National Free Flight Society

SEN 2630

  1. Sierra and Kotuku Mini Results
  2. Objective ?
  3. Champs (& Kotuku)  Courtesy
  4. Hogging the Bandwidth – never

Sierra and Kotuku Mini Results
There was a delay in getting the results up.  Should be OK now for the “country” results.
I understand that Or Shabat from Israel won the Bob White Coupe.

Objective ?
From:Tom Vaccaro

Hi Roger,
I just took a look at the Sierra Cup results. Can someone tell me why running 6 and 8 minute fly offs under  “challenging thermal conditions with spectacular climbs and drops” makes any sense at all. What does that prove?
Always thoughts that the objective of fly offs was to test performance.

Best regards,
Tom

Editor’s Comment – I don’t quite understand your comment.  My understanding is that in the Sporting Code there is no requirement to test absolute performance (or even a definition of absolute performance) and that is not the objective of a fly off.  As an observer (and Jury member) of this year’s Sierra Cup I think the CD made the right decisions on a great event under near perfect conditions.  In the case of F1B and F1C, there were 2 fly off rounds in the late afternoon, well past the time of maximum thermals. There was absolutely no reason for not doing  the flyoff rounds under those conditions.  The wind was minimal and the timekeepers were able to see the models, so there was little likelihood of an unsporting result.  There was a plan to hold one more flyoff round for F1B before sunset , but the wind came up very quickly during the last F1C flyoff and was in a direction towards “tough places” so the CD moved the next FO rounds to the following morning. Because flying under those windy conditions would not have given a sporting results, especially when looked it good for the following AM. As we reported the next morning  both the (experienced)  F1B sportsmen stalled, one a little less than the other. And one of the F1C sportsmen had a mechanical mal-function.  Performing under flyoff conditions, no matter which flyoff round is an additional test of the sportsman and as always some did better than others.  The choice of models is a decision of the sportsman, it could be a high performance model just suited to a calm morning or a more general purpose that can handle a wider variety of condition.

In response your question it proves or not that the sportsman can handle those nice conditions, which clearly some handled better than others. There may have been some luck good or bad but that’s free Flight.  As usual weather can be an important component of a Free Flight competition and weather “forecasting” on no matter what scale or level is very challenging and is just part of Free Flight.
For me performance is the ability of man and machine to handle all conditions under pressure.

Perhaps some other reader has an opinion?

(someone else on a completely different topic pointed out to the editor that sometimes he makes comments that may discourage further participation – that is not his intent.)

Champs (& Kotuku)  Courtesy
At Lost Hills it is a bit dusty ?? . The organizers are partially mitigating this by having the roads watered. This is why it is important to travel between flight lines by the road and to drive slowly as not to raise dust.

If you want a “good spot” in the parking area arrive early, not arrive at speed in a cloud of dust (see above !) and park outside the designated parking, closer to the line where you should not be parking just because you did not get your act together.

For the Sierra Fly offs on Sunday evening all contestants supplied “their” timer and the fly offs went off quickly and well with no delays in spite of having 43 people in F1B and 19 in C.  However those timers must have slept in on the next morning flyoff as in F1C neither sportsman provided “their timer” , not sure of the “B” status as I was on the C line . Kudos to top sportsmen Per Findahl, Jim Parker, Alex Andriukov, Mike Fantham  and a couple more that I did not note down who showed up to time the 10/12 minute flyoff and make great finish to the event.

Hogging the Bandwidth – never

I noticed on  a FB Free Flight  group a member (Wade Lloyd) worried about how many photos and reports he was posting about the USFFC that also went on at Lost Hills this past weekend.  It is never an issue to share reports (and on FB photos) of events.  The more we talk about the great things that happen at out events the better.

Here on SEN at the moment we have an  extra number of postings from the organizers on the FAI events at Lost Hills.  One reason for this is that it is difficult to communicate with people who are staying over a wide area and can even be test flying over a wide area so they are using all means possible to communicate.
But SEN, like the Free Flight groups on FB is made up of the comments from everyone. These range from contest announcements, event reports, rules issues, tech ideas, to for sale and wanted to buy.  Do not hesitate to write.  You just reply to a SEN message