Rolling Thunder

Hello everyone and welcome...
I am happy to announce the start of a new awards/contest here on wattflyer today.The wattflyer electric sailplanes thermal duration contest.

The rules of this contest are simple & will be given shortly but basically the goal of this contest is to see how long you can keep your sailplane thermalling after a quick motor run-up of 45 seconds or less,winch,hi-start or d.l.g. Anyone who is able to achieve 30,45,60,90 or 120 minutes of continuous thermalling will be awarded a new icon under their avatar name in the awards showcase section.

To receive your new icon simply PM Don with a link to your post or simply ask for assistance in doing so.

Many Thanks to Don for giving the go ahead to start this award and to Aeajr for providing the rules for the contest.

Here are the rules & I hope you enjoy your participation in this contest.
Now go out there and find those BOOMERS .

BIG SKY - THERMAL SOARING

1) From a fresh hi-start,winch,hand or ground launch you can run the motor for up to 45 seconds, then you turn the motor off and you can not restart it. Reclimbs are not permitted. If you restart the motor the flight time is no good.

2) Motor time starts as soon as you apply throttle. This is an LMR, Limited Motor Run contest with a pretty long motor run allowed so that the motor run itself does not provide much advantage to anyone. Many will choose to shut off the motor in less than 45 seconds. No credit for shorter motor runs.

3) Soaring time starts when the sailplane releases or the motor goes off. Either you time the whole flight and subtract the motor run or you use two watches, one to time the motor run and one to time the flight. I have multiple timers on my radio so I can do this with my radio alone. How you do this is up to you.

4) You can time your own flight if you wish. You are on your honor. Time is truncated to the second. No fractions and no rounding. Read the seconds only.

5) Landing must be within 100 feet of the original launch location or the flight does not count. Landing must be on the ground/grass or pavement. Landing in a tree, bush, structure or other elevated spot that would not normally be a landing spot does not count. There are no other rules around the landing.

6) Time stops when the glider comes to a rest. So the clock keeps running if you clip a branch, or go to land and bounce back into the air. When the plane stops, time stops.

7) You can launch as many times as you like but each flight has to be from a fresh launch from the ground/hand. No reclimbs permitted.

8) Report your best time of the day by posting here. You can post as many times as you like, but only 30,45,60,90 & 120 minute icon thermal awards will be given. You can fly as many days as you like to work toward your best time. The goal is to achieve personal bests in the fun atmosphere of a contest.


Comments - You are welcomed AND HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to report anything you like about the day, the flight. Pictures, videos, gps plots, etc are welcome but not required.

Rolling Thunder

Heres a picture of the new icon you will get.It symbolizes air

Don Sims

Different awards....

FlyWheel

What if the "motor" is a winch? Or a Hi-Start? At what time does the clock start? Release of the tow-line? When the the aircraft levels out? Granted the difference between the two events will be only a second or three, but you are counting to the second, and you know how competitive some people are, even if the differences in flight times is only that much...

Rolling Thunder

Heres a couple pictures of my e-plane.The sonic by black horse.Its got a turnigy 35-42 motor with a 12x6 prop on 3cells 2200 mah batery.It only takes about 20 seconds for it to get too small to see .
Its actually called a hotliner but there seemes to be some confusion right now in the r.c. community as to what is a hotliner
So far Ive only managed about 14 1/2 minutes of thermalling so Ive got some work to do dont I .

Larry3215

At the moment, pure gliders are not allowed in the contest. So there are no winch, hi-start or slope launches allowed.

There is a poll going to to see if we will change the rules to include non-E-power sailplanes and slope models.

http://www.wattflyer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63829

Go vote!

Personally, I think if its capable of soaring it should be allowed - no matter how you get it into the air

Larry3215

E-sailplanes as a general rule are less capable as far as thermal performance is concerned. Thats because they are almost always heavier than similar un-powered models.

Hot liners are at an even bigger disadvantage because they tend to be over powered and so even heavier.

Higher wing loadings - all else being equal - makes for a faster flying model and a higher sink rate.

The next big issue is wing span. Span loading - or actually span squared loading - is more important than wingloading as far as good glide performance. So wing span is your best friend when it comes to thermaling.

Thats why all the top contest models have large wing spans. They may also have hi wing loadings, but the lower span^2 loading more than makes up for that.

Again, hot liners tend to have 2 meter or less spans and are again at a disadvantage.

