Eastern Soaring League Newsletter ¡V June 2008
2008 OFFICERS AND STAFF
Tony Guide - President
David Beach - Secretary/Treasurer
Tom Kiesling - Contest Coordinator
Anker Berg-Sonne - Scoring Systems Coordinator
Jeff Steifel - Public Relations Coordinator
John Hauff - Clinic Coordinator
Phil Barnes ¡V Winch Conditioning
Jose Bruzual ¡V Web Master and Publisher
Ed Anderson ¡V Web Site and Newsletter Content Editor
FROM THE EDITOR ¡V Ed Anderson
If you enjoy ESL contests as much as I do, perhaps you will take a few minutes and jot down some thoughts about the contest you just attended. The people who ran that contest would love to get your feedback and other ESL members would like to know how the contest went. Perhaps they would like to attend next year. Your few lines could encourage them to participate.
You can leave the score reports to the CD. Tell us about that great save, that amazing lift or the horrible sink that you managed to survive. Perhaps you had a personal best, or maybe one of your friends did. Recognize the accomplishment. Post a mini-report
Maybe there was a fun dinner, a wonderful breakfast, or the best lunch an ESL contest ever had. Even a fun ride with friends is something we would love to hear about. Sure this is a competition, but we are all in this for the fun too.
We have a ¡§contest reports¡¨ area on the ESL forums. It can be found here.
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=15
Contest directors have always been encouraged to post a report, but this is not restricted to CDs in any way. Take a moment to let us know if you had a good time. Josh Glaab posted a great report from the TMSS contest. Visit the link and read his report and the photos he posted. Great job Josh!
Clear skies and safe flying to all!
The ESL Calendar -
http://www.flyesl.org/calendar.asp
Remaining Hand Launched
06/14 - 06/15 Polecat Challenge (HLG) - Bloserville, PA
07/12 - 07/13 CRRC Hand Launch Classic (HLG) - Sudbury, MA
08/02 - 08/03 Long Island Hand Launch Classic - LISF (HLG) - Syosset, NY
08/16 - 08/17 CASA (HLG) - Rockville, MD
09/13 - 09/14 SJSF (HLG) - Marlton, NJ
09/26 - 09/28 East Coast HLG Festival - ESL HLG EOS - Wilson, NC
Remaining Unlimited Sailplane ¡V Winch Launched
06/07 - 06/08 SKSS 1 - Newark, DE
06/21 - 06/22 LISF 1 - Syosset, Long Island, NY
07/05 - 07/06 DBSF - Reading, PA
08/09 - 08/10 CRRC Soar-In - Sudbury, MA
09/06 - 09/07 CASA Open - Warrenton, VA
09/20 - 09/21 LISF 2 - Syosset, Long Island, NY
10/04 - 10/05 Reading ESL TD EOS - Reading, PA
Many of the contest registrations are open, so register now!
AMA NATS ¡V Not an ESL event but well worth attending
07/21 - 07/31 AMA/LSF NATS (Not ESL) - Muncie, IN
THE ESL 50 FOOT POLE
As many of you know, the ESL has a 50 foot pole that can be very helpful when you have pushed the limit and fallen a bit short of the field. I had the privilege of holding the pole for the ESL for the winter. Our club found it SOOOOO valuable that we purchased one for our club so that we will always have one available.
Hastings Fiberglass Products sells the pole the ESL uses. The pole is designated at the E50 measuring stick. With a case and shipping it comes to about $490.
http://www.hfgp.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductNumber=E-50
Now, $490 may seem like a lot of money but when you compare it to hours of attempts to get your plane down and ultimately paying $50-$100 to a tree climber to get your $1000 sailplane out of the trees, then it isn¡¦t that much. A few rescues and this starts paying for itself quickly. And if you have new flyers in your club who are faced with losing a $200 plane or paying $75 to get it down, it makes being a member of your club that much more valuable.
The ESL pole moves from contest to contest through the cooperation of the membership. One person brings it to the contest then finds someone else to take it to the next contest. But if your club would like to have one of your own, I believe you will find it to be a good investment. There are shorter poles for less money, but we have found, all too often, that last 10 feet of length is the difference between success and failure.
RIDE AND ROOM SHARE
Just a reminder that we now have a ride and room share section in the ESL forums. You can find them here:
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=17
In order to make it easier to set-up a ride or room share, we have a series of discussion topics in the forums which are basically ride sharing boards. It is good to see that some people have already started posting to these discussions to link up with others to share a room or a ride. If you have not visited, give it a try. Save some money and make some new friends.
