Radio Control Soaring-2011/09

September 2011 113
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Soaring Lee Estingoy
Traditional winches are never out of style!
F3J in the Rockies had an impressive turnout this year. Pilots ranged from beginners to world champions.
Below: 2011 US F3K team member, George Morris, hails from
Arizona, so sun protection is mandatory. George was formerly a
professional skateboarder so that may help explain his flying attire.
Jim McNeal shows off his
High End sailplane—one
of the rarer models on
the US contest scene.
Also included in this column:
• F3J in the Rockies
• Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES)
• Tom Kallevang answers ALES questions
MY FAMILY took a brief holiday in the Rockies during
Memorial Day weekend this year. The annual Rocky Mountain
Soaring Association (RMSA) F3J in the Rockies contest happened
to be held that same weekend on the outskirts of Denver.
Late Friday night, I checked the weather forecast for the
Denver area and the experts predicted nasty weather with good
chances for precipitation and high winds. I didn’t bother to set the
alarm. I wasn’t in a hurry to make the 90-minute drive to the
event, just for a chance to huddle in the rain under a flapping tarp.
Saturday morning broke beautiful in the mountains, despite the
forecast, so I made the trip. I’m glad I didn’t listen to the weather
experts and plan something else. The people at this gathering are
great, and a well-run F3J event is truly something to behold.
It is much more of a spectator sport than many other RC
contests. The launches and landings are simultaneous. There’s
little doubt who’s flying well and who’s about to miss his or her
time.
The RMSA members have the event down to a science; even
the scorekeeping was done on a web application running on the
competitors’ cellular phones out at the field. Nobody had to turn
scorecards in, and nobody had to transcribe them.
F3J teams traditionally require a large number of assistants,
since each of the airplanes is towed aloft by two other members
of the team.
The FAI World Championships are held every two years; 2011
is an off year. The US F3J group plans to select its team members
at the trials next year. Winches will be used. The 2011 F3J in the
Rockies event was run without tow teams. Instead, “official” F3J
winches, calibrated to a standard electrical load, were used.
As always, there was much anxiety about the change. The best
argument I heard was that the European competitors feel the US
teams just don’t get it—now there’s a surprise. They feel that
having larger groups of participants for two-man tows creates
better camaraderie, especially during the après Soaring events in
the evening. Either way, complexity and hardware are the name
of the game in F3J.
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114 MODEL AVIATION
Mike Verzuh shows
the web-based scoring
system employed at
F3J in the Rockies.
Scorecards are a thing
of the past!
Let’s shift gears a bit. Complexity is fine for F3J, but it
differs from the futuristic forecasts that I am hearing from a
number of the US experts and vendors. It seems that many
Europeans are also getting tired of hauling winch gear around
and that they are now pursuing an “F5J” unofficial format using
(the horror!) electric-launched sailplanes. The category is now
known as “ALES,” which stands for Altitude Limited Electric
Soaring.
Dave Register was kind enough to offer an overview of the
Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES) developments.
There are many Soaring groups that have looked at the
“winch-in-the-nose” concept for Thermal Duration events. A
few years ago it was obvious that my skills in Disc Launch
Glider (DLG) were diminishing (well, relatively speaking, they
weren’t much to start with) and lugging around a winch is
bothersome when you fly solo.
Since one of my destinations was Albuquerque, New
Mexico,—which has a great DLG series—and one of my old
flying buddies was Dale Nutter, I got wind of the Outrunner
class that Albuquerque Soaring Association (ASA) had
sponsored for several years.
The trip out there last fall found Buzz Averill adopting a
format that used a limiter switch with a preprogrammed altitude
or time for launch (whichever came first). Talking with Dale,
Buzz, and Bruce Twining got the adrenaline pumping, and the
more the concept was analyzed on the drive back, the better it
sounded.
At that point, Buzz was organizing a group purchase of the 2
BASIC altimeter switches. I got onboard and have been hooked
ever since. Meanwhile, a number of other fliers had been using
other devices.
The ZLog, which provided a motor cutoff at a preset altitude,
seemed to be quite popular. I don’t believe these devices
incorporate the clock function. Those using the ZLog said it
would be great to have a time cutoff to level the playing field a
bit.
Randy Brust at Soaring Circuits—which makes the RAM
altimeters—was also working on such a device and began
providing prototypes for evaluation to a few pilots in the US and
abroad throughout late 2009 and early 2010.
On the other side of the world in Slovakia, Palo Lishak was
creating rules for an event that predates the US ALES effort by
several years. Palo’s leadership appears to have spurred the
development of the 2 BASIC switch and other similar devices to
facilitate this general flying format in Europe and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the British Model Flying Association (BMFA)
had grasped the Slovakian concepts and published a set of rules
to formalize a contest circuit in the United Kingdom. With this
description in hand, the Altitude Limited eSoaring format in
Great Britain has been rapidly growing during the past several
years.
It had become so popular that Palo sponsored a World
Kennedy Composites has taken the empennage of the Supra to
even more exquisite levels of construction. These parts are
works of art.
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September 2011 115
Championship event for Altitude Limited
Soaring. While here in the US, ASA
members received their switches, Soaring
Circuits perfected the CAM, and Tom
Kallevang lobbied the League of Silent
Flight (LSF) to add the Altitude Limited
format to the Nats as a provisional event.
Things were starting to pick up.
And that’s where we were in the
beginning of 2010. The general concept
for ALES in the US was being ironed out.
ASA formulated its rules as an outgrowth
of its Outrunner Limited Motor Run
(LMR) experience. These rules closely
parallel the BMFA description of the
event.
