and 9 in F1C. The rain arrived at about 1600 as forecast and the flyoff will be in the morning - soon after 0700, IF the rain hasn't effectively closed the field! Most of the RVs have already left, not wishing to get stuck out there! We have been lucky so far with 9 days of flying and nothing lost to the weather, although one day was pretty windy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Up at 0500 for last time this - still dark and it is foggy….. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 A different view today 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Mark prepares for the fly-off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Mark has been suffering with brittle epoxy joints all week. This bit him again in the fly-off. He was wound and putting on hand turns when his motor blew. The shock failed the pylon-to-motor tube joint and, un-noticed, catapulted his altimeter into the grass. (later found by Ken). Mark got another model away with 20 seconds to spare in the 7 minute window. The model was a bit under wound due to the shortage of time and the climb was less than normal. Score 5:33 ish. Unusually, they declared a flight to the ground, instead of a 10 minute max. Nobody made 10 anyway. Full results are not on the sheet yet but will appear here… https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11eWEFh1EWBb9pM201nN-rdpXu90YrE8SJZaZqhcV1Lk/edit#gid=1420658507 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 Now on to today's events proper. We have John in F1S and Ken in F1J. John did 3:52 in the 'flight to the ground' and Ken did 4:05. This flight will only count if all subsequent flights are maxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 Ken continued to max to win F1J from Guy Menanno - only two flew - probably due the threat of rain and the possibility of getting trapped by the muddy entrance roads to the field. As it happened the Saturday rain that chased us off early, stopped by 2100 and it was then dry until about 1730 on Sunday. No flying was lost except that the mini events were stopped a round early. John dropped one flight in F1S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterT Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Thanks for the reports Mike, the photos are excellent as usual. When do you come home or are you relaxing for a few days? Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikef Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 No relaxation for us - left Lost Hills on Monday morning and drove through showers to the rest area at the south end of the San Joaquin Valley. Once we had gone over the Tejon pass on Interstate 5, the rain became continuous down to LAX. Paused by the ocean at Pacific Palisades.. Full results are now available at the link posted earlier (after a delay caused by car trouble.) Ken Faux GBR, F1J winner (right) with Guy Mananno (USA) 2ND. A fabulous February trip - 10 days straight of Free Flight - 8 of them in near-perfect weather. We'll be back. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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