RC SOARING DIGEST JUNE EDITION IS NOW AVAILABLE
RC Soaring Digest is a must read for anyone who loves soaring. Bill & Bunny Kuhlman do a terrific job of publishing it each month for our enjoyment. http://www.rcsoaringdigest.com/highlights.html
„h A group of South African RC soaring enthusiasts gather at Tamatieberg near Volksrust, bring their scale gliders, and have a truly wonderful time at Sungazer 2008.
„h Ed Anderson asks, "Have you looked at RES lately?"
„h Rene Wallage, with photos by Ariel Erenfrid, covers the second annual Israeli WeaselFest which took place on May 9th.
„h Gordy Stahl wants you to develop a "Task Habit" to improve your contest scores. Peter Carr details his solar powered sailplane.
„h Tom Nagel describes his Skye Hooks, a Have Sailplane - Will Travel gadget.
RC Soaring Digest is free. All you have to do is download the file. This is a reader-supported publication. That means that all the articles are written by soaring enthusiasts for soaring enthusiasts. No one is paid for their articles, they write them for the benefit of the community as a whole.
Perhaps you have something to share with the soaring community. Contact Bill and Bunny Kuhlman and let them know what you have. rcsdigest@themacisp.net We will all enjoy seeing it in the next edition.
HOW HIGH ARE THOSE LAUNCHES?
Ever wonder how high competition launches are? Here are launch plots for a Supra, Pike Perfect, an AVA and a Topaz.
As I read it these were not done under any kind of rigorous controls so conditions varied from launch to launch, but the plots are interesting just the same. Note that some are scaled in feet and some in meters ( 3.1 feet approximately)
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=824364&highlight=tOPAZ
HOW MANY RC AIRPLANES CAN YOU GET INTO THE AIR AT ONCE?
In March there was an announcement of a plan to get 100+ RC airplanes into the air at one time. This occurred at SEFF, an electric fun fly event. On May 2 they had a successful range check of 113 Planes. On May 3, at 2:47 the official record was set at 99 planes in the air at one time. This was sent to The Guinness Book of World Records as an official documented record attempt.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9744324&postcount=338
Why do I report this here? Look at the frequency spread of the radio systems that were used. Many of us have wondered about the ability of 2.4 GHz to support large numbers of planes simultaneously and to work with other frequencies. This should be enough to give us confidence that these systems will work together in larger numbers than we typically see at an ESL contest. And remember that pilots and planes were in close proximity during this record setting flight.
2 pilots on 53 MHz
4 pilots on 50 MHz
41 pilots on 72 MHz
52 pilots on 2.4 gig
1 XPS
1 Futaba
50 JR/Spectrum
ESL WEB SITE UPDATE
Thanks to the dedicated work of the ESL Webmaster Jose Bruzual, 2.4 GHz is now a channel selection option on the ESL contest registration page. You can also update your ESL profile to 2.4 GHz if you have moved to this frequency as your standard.
Note that Jose has been working overtime on the ESL web site as he moved it from one service provider to another. This is only one of the many improvements that have been made. The overall site performance is now faster and Jose has been putting a lot of work into increasing the security of the site.
For the moment, the ability to register as a new forum user has been locked down. If you are already registered on the forums there is no need to register again, and everything will work fine for you. However, if you try to register on the forum for the first time, you will get a message that says we are not accepting new registrations at this time. This is a temporary situation. An announcement will go out when forum registration will open again.
Since our web site has become our face to the soaring community, we all owe Jose a great expression of thanks for his tireless dedication to the site and to promoting the league.
ESL APPAREL
If you would like an ESL had, shirt, jacket, sweatshirt or other ESL logo item, we have an arrangement with Cafepress to produce them for you, on-demand. Visit the link to review the offering and to place and order.
CAFEPRESS
http://www.cafepress.com/FlyESL
HERE TO SERVE YOU
I hope you have found value in the ESL Newsletter. If you have ideas or input for the next Newsletter, please feel free to write. Perhaps you have a quick tip to share. Why not pass them on. Extended length articles are always welcome and I love to include photos.
Send your notes, comments, photos or complaints to Ed Anderson, ESL Newsletter and Web Site Content Editor, at aeajr@optonline.net
ON A LIGHTER NOTE:
Buying Jewelry
My husband, being unhappy with my mood swings,
bought me a mood ring the other day so he would be
able to monitor my moods.
We've discovered that when I'm in a good mood, it
turns green. When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a
big frickin red mark on his forehead. |
ESL Newsletter - June 2008
Forum Locked
Posted - 06/05/2008 : 11:44:27 AM
