SEN 2666
- F1As’ energy reduction ideas
- Watching Attempts
- *Don`t Discourage people**
- 20s rule and more
F1As’ energy reduction ideas
By Aram Schlosberg
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Allard van Wallene has raised two interesting ideas to reduce the energy transferred by the flyer to an A model.
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A 400 square cm flag is has a 20 cm side (7.87”) which rather small. But, large icarex-like flags on the line flutter and they might have to be even larger to make a dent. A less fluttering idea would be to thread a foam sphere at the end of the line with the line running through it’s center. We could start with grape fruit sized spheres and work up to larger sizes in the flyoffs.
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Launching and ending on your feet might penalize those who accidentally slip or trip when releasing a tow line. Jama Danier is actually held up by his line while pivoting on his heels and facing partially towards his model. He wears padding on his left side to absorb the fall’s impact. I give him a lot of credit for figuring out the tow line kinetics but concede it is rather risky for those who don’t understand the underlying physics.
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I suppose that wearing a suitable helmet might be a measure required for those who intend to land flat on the ground without it being considered an attempt, as Allard suggests. ///
Editor’s observation. What I don’t understand is how Jama manages to avoid the cow sh*t when flying on farm field, the bull sh*t is another story
Watching Attempts
From:Mike Schwartz
I was involved in the processing of models at the recent WC. As part of the processing, the rules required that 20 % of the competitors have their models checked during the first 7 rounds in F1A,B,C. As a result, Paul Crowley and I picked the teams whose fliers where to be sent to processing to be spot checked during each round. Because of this involvement I spend a lot of time on the flight line during all the rounds. There were a number of times when I saw a model come down in less then 20 seconds, and the flier was able to get his backup model and continue in the competition. During the flyoff flights the 20 second rule came into play also. The final flyoff flights where held at 7:20 AM the next morning, with a 7 minute window. There were 3 fliers in the final round of F1B. At the start of the round 2 fliers flew right away, the 3rd. flier broke a motor while winding and because of the 7 minute window he was able to wind a new motor and get his flight in. On the final flyoff for F1C, Faust Parker had his model come down in less then 20 seconds. He was able to get his backup model out, fuel it and get his flight off with 52 seconds left in the window. As a result he was able to finish in 6th. place giving the US team, 3rd. place in the F1C event. The 20 second rule that some want to eliminate has allowed competitors to continue flying in their goal of becoming World Champion. The rule may be old, but it works for everyone fairly. If the 7 minute flyoff window had been 5 minutes, Faust would not have had time to get his backup model into the air in time to place 6th. and give the US team the 3rd. place. These 2 rules have worked as intended to help the fliers stay in competition and staying in competition is what it is all about.
Mike Schwartz
*Don`t Discourage people**
From: Dieter Paff F1B
I am 100 % with Stepan. Why we have every year such discussions? Let every thing at it is, except a little weight more.
Dieter Paff
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20s rule and more
From:Klaus Salzer
World champs are special!
The discussion about excessive performance always comes after a World championship with a large flyoff and long flyoff-flights.
But don’t forget: It is a World Champs. The situation is quite different from regular contests, even if they are World Cups.
So – why do we have to use exactly the same rules? Of course YES for the planes. But we could delete the 20s rules for World champs (or continental champs, too). And we could impose a preparation time limit – thus making it more similar to other contests, where hardly ever 3 flyers have a whole hour to make their flights (or sometimes only 2 or a single flyer) as in the champs.
Years ago I read about a proposal using “fast gates” where you had just 2 minutes to make your flight, and “slow gates” where you 10 minutes. Quite different on the organization side, but certain to limit the size of “balsa (carbon?) clouds” being the result of 30 people following the one to “lose his/her nerve”.
Think not only about reducing the performance of the planes, but think about the difference between World Level and other competitions – there are many possibilities which will automatically result in smaller flyoffs without frustrating the average modeler, who is not (yet?) a world champs level performer.
Klaus Salzer