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aeajr
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 Posted - 09/27/2008 : 1:12:36 PM
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Eastern Soaring League Newsletter – October 2008
2008 OFFICERS AND STAFF
Tony Guide - President
David Beach - Secretary/Treasurer
Anker Berg-Sonne - Scoring Systems Coordinator
Jeff Steifel - Public Relations Coordinator
John Hauff - Clinic Coordinator
Phil Barnes – Winch Conditioning
Jose Bruzual – Contest Coordinator, Web Master and Publisher
Ed Anderson – Newsletter Editor
FROM THE EDITOR – I just received a note from one of my club mates, Dan Siegel. We both flew in the ESL Unlimited sailplane contest this weekend at our field. As he put it,
“I can't get over the "high" I feel after this wonderful contest weekend. What an unbelievably enjoyable thing this is...so many great guys doing such a challenging and fun activity and helping one another at the same time. I love it. And on top of it all we are all getting so equally skilled, making the competition so much more intense. It's just great.”
I agree with Dan 100%. I come away from each contest tired, but at the same time, exhilarated, and eager for the next contest. While I certainly would like to win, it is just not the main draw of the ESL contest weekends. It is the friendships and camaraderie that forms. I think this is part of what Dan refers to in his note.
How about you, are you joining in the fun, or are you missing out? And how about your flying buddies? Are they getting in on all the fun? If not, maybe they just need an invitation, from you.
On behalf of all of us who enjoy this so much, a big thanks to the people who worked to form the Eastern Soaring League. What you built then is still giving people a lift today.
THE ESL CALENDAR -
http://www.flyesl.org/calendar.asp
Remaining Hand Launched
09/26 - 09/28 East Coast HLG Festival - ESL HLG EOS - Wilson, NC
Remaining Unlimited Sailplane – Winch Launched
10/04 - 10/05 Reading ESL TD and End of Season ESL Meeting - Reading, PA
WHO WILL BE THE SEASON CHAMPION IN HL AND UNLIMITED?
There is one hand launched event that is running this weekend which will make the final determination of who will be the top HLer for the season. Going into the weekend two Experts, Phil Barnes and Shane Spickler are in one or two. A Sportsman, Dan Siegel is in third, less than one point behind Shane.
In Unlimited, Michael Lachowski has the lead with Josh Glaab in second and Luis Bustamante less than one point behind Josh. About 10 points separate first from sixth place. We still have Daniel Boone to fly, so there could be some movement on the leader board. Standings - http://www.flyesl.org/scores/default.asp
CONTEST REPORTS
Does anyone read contest reports?
In 2008, we have had two contest reports posted as of the time of this newsletter. However between the two there were over 650 views. That means those contest reports were read 650 times. Some of those people were probably not current ESL members. After reading these contest reports, perhaps they decided to become ESL members.
In 2007 we had 6 contest reports filed which showed over 2700 views. That tells me that people are VERY interested in reading about your contest. They want to know how it went and they want to hear about the fun. Maybe they are considering attending your contest next year.
It is not too late. If you were the CD of a contest this year, post a report. If you attended a contest this year, you can post a report too. Anyone can post a contest report. It can be one paragraph, or it can be as long as you like. And you can include photos too.
And don’t forget, we would like to get hand launch as well as unlimited sailplane reports. The ESL hand launch contests are growing fast.
Just post it here. http://www.flyesl.org/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=15
If you are not comfortable using the ESL forum, just send me the write-up and photos and I will post them for you. The more people who read about your contest, the more likely they will attend next year. And, the more people who will consider flying with the ESL next year. #61514;
LISF 2 9/20 – 9/21 - A PERSONAL CONTEST REPORT
The ESL LISF 2 contest was only a week away. Preparations were being made to be sure everything would be ready. The grass was cut, the CDs were finalizing the registration and the LISF club members were working on their last weekend of practice before the contest.
Thursday night’s club meeting finalized who would bring what. The weather looked like it would cooperate too with a forecast was for partly cloudy skies, in the 70s with winds of 5-8 mph. You could not ask for a better forecast.
When registration was finished, on Saturday we had 13 experts, 10 sportsman and two novices. A nice field that would allow us to fly many rounds.
LISF always flies their ESL contests in a man on man format, so the pilot’s meeting covered the basics and flight groups were handed out.
Just as we were getting ready to call up the first launch group, a problem was discovered with one of the ESL winches. To the rescue came Tony Guide, Rich Watson and others. After the magic words were said, the secret dust sprinkled and a soldering iron found, the winch was fixed and performed just fine for the rest of the contest.
Lunch was included in the fees so no one starved, either day, and very little was left at the end. People relaxed, tuned their planes and spent time with friends.
We flew 8 rounds on Saturday in beautiful weather. There were no line breaks and very few pop-offs. Everyone seemed to be in good trim and good spirits.
At the end of the day Saturday, among the experts, we had Luis Bustamante in first, John Hauff in second and Peter Schlitzkus in third. For Sportsman, Ed Anderson took first. George Hill was second, a mere 23 points off Ed’s score. Robert Buxton came in third. There were only 80 points separating first and third.
