SEN 2315
- Windy
- AMA News
- Motorized Retrieval – comment
- For sale at NATS: Three F1As
W-I-N-D-Y an event report
From: Aram Schlosberg
The Swedish, Norwegian and Danish Cups are traditionally held in late June and early July in Rinkaby, south of Kristianstad. This year they were relocated to a long skinny north-south island called Oland meaning Island, off the southern coast of Sweden. The island is linked by a 4 mile bridge to a town called Kalmar, located 200 miles north east of Copenhagen. Oland has the reputation of “sea and wind”.
The southern portion island where we flew has a north-south ridge along the water shed, dotted with many old wooden windmills that were probably used for milling grain. The flying site, east of the north-south ridge along the island, is a flat nature reserve, used to raise free-range cattle and livestock for over a thousand years. The area has a flat granite stone surface base, covered with a thin layer of soil, sustaining grass and bushes with a number unique flora species. Dry stone walls and fences run east-west on the area we were flying.
This year a formable weather system spanned the four flying days, pushing the flying into the last two days – Saturday and Sunday, July 1st and 2nd. The minis, originally scheduled for Saturday, were squeezed out. Actual attendance was low due to the bad weather forecast.
Friday’s weather was too windy and rainy, causing the postponement of the Danish Cup. The Swedish Cup was flown on Saturday with a strong wind from the northerly coupled with periods of drizzle and a low cloud ceiling. Access the field was from a parking area of an east-west road. A four feet electrified wire fence ran parallel to the road, was scaled with two abutting wooden ladders forming an inverted V, constructed by Bror Emer. Bror also set up stooges anchored with 3” ¼” screws hammered into cracks in the flat granite base.
Retrievals required scaling a 4 feet dry stone wall and another non-electrified fence further to the south, both running east-west. Three flights with two minute maxes were flown. Fortuitously, I installed iCare GPS transmitters on two models a week before the trip and needed some assists. The receiver has a red arrow pointing to the model and the distance to the model – invaluable under such conditions! I noticed that many other fliers were using the iCare system as well.
No rain was predicted for Sunday. The Swedish Cup flyoffs, with 5 mph westerly wind, were held at the same location we flew from on Saturday. Unfortunately, my stab’s line was probably crossed with the hammer line, and the stab did not come up when the VIT line was released. The stone surface can be unkind in hard impacts.
The westerly wind was forecasted to increase significantly during the day and we relocated to the west side of the field, driving onto the site a caravan of cars. Some docile free range cattle were on the segment we flew from. Once relocated, the Norwegian World Cup begun with a 4 minute flight, in moderate wind. But, as the wind gradually increased, the third and last max was cut to 3 minutes. Because the wind was parallel to an east-west stone wall, so no wall scaling was required. But retrieval distances increased. My second four minute flight landed 2.2 km to the east, too almost an hour to retrieve. But breaks were added after each round. My iPhone tracked 11.8 km on Saturday (3 flights) and 15.2 km on Sunday (3 flights).
My second 4-minute flight climbed in a huge thermal and the timer lost the model in the sun. Luckily, the iCare hand held receiver tracks the model’s altitude, clearly demonstrating when the model DTed.
After completing three flights in the Norwegian Cup, about half the fliers declined to fly the Danish Cup. It begun with a 3-minute max, followed by one 2-minute max. Two to five fliers managed to max out A and B on Sunday.
The flyoffs for the Norwegian and Danish Cups were held at 8 pm. At that point the westerly wind exceed 10 m/sec – 36 kmh or 23 mph. The perfect solutions was to hold DT flyoffs, where models are DTed at 1 minute and timed to the ground. Excess time over one minute was deducted from the flight time.
The Russian Maxim Solodov won all three B events. Per Findahl, who ran the Swedish Cup won two A events. He was the last flyoff flier in the Danish Cup flyoff, managed to kite and circle in the blistering wind, launching into a strong thermal. The other A event was won by the Brit John Carter. Ian Kaynes won two Q events, the other by the Finn Teppo Sarpila. Juri Roots from Estonia was the only C flier, won two World Cups. Results are posted on http://www.norbergsfk.se/Alltomklubben/Arbetsrum/SwedishCup/Results/
Oland is a good flying site. Unfortunately, the weather in 2017 was rather challenging.
///
Government Relations Update, June 29, 2017
The AMA sends out regular updates on all activities. Of prime importance these days is making sure that model flying does not get “stepped on” in the various efforts to regulate “drones”. This the latest info from the AMA that many of you will have got email. It is important to follow these and support the AMA when requested to maintain our ability to keep practicing our hobby/sport.
AMA is working hard in Washington, D.C. to represent and protect our hobby. We want to share with you more information about our activities this week.
First, AMA President Rich Hanson attended two meetings of the FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), which brings the industry together to provide recommendations to the FAA concerning a full range of aviation-related issues. Importantly, this includes the integration of UAS into our nation’s airspace. For years, AMA has shared our experience managing the hobbyist community in these meetings, which play a significant role in shaping FAA policy.
Also, our Director of Government Relations, Chad Budreau, participated in the Domestic Drone Security Summit. The goal of this meeting is to facilitate engagement between industry and government around drone security issues, inspire understanding, discuss solutions, and find areas for mutual collaboration.
This week Chad also met with the Army Corp of Engineers to discuss a potential partnership that could allow AMA to open many new flying sites across the U.S. Although this opportunity is still in the discussion phase, we are excited about creating more places for you to fly.
As always, we are committed to updating members on AMA’s government relations efforts as frequently as possible, including our work to protect the Special Rule for Model Aircraft in FAA reauthorization legislation. The most up to date information is available on our website www.modelaircraft.org/gov and we encourage you to reach out with any questions.
Re: SEN 2314
From: Ross Jahnke
Roger,
I would like to give my support to the UK proposal for retrieval by car. We
are permitted to use our cars when we move the flight line why not to
retrieve? At Muncie and other flying sites people use golf carts, and are
permitted to chase as if on a two wheeled vehicle. A car restricted to
retrieval, not chasing and to “peri-track” (designated?) roadways with foot
retrieval between the road and the model seems fair and safe.
I chase on a mountain bike because I still can, but one day that will
change. As long as someone can launch a model in a competition, they should
have reasonable accommodations to safely get it back.
For sale at NATS: Three F1As
From : Mike McKeever
For sale at NATS: Three F1As
Victor Stamov Carbon Long-$800
Victor Stamov Rock and Roll Short-$700
GEF Rock and Roll Short (new)-$1000
All have FX 10 timers and have not been crashed. Will sell after flying at NATS and will be available to look at in Muncie.
Have switched to GEF LDAs for World Champs in Hungary making these models available. FX10 will require key fob or Apple Watch.
Mike vamckeever@aol.com
SEN Status
Our new web site is online with archives of SEN going back to 1997 plus many items about FAI Free Flight. It can be found at http://sen.faifreeflight.org
Existing SEN subscribers can update their preferences by following the update your preferences link at the bottom of this page.
New users can sign up at this link http://eepurl.com/crOnvj
or at the SEN website
…………..
Roger Morrell