Radio Control Soaring
Soaring prodigy Cody Remington
By Lee Estingoy [[email protected]]
Welcome to the Soaring clinic. It’s nice when younger generations stop by to visit with the older fliers; it sort of gives us hope that there is balance in the world. Today Cody Remington has dropped in to share his thoughts with us.
Cody’s soaring credentials are, to say the least, impressive. His bio on the US F3J (FAI Thermal Duration Soaring) team’s website includes them all.
Credentials
- 2005: Made the US F3J Junior team.
- 2006: Team won Gold at the World Championships in Slovakia; Cody earned the individual Gold (the first time a non-German Junior won either the team or the individual title).
- Has been on every US F3J team since 2005.
- Winner of the Southwest Classic.
- Winner of F3J in the Rockies.
- Winner of the US F3J Team Selections.
- Two-time winner of the Rocky Mountain Soaring Association contest series.
Interview
LE: Cody, how long have you been flying RC sailplanes? CR: I have been flying for 9 years. I’m 21 now.
LE: What drew you to RC sailplanes? What keeps you in it? I’ve been to Boulder [Colorado], and I know that there are a lot of things [to do] that are much prettier than molded sailplanes! CR: I have always wanted to fly. My mom knew she had a problem before I could walk, when I was climbing up on tables trying to jump off and fly. The need to fly is in my family blood. My grandpa, Col. Peter Remington, was a B-25 bomber pilot in World War II. I guess I was destined to fly. My first RC opportunity was with a Zagi I got for Christmas.
What keeps me flying is the competition. What I really like about F3J is that it allows you to fly at the same time right next to your competitors. If you have the read, you can put hits on your competition right in front of your eyes. I always get a huge adrenaline rush when I see I have taken a shorter tow than my competition.
LE: I’ve seen you flying in competitions and you seem to be able to “see” thermals. What’s this sixth sense and how do you get it? CR: I wouldn't really call it a sixth sense, and I still feel like I have a long ways to go in the air-reading category. It always bothers me when I am wrong about a read, and I am always trying to figure out what I did wrong and learn from what worked.
A lot of this comes from practice drills that simulate contest situations. One drill is very similar to flying a contest flight and puts you around the height of a 1-second F3J tow. This puts your mind in a contest mindset and lets you learn the most from a practice flight. If I am alone I will find a thermal and climb out. Before I leave the thermal, I try to predict where the next one will be and go to that area. If I am wrong, I try to figure out why and then do it again.
You quickly start to see that the world works in patterns, and once you figure out that pattern you can predict it better. I am still learning a lot about this. A lot of what I have learned comes from working with the world's top pilots like Skip Miller, Daryl Perkins, and Joe Wurts. Working with them has allowed me to see what they are seeing and compare my ideas with theirs. I attribute a lot of my success to working with those great pilots.
LE: If you were going out to have fun, no practice involved, what would you fly and why? CR: That’s a hard choice. I love acrobatics, so I would have to choose between my Espada R on the slope, my 50cc Yak, or a 3-D foamie. I am also starting to fly helicopters, which is starting to look like it will be another addiction for me. When it comes down to it, I just love flying. If it flies, I am having fun.
LE: Not sure if you’ve ever seen the movie Citizen Kane, but at the end when the rich dude is dying, he keeps mumbling “Rosebud.” Turns out “Rosebud” was the name of his beloved sled when he was a kid. Do you have a “Rosebud” airplane? CR: Yes! My Espada RL is my baby. I can’t seem to let that one go.
LE: What sort of practice regimen do you use prior to a contest? CR: In preparation for the last Worlds I flew almost every day. For F3J, landing is very important. There is no reason to take a short tow if you can't maximize the last second of the flight time. I spent about 75% of my time shooting 1-minute landing drills, which usually worked out to a minimum of 25 landings a day and a lot of times more.
The next part of my training is what we call a "death match." Skip Miller came up with the drill for us. What we do is have groups of two to four people launching at the same time. We use short hi-starts and play last man down. If it looks like we are going to get out, we shoot a landing and do it again.
Sources
- League of Silent Flight
- www.silentflight.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