Our two Novice pilots showed some skill in the air. Howie Applegate, flying a RES plane of his own design, took first. Rudi Oudshoorn, flying his Easy Glider took second.
Sunday’s weather was even more beautiful than Saturday. While a 5-8 mph wind was forecast, I don’t think the wind ever exceeded 5 mph. Thermal cycles could be felt coming through fairly easily. If I am not mistaken, the RES planes were out in force on Sunday.
We had 14 expert pilots, 10 sportsman and our two Novice pilots flying on Sunday. Once the winches were set and the flight groups formed, the launches began.
After 6 rounds of flying, we had seen some great flights, especially by our Novice Pilots who put their planes high in the lift several times.
On Sunday Dave Walter took first in Expert with Luis Bustamante second and Steve Lucke in third. A mere 35 points separated first and third place.
In Sportsman, Pete Nicholson captured first place, Robert Buxton was second and George Hill taking third. Again a tight pack with just over 100 points between first and third.
The Novices showed improving skill on Sunday with Rudi taking first and Howie coming in second. This was Rudi’s last day as a novice. He announced that he would be coming back next year in Sportsman. Based on the flying he did Saturday and Sunday I am sure he will be taking trophies in no time.
I would like to say thank you to the CDs, Phil Abatelli and John Hauff for running the event. Thanks to Cathy Gewante, Frank Nisita and Dennis Cook for taking care of the scoring. Also thanks to Dennis for arranging lunch. And a big thanks to Dale Cook and Sam Hauff for handling the tractor that retrieved the lines. And finally, thanks to all the volunteers who brought equipment, helped with set-up and all the other jobs that helped make this so much fun for everyone.
ROOM AND RIDE SHARE
Just a reminder that we now have a ride and room share section in the ESL forums. Some have also posted information on local motels.
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=17
RC SOARING DIGEST IS AVAILABLE FREE
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. RC Soaring Digest is free. All you have to do is download the file.
http://www.rcsoaringdigest.com
* Seattle 2006, Chicago 2007, Adaparazi 2008 - The road to the F3J World Championships by Sherman Knight.
* Pitchers and wingerons detailed by Steve McKinley.
* A new two meter from Murat Esibatir and Philip Kolb, a contest, and an avian phenomenon described by Sydney Lenssen.
* What a Landing! By Daniel Bizzera
* Rol Klingberg's large Õwing, the Kilingberg Wing 100, built by Tom Hoopes, is finally made airborne by Tom Nagel.
* Peter Carr outlines the Ferengi Rules of Soaring.
* Curtis SuterÕs long-term interest in swept back flying wings leads to a beautiful and good flying RC sailplane named after a secretive tailless bird.
* Greg Potter talks about his bio-retreiver.
TIPS ON SCORING BY ANKER
From: "Anker Berg-Sonne" <bostonsearover@gmail.com>
To: <talk@flyesl.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 8:36 AM
Subject: [talk] Overall standings vs. class standings
The most common question I get is "why are the normalized scores and my rank in the overall standings different from my class (expert or sportsman) normalized scores and standings?"
The simple answer to this is that the number is calculated as the percentage of your raw score relatively to the top scorer. Usually the top scorer of a contest is an expert, and its only sportsmen who see this problem since the class normalized scores will be calculated from the top sportsman and the overall normalized score is calculated from the top overall performer, usually an expert. So, in summary, for experts the overall normalized score is typically the same as their class normalized score. For sportsmen they are typically different.
In HLG, however, we have had sportsmen be the best performers overall, so this issue also shows up for experts when a sportsman has been the overall winner.
I know its confusing, and sometimes I am confused myself, so don't be embarrassed to ask again.
Anker
For more on how the ESL scoring system works, you can visit these other discussions:
Man on Man Scoring
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=294
Contest Scoring
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=282
Advancement points
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=162
Overview of ESL Competition Classes
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=263
PLANE LOCATORS
I bring up this article in the Novice Lounge every couple of issues of the ESL Newsletter because the cost of a lost plane, in time and money, is high. And relatively new pilots may not be aware of these options.
The cost of a Walston transmitter/receiver can be pretty steep for personal use. So I include low cost options in the article. Some are as little as $20.
A fairly new option is the Loc8tor. This is a transmitter/receiver device that is good up to 600 feet. In most cases we have a fairly good idea of where the plane went down and in most cases we can get within a few hundred feet of the plane fairly easily, but we can’t see it. If that is the case, this small, convenient device should get the job done.
Consider this a low cost alternative to the Walston, for personal use. The article and updates can be found here:
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=237
AN ESL RESOURCE – THE NOVICE LOUNGE
We started the Novice Lounge on the ESL WEB site about 2 years ago. The goal was to create a resource to help new sailplane pilots. In addition, it was hoped that the Novice Lounge would help make the ESL WEB site a destination. If we got more people visiting the web site, we might get more people flying in ESL contests.
