File: 09buckland.ht1.doc
[Headline: “Mixed” electric and winch-launched contests]
Much discussion has ensued throughout the US during the last couple of years regarding how to incorporate electric-launched models into this country’s flagship Soaring achievement program: the League of Silent Flight (LSF). It is a terrific accomplishment by the LSF board to finally recognize and include electric launch with its own parallel achievement program called the Electric Soaring Achievement Program (ESAP). This LSF discussion spawned similar debates among Soaring pilots in Florida.
The Thermal Soaring scene has always been strong in Florida, with the Florida Soaring Society (FSS) conducting a series of seven or eight Thermal Duration (TD) events each year. The contests are hosted by various central Florida clubs and pilots have traditionally competed in two or three skill-level classes. The classes are Expert, Sportsman, and the Masters, Expert, and Novice classes, which were adopted this year.
Each pilot’s class is decided by his or her previous year’s results in the FSS contests, with the top half Expert and the lower half Sportsman. Newcomers are allocated a class based on their perceived experience.
Participation has been excellent throughout the years with 15 to 25 pilots contesting each event, but the last two years have seen pilots getting older and fewer showing up on contest day. Various methods have been tested to encourage more of the traditional Soaring types to come out and fly, including the one-year adoption of the Grey Cup, in hopes that it would draw some of the older pilots.
Nothing seemed to be working, but many pilots were building and flying electric models with altitude limiters and several turned up for the Altitude Limited Electric Soaring (ALES) events. It seemed that ALES offered an easier alternative to winch launching and the ALES events also attracted more diverse and younger pilots flying foam models.
“I got tired of carrying winches and batteries,” Rich Kiburis said. “ALES is the thing of the future and probably a little easier for a neophyte to get involved with.” Rich is a longtime Soaring aficionado and has been competing in the traditional FSS series for many years. Now armed with electric-powered sailplanes, he is a serious ALES competitor.
Had we lost our TD competitors to ALES? It certainly seemed that way. With a goal of being as inclusive as possible, the FSS committee discussed options and decided for the 2014 season to introduce ALES as a new contest category to add to the Unlimited, Rudder-Elevator-Spoiler, and Two-Meter contest categories already included in the bylaws.
It was also decided to allow contest CDs to try something quite controversial: allowing electric-launched sailplanes to compete in the same contest as winch-launched sailplanes!
Many ideas were tossed around in the offseason, but a simple solution was finally adopted. Pilots of electric-launched aircraft would launch from a designated area adjacent to the winches when specified by the CD during a man-on-man event, or in an open-winch event, they would simply go to their designated area and launch at their leisure. Altitude limiters would be set to 150 meters and electric models would be allowed to use belly skegs so they could compete fairly with their lawn-dart rivals in the landing zone.
The CD of each contest could decide on any variations and the specific electric rules for his or her event. We waited to see how it would go for the 2014 season.
By the time the second event was held at Kennyworld, in Ocala, Florida, the word was out. The first real test of the innovation occurred when a number of ALES pilots turned out for the event. No obstacles were encountered, but the ALES pilots found the conditions just as tough on a rainy and slightly windy Saturday as the winch-launched modelers—with a couple even landing out of bounds despite the potential to restart and “save” the model.
The highest-placing ALES pilot was Rich, in seventh. Sunday was a Thermal pilot’s dream—with plenty of lift and light winds. Ray Alonzo, campaigning an electric Xplorer, showed the pilots of the winch-launched aircraft how it was done by winning the Expert category with his ALES model. Ray made seven maxes and scored decent landings to outlast Saturday’s Expert winner, John Graves.
The combination of model types caused no problems during the contest, and the five extra ALES competitors made the experiment successful.
Allan Parsons is another Florida pilot who has outfitted himself with competitive electric sailplanes. “I think this is something that we had to do with the dwindling number of available flying fields for winch launching. You just don’t get as many people involved in the sport, but by including ALES, we can start them off with Radians and get them hooked and then introduce them to contests,” he said.
Much of the concern was whether pilots who flew electric-launched sailplanes would reap an advantage in launch height, whether they could motor too far from the launch area, and whether it was “fair” for them to compete against traditional models in the same contest. In the end, none of the questions appeared to be a problem because the purpose of this experiment was to be as inclusive as possible. Pilots from both camps accepted the inclusion of the others and the goal was achieved with little fuss.
Newer, purpose-built ALES models are being constructed with minimal spars, and with such light wing loadings they will probably have an advantage over traditional winch-launched models. So far, the advantage in the landing zone seems to remain with dorking winch-launched models, but I don’t think it will take long before we see some innovation and “dorkable” ALES models spiking 100s, similar to their traditional cousins.
For the first time in the US, we have electric-launched models being used by pilots to compile points in direct competition with winch-launched models in an annual TD series. This is the way of the future if Soaring is to survive. We must be inclusive and do everything we can to encourage participation. This is a simple way of doing just that, and it allows more pilots to fly more contest rounds against larger fields of competitors.
One important point remains to be made. The pilots flying ALES models in these mixed contests cannot be included in a pilot count for LSF contest points. Of course, the same applies to winch-launched models. They can’t be counted for ESAP contest points in a mixed contest.
Mixed contests have, so far, been a great success in Florida. I hope we can inspire other Soaring groups across the country to try the same.
Go downwind and soar.[dingbat]
SOURCES:
FSS
www.soar-fss.org
Pompano Hill Flyers
www.phflyers.com
Orlando Buzzards
www.orlandobuzzards.org
