Glauco Lago: We had fun, what else could we expect out of an OVSS contest. We did well too or at least I did since Chris couldn't understand why he won only one day and not both. So for his standards he did poorly and will be practicing even more. Must say even flying well over my head he beat me both days but last club contest still is on his head since when was the last time Chris didn't win a contest.

 

We had only 12 competitors on Friday but the level was quite high. Weather was fantastic, cool and light winds. Two groups only so you would be flying or timing and even with a late start we flew 8 rounds varying from 10 to 15 minute tasks. Chris and I flew at the same group all day including the round were almost everyone made a 3 to 4 minute flight but Chris made the 15 minute or pretty close, very impressive piece of flying. That gave me a 227 score for that round but then on another round some of us flew about 5 minutes longer than Chris and we got a little back. So at the end Chris won, Ron Mong flying a Espada RL finished second a I finished 3rd flying my home built Supra.

 

Sunday had the same good weather but 14 contestants. Still 2 groups and the CD called for 13 minute flights all day. Again I flew all day at the same group with Chris. Thermals, like the day before, were hard to figure out, you would find them, make a couple turns, climb quite well and then they would disappear. Latter in the day conditions improved but the thermals were still disappearing once in a while. I believe only Marc Gellart and I made all our times on 6 rounds but at the end of the day the Chris guy out landed me, the same for Marc. Actually my landing were somewhat good, far from these two guys, but I got a zero landing on one round when my plane refused to go right and kept moving left, pilot error I know. Marc won flying his big Zenith, Chris second and I finished third again. Overall for the weekend was Chris as sportsman and believe me or not me as Master. Yes, we came home full of wood and servos kindly donated by JR/Horizon.

 

Have attached a Zlog showing some of the recorded flights showing from launching into lift and climbing to 2000 ft to many flights well below launch height and even below 200 ft most of the time.

 

Glauco

 

Marc Gellart (posted to RCGroups):  I Love the Smell of 13 Minute Rounds in Morning

This past weekend we flew an OVSS contest in Yellow Springs, OH with the guys from DARTS. Was kind of small, but, did we ever fly. On Saturday, I kind of lost track, but Bob Massmann had us fly 8 rounds of anything from 10 to 15 minute tasks, and one of the two 15 minute rounds was flown at ~4:15pm. I got creamed in the eighth by Chris Lee as he got a 15 and I got a 2:19 (did not know a Supra would come down so fast, but Pat Crosby was down in about 2:40 right next to me). If you have ever been to the DARTS field, it is kind of small and has a weird shape, it is kind of a bowl. Don Harris, probably has won more on that field than anyone, said that it was as tough a day as he had seen there in many years. No one went unscathed, but Chris won it.

On Sunday, Jerry Shape, called 13 minutes all day. We flew six rounds and even during the first round, at about 9:30, we had three out of seven fliers make it in one group and four out of seven from the second group. I never was above launch height the entire flight, but multiple soft thermals worked including one over the trees and the buildings at the east end of the field. It was a better day than Saturday as far as the height thermals attained, but you still get hung out to dry and many did.

For two days we flew tasks totaling ~170 minutes, it was a blast. How much did you fly this weekend at your two day contest?

Thanks to DARTS, the originators of seeded MOM in the midwest, and still one of the toughest venues to succeed at.

Marc

Chris Lee: The contest was pretty well covered by the comments above.  Just adding my observations as a first-timer at Dayton, I was initially a bit concerned about the constrained flying field.  The center of the field was actually in a valley running north-south with a tree line on the west and trees/buildings on the east.  More trees dotted the approach paths to the south.  Landings the second day involved cutting in front of the buildings then landing downhill.  All I could think was that Jeff’s head would explode if he went there to fly after thinking Forest Park’s Central Ball Field was small. 

The other unique thing about Dayton (at least unique to me) was that they mass-launch the planes.  I was initially a bit skeptical about this also, especially since last club contest I was weaving up the line.  But it actually works out pretty cool.  Our staggered man-on-man launches still result in a bit of delay between first and last pilot, especially as the flight groups get bigger.  They allow a small window, about 15 seconds, to launch and it ends up being plenty.  No one sandbags, and if there is some concern, folks just talk to the pilot next to them and agree who will go first.  The first day, I was a bit concerned because my launches had been erratic the week before so I usually waited, but once I got some confidence, I started hitting the winch on the count of “two” and released on “go.”  This generally avoided the issue of launching through someone’s wing.

One thing I’ve been working on the past couple weeks have been launches.  I peppered various people about their launch set-ups at the contest, but couldn’t ask too many questions on Sunday as people started asking me about my set-up.  My launches hit the following altitudes:

735'

705'

693'

695'

725'

731'

I think these absolute values were influenced by the winch arrangement that day.  The lines were strung out across the valley so there was little line-drag from rubbing on the ground once tension was applied.  Winds were light throughout and I was bounced between various winches the whole day.  Relative to others, I don’t think I gave up much if any height on launch, but it usually didn’t take me long to sink down to their level (or for them to go rocketing up past me.)