Well, after two years, we have 46 articles covering a variety of topics. And we have logged over 50,000 views of those articles. That means a lot of people have visited the ESL WEB site that might not have otherwise seen it.
If you have a resource center on your club’s web site, you may wish to post a link to the ESL Novice Lounge. It is a great resource for new flyers.
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=14
And don’t forget that you can help build the Novice Lounge library of information. Feel free to post your tips, comments or advice on soaring in general or on competition flying. Or you can add your comments to one of the current articles as they are in discussion format. You can help new flyers get off on the right foot and, maybe, you will bring new flyers into the ESL.
INTERESTING IDEAS POSTED ON THE ESL WEB SITE
These can all be found in the ESL Open Discussion Forum
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=2
NEW THERMAL SOARING TASKS
Started by Dr. Mark Drela
ARE YOU FLYING 2.4 GHz FOR COMPOSITE SAILPLANES?
Started by Ed Anderson
WAYS TO KEEP AWAY COSTS DOWN
Started by Frank Nisita
THE WORLD SOARING MASTERS
The World Soaring Masters competition was flown September 19-21 at the AMA national flying site. The event attracted 94 pilots from around the world. You can read about the contest, the pilot roster and the results here:
http://www.worldsoaringmasters.com/
I noted that about 20% of the competitors were flying on 2.4 GHz systems of one type or another. The details of what kind of systems were not reported.
During the event, the Louisville Area Soaring Society had a live Blog running. It contains some interesting reports as well as a photo slide show that you might enjoy.
http://louisvillesoaring.org/2008/09/21/2008-world-soaring-masters-live-blog#more-266
World Soaring Masters Final scores and what they were flying
(Compiled from the LASS Blog)
1 Bob McGowan 5983.1 – Supra
2 Arend Borst 5982.0 - Supra
3 Cody 5978.8 - Espada RL
4 Smith 5974 - Sharon
5 Murat 5967 - Pike Perfect
6 Joe Wurts - 5900 - Supra
7 Ben Clerx 5719 - Aspire
8 Jo Grini – 5695 – Pike Perfect
9 Frickey – 5094 - Pike Perfect
10 Walters 4558 – Supra
Dave Hauch started a thread on World Soaring Masters on RC Groups:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=921832
Jo Grini filed his own reports here:
http://www.f3x.no/wsm/2008/
Based on Jo’s the text and the photos is seems there was some kind of foamy cup run as well. It looks like they were flying electric Cularis gliders. As you might recall there was also a foamy fun fly at the F3J Worlds. Do we see a trend here?
FOUND ON THE WEB
WHAT IS THE SINK RATE OF OUR GLIDERS?
Here is a test report for an Ava and a Supra. This report suggests a sink rate of about 1.06 fps for the Supra and .89 fps for the AVA or about a 20% difference. Others chime in with their tests.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=929957
THE EFFECT OF ANTENNA INSTALLATION ON RANGE
http://www.rc-cam.com/ant_exp.htm
THERMAL DURATION CONTEST STRATEGIES
I may have provided this link before but it is worth a second look
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265089
WHAT ARE YOUR SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL CONTEST FLYING
This is a discussion thread I started in 2007. It comes back to life from time to time. I think there are some good tips and ideas.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=770083
THE LIFT ZONE
http://www.liftzone.com/
Articles, reviews and discussions about RC Soaring.
COLD WEATHER FLYING
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=765835
CRRC SIM
A free flight simulator that includes gliders
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=732212
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=670121
WINCH/RETRIVER ARTICLE
Starts with an article in Model Aviation and goes from there:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=915010
INTERMEDIATE CONTEST GLIDRES
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=636636
SUPRA BUILD – THE SLOW WAY
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=437733
USA DLG MAP
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=833063
MEASURING ALTITUDE – RECOMMENDEDED DEVICES
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=850882
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE - WHO DREAMED UP THAT SPEC?
( I have not checked this but, suspect it is true.)
AN INTERESTING HISTORY LESSON
Railroad tracks. This is fascinating.
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5
inches. That is an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates
built the US railroads.
Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the
pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that
they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break
on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the
spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England)
for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.
And what about those ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match
for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for
Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is
derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a Specification/Procedure/Process and wonder
'What horse's ass came up with it?' you may be exactly right. Imperial
Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends
of two war-horses. (Two horses' asses.) Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big
booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are
solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their
factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRB's would have preferred
to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the
factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to
run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's had to fit through that
tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the
railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's
most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years
ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass
wasn't important?
HERE TO SERVE YOU
I hope you have enjoyed the ESL Newsletter. If you have ideas or input for the next Newsletter, please feel free to let me know.
Perhaps you have a quick tip to share. These little gems can make a big difference in competition. Why not pass them on. Extended length articles are always welcome and I love to include photos.
Send your notes, photos, compliments or complaints to Ed Anderson, ESL Newsletter Editor, at aeajr@optonline.net |
Edited by - aeajr on 09/27/2008 1:16:09 PM |
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ESL Newsletter - October 2008
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