At essentially the same time,
discussions were being held among Tom
Kallevang, Ed Franz, Randy Brust, and a
few others, about the possibility of
sponsoring a provisional event at the Nats
in Muncie, Indiana. Tom’s support from
LSF was instrumental in adding it to the
schedule.
Shortly after that, an ad hoc group (the
previously mentioned, plus Denny Maize
and me) started discussing provisional
rules for the Nats and settled on a shortterm
description based largely on the
BMFA example. The excitement of
running a new event at Muncie inspired
Denny Maize to sponsor the first full, twoday
ALES contest in June in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania.
This Polecat contest was well-attended.
Roughly 20 pilots flew in two classes.
The rules used at the Polecat event
seemed to work well and were also used in
Muncie. Official-length scoring tapes were
made and approximately 19 of us came to
Muncie for the contest. The Muncie
experience went well.
The next stop on the US ALES circuit
was Albuquerque for two days of fun (in
the sun this time!) at the sod farm. The
ASA rules are slightly different from those
used at the Nats, (mostly in the window
timing and landings), but the contest’s
intent and character is essentially the
same.
The contest drew roughly 20 people in
each of the two classes. ASA flew the
ALES format with 2.3-meter and under,
and Open class events. Several pilots flew
their 2.3-meter aircraft in Open and
brought home hardware in both classes.
To wrap up the season, the Dayton
Area Thermal Soarers (DARTS) club
enlisted Ed Franz to CD a one-day ALES
event in October. Inclement weather blew
through, but 15 pilots were able to fly
three rounds before the cold front tried to
wipe them out. As with the previous
contests, no clear dominance by any size
airplane or power plant was seen. Radians
were competitive, and everything from 2-
meter models to 3.5-meter e-AVAs
competed.
I asked Tom Kallevang to weigh in on the
subject.
“During the winter of 2010, Ed Franz,
Dave Register, Randy Brust, and Denny
Maize asked me to look at a set of rules for
a ‘Winch-in-the-Nose’ Electric Soaring
event. I reviewed the rules that had been
created so far, applied my ‘Keep It Simple
Stupid’ (KISS) principles and experience
as AMA/LSF event director positions for
both Soaring and Electric Soaring
Nationals, and made some small changes
so the rules were closer to the USA format
rules than the FAI-type British BMFA
rules.
“The event has taken on a life of its
own. So far this year, we know of 18
separate contests. That’s quite a growth
rate for a new event.”
LE: What’s the hardware requirement?
TK: The hardware consists of a very basic
altimeter device that shuts the motor down
once the model reaches 200 meters above
the ground or after 30 seconds, whichever
comes first. Some units are programmable
for 50, 100, 150, and 200 meters. One
device uses rate-of-climb to turn off the
motor ahead of reaching the programmed
altitude, but at this point we have not seen
a particular need for this complication in
the device.
By using an altitude-limiting device,
each model ends the climb phase of the
task at essentially the same altitude.
Everything from high-powered composites
to foam Radians are competitive in this
event.
LE: Can pilots bend the rules with lighter
setups or zoom launches?
TK: From what we have seen since these
rules have been adopted, there has not been
any advantage to a highly powered climb
system. Since it takes power to get such
climb rates, motors, gearboxes, and
batteries must be heavier. That weight
impacts the soaring capability of the model.
Because all models must be released
within the first 10 seconds of the task
window, climbing to 200 meters in 5
seconds means you must thermal for 20-
plus seconds longer than a model that takes
25 seconds to get to that same 200 meters
of altitude.
In practical testing and contest
conditions so far, this hasn’t been an issue.
The rules allow the CD to enforce a
possible violation of the launch height by
requiring a contestant to relaunch the model
with a self-contained altimeter to verify
compliance with the launch target. This
allows the CD to validate that the limiter
device has not been tampered with to allow
greater launch heights.
LE: Why was it developed, and is it meeting
those goals?
TK: By limiting the initial altitude for all
participants, you remove the necessity of the
overpowered drive systems that are so
prevalent in the LMR events. Such events are
characterized by many as “eyesight” events.
Modelers are getting so high in the 30-
second motor runs with climb rates of 6,000
feet per minute or more, that the contestants’
ability to see and control his or her model at
the end of the climb phase is difficult. By
considering the drive system to simply be a
“winch-in-the-nose,” we hope to refocus the
task on thermaling skills.
You can think of ALES as a gateway
Electric Soaring event for the Soaring
“purists.” It’s an event that the regular
“string-launched” Soaring pilots can
participate in without needing a large
09sig4.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 7/22/11 12:07 PM Page 115
amount of money for motors, propellers,
speed controls, and batteries. As I stated
before, the original Radian foamie has
been competitive.
LE: How many contests are held per
year? Can you list any?
TK: As I stated, there were four contests
in 2010, and there are approximately 18
planned for this year. See the RCGroups
thread listed in “Sources” for specifics.
LE: Where is the hardware available and
how much is it?
TK: There are four units available as far
as I know at this time: Soaring Circuits
CAM (US), about $50; to BASIC
(Slovakia), about $130; and Shread-RC,
about $50. See the “Sources” listings for
more information.
So there you have it: multiple weather
reports offer vastly different forecasts for
the direction of the contest format. Any
way you look at it, it still appears the sun
is shining for those who want to
participate in Soaring events.
Go fly! MA
Sources:
RCGroups US ALES Contests Thread:
www.rcgroups.com/forums
Soaring Circuits
www.soaringcircuits.com
Magellan Technologies
[email protected]
www.magtechinc.net
Shread-RC
http://shread-rc.com
RC Electronics
[email protected]
www.rc-electronics.org
Kennedy Composites
(972) 602-3144
www.kennedycomposites.com
League of Silent Flight
www.silentflight.org