That said - when its blowing and turbulent, they will tend to do better. They will still soar and can thermal. They do require you to fly a little better and find stronger lift than if you were flying a pure TD machine.

My Siren was the same way. it needed stronger lift and you have to watch closely to see indications of lift - it does not signal lift well. But when you get in a good core, it will climb just fine.

When you catch your first thermal its a real thrill. You will be hooked for sure then

Larry3215

Im working on a couple of projects now to see just how light a power system you can get by with in a sailplane.

The vast majority are over powered and so have a lot of extra weight. I want to see if I can build some e-sailplanes that do not weight any more than the pure un-powered versions.

The goal is to be able to launch without the hassle of hi-starts or winches and still thermal with no penalties.

Im converting an old 2x6 glider now. When its done Im starting on a 112" span Mirage RES sailplane and I'll add e-power to it as well.

Both will be with the smallest setups I can get to work. Im starting out with CDrom motors and very small packs - around 3 ounces for the entire power system.

We will see how it goes.

Larry3215

I have a couple of questions.....

Whats the official start date?

Is it going now with the current rules, or are we waiting to see if the new rules get voted in?

Can we use times from last week or last month or only new times after the official start date?

Thats all

Rolling Thunder

It started on the 1st post of this thread.
Do you have something to report?

I went out today & only got 12:48 myself but the real boomers dont kick in till winter around here.

Leadchucker

11 Sept @ 13.00-Top Model Avia today went 36.40 with a 22 second motor run to with motor shut down by CAM switch @ 200 meters. Launched into a brick lifter and only landed to drain the morning coffee or it could have been an hour easily....maybe longer.

Don Sims

Icons

Don Sims

Congrats Leadchucker!

Rolling Thunder

Yeah way to go Leadchucker.Something tells me you will be back with a even longer flight next time

Larry3215

That depends on which version of the rules are in effect

Rolling Thunder

Hang in there.Only 6 days to go.
That is unless the hierarchy decides to do some tweaking of their own

StephenW

well sorry I'm about to head off for a week of flying and some flights are sure to be over an hour but wont have time to think if its legal under the rules or not lol, enjoy it and good luck to everyone

Don Sims

Just testing out the award system... This is the first one I set up myself! The big Penguin did the other ones.

Leadchucker

Thank you, thank you very much

Helinut

7:40 today with a stock Radian Pro. Woooo! Better than last weekend's "record" of 5:06.
Yeah the Radian sucks at this, I gotta get a real plane or find a better spot!

Nitro Blast

Helinut, dont give up on the Radian. We have a monthly event that is designed around the Radian. Yesterday, virtually everyone was pushing the time limit of 10 minutes,



Check out the "club contests" section for Electroglide:
www.sefsd.org

and our Facebook Page with details:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Silen...6756394?ref=ts

The Radian is a completely capable ship. Get the balance right, get her trimmed a touch fast, and she will tell you where the thermals are.

Hang your thumb on the elevator, and she slows down too much to really create thermal hunting lift.

What are you using for battery?

Larry3215

Yeah, based on the reports Ive read, the Radian's are doing very well in the new ALES soaring contests. In some cases, they are winning out over Ava'a, Supra's etc.

That may be due, at least in part, to there being so many of them Still, they are winning and placing in many contests.

So the plane is capable. You could be having trouble 'keeping it up' for any number of reasons though

It could be anything from plane set-up issues - CG, trim settings, control throws, radio programing for camber control, etc - to technique problems or maybe the location your flying from just isnt good for thermals.

Id check around and see if there are any soaring contests going on in your area and go to some of them. You will learn a ton in no time and get your plane dialed in correctly all while having a blast. Most guys are more than willing to help with all aspects of soaring.

Nitro Blast

Hey, should we start a new "Sailplane Award" thread? Clean from design/implementation/chatter, just posts and awards? (since I'm guilty of the inane chatter)

Helinut

Well I have to admit you guys have given me renewed hope. I'm using a 4oz 1500mah battery but I think my problem is the camber/ trim. I've got it flying pretty slow right now. I'll experiment with the set-up next weekend. Thanks!

Larry3215

Is that even possible?

Im as guilty as anyone. Seriously, I dont think its practical to try to limit content. People just love to chatter

P.S. For a second there I thought you were talking about starting a "pure sailplane" award thread - as opposed to an e-sailplane thread