F5D World Championships Grand Finale

Well, the championships are over and it was a great contest.  The best F5D flyers in the world are here and I'm proud to be among them.  Gunther Mayr of Austria smashed his world record yet again today with a new world record of 55.09 seconds.

Today we flew three rounds but these were the longest and hardest fought rounds I think I have ever raced.  The setting for today was the race for second place.  Team Austria had first place tied up so it was between USA and Canada for second.  Then there were the "races within the race".   Several individual competitors were having their own little battle for individual placing among themselves within the standings.  So everyone was watching how today would unfold.

We started the day with Team Canada 20 points (seconds) ahead of Team USA.  Our strategy was clear.  Fly clean without cuts, fly consistent, keep doing what has been working.  No cuts, no cuts, no cuts.  Fly fast enough that three of the best pilots in the USA would not catch us....   Not an easy task.

Team USA strategy had to be an aggressive one.  They needed to take the offensive and go for our throats.  They could not sit back.   They had to push it and try to take points away from us.  Our position was defensive.  Theirs was one of offence.  In the first round this morning Roy posted a 64, Randy a 64 and Delbert a 62.  No cuts.   That was good but not really fast.  USA came on strong with two 62's and a 60.  So in one round they narrowed the gap by six points.  Two rounds to go....  If they continue to do that and we continue with our times we may only win by two points or they may beat us entirely if we mis-calculate on propellors for 10 lap run time.

Team Germany, Team Canada, Team USA

In my second round, I was up against Travis Flynn.  One of the best pilots in the USA.  We launched first and Travis second.  The race was on and Travis was chasing me.  Around lap six or seven, Roy said "Travis cut !".   Wow !  I couldn't believe my ears.  Now to finish clean and bring it home.  We finished and landed.  I felt the weight of the championships come off my shoulders a bit.  Team USA now had to count a 72 score.  As long as we continued to fly clean and not cut we had it in the bag.  As round three began, the final round of the contest, I could hear the "Fat Lady" entering the stadium and she was singing the Canadian national anthem....   :o)

Roy and I and Delbert each flew our final flight in the last three heats of the contest.  This dragged out the drama to the end.  Roy posted a 62.  Randy a 63 and Delbert came on strong with a 60 !!!   Team Canada takes the Silver !!   Wow.  What pressure.   I have never felt this before, to this level, in pylon racing.  I was glad it was over.

Gunther Mayr, Daniel Mayr, Delbert Godon

The race within the race was Danny Kane of USA, Delbert, and Marcel Schlage of Switzerland.  This battle was tight for the last two days but Marcel finished yesterday in third place (pretty cleanly).  It looked like Danny and Delbert would fight for fourth place.  Today in Marcel's last round, he DOUBLE cut out and had to drop this 200 score but carry his next highest score.   OMG !!!   We couldn't believe it and nor could he.  Now the race was between Danny and Marcel and Delbert for third place.  Now it was anyone's race for third place.  As I mentioned, Team Canada flew at the end of the last round and Delbert was in the FINAL heat.  Delbert needed a 63 to take third place.  Based on Delbert's flights, this was well within his capability and he did with the 60 score.

So Delbert climbed the podium for Canada in third place individually.  Second was Daniel Mayr of Austria and first of course was brother Gunther Mayr.   Marcel Schlage fourth, Danny fifth, Dirk Belting of Germany sixth and I finished seventh.   Roy finished 11th.  Complete standings in photos below.

Handshakes and beer all around.  Everyone agreed it was a great contest.  Pete Bergstrom, Ed Smith and all the crew did a great job.   Tomorrow we go to Dayton, Ohio to visit the air force museum there.  Apparently one of the best in the world.

Thanks for following my blog.   Thanks to everyone who sent me feedback that you enjoy reading it.  I like doing it - it is part of my excitement in the game.    Tonight I sleep.

Cheers,


Randy

The whole group.  30 pilots, 11 Countries

Final Team Standings

Final Individual Standings

F5D World Championships Day 3

Day 3 of the world championships is completed.

It was a pressure packed day of racing.  One thing we know for sure, the individual world champion is pretty much decided.  Gunther Mayr of Austria posted two world record times today.  His fastest time and new world record is 55.89 seconds.  Gunther, only 19 years old, is clearly in first place.  It's a close race for the other positions.

Today the wind moved 45 degrees downwind so we flew all rounds today with the takeoff going out of the back of the course between pylons #2 and #3.  The race timers do not start the clock until the airplanes pass over the start/finish line.  In this takeoff configuration, this results in faster 10 lap times because the planes are mostly up to speed when the clock starts and we head towards pylon #1.

Team Canada flew very consistently today.  Delbert flew two 61's a 60 and a 63.  Delbert moved ahead of me in the individual standings.  Delbert is flying his own homemade propellors and getting almost total run time for ten laps.  His motor would limit out on the watts around pylon #2 on the last lap.  

My strategy was to stay calm, cool, and collected.  We don't want any cuts.  I flew two 62's, a 63, and a 61.  I'm using carbon props from Mike Hazel of ZZprop.  I found myself a little nervous today as I was feeling the pressure of team Canada sitting in second place and we don't want to make any mistakes.

Roy was flying well and a little conservative.  At this point we want to maintain our high team standing.  Roy flew a 62, 64, 65, and a 66 with one cut at pylon #3.   Roy is flying Mike Hazel props as well.

Randy Bridge (caller) and Travis Flynn of Team USA

Team USA was flying well today.  They really put it together and climbed the standings.  Danny Kane is flying well.  Danny currently sits in 5th place after 11 rounds.  Travis finished all his flights today under power so he posted some better times than in previous days where he was forced to take the Super Cut.  Troy had a good setup that allowed him to complete his races under power as well.  Team USA flew well as a team and benefited from a serious mistake by Team Switzerland.   Carsten Garth of Switzerland posted a 200 score today and the team must now carry that penalty.  This moved team USA into third behind Canada.

After the second worst score was dropped, Marcel Schlage of Switzerland moved back up.  Marcel also posted some sub-60 times today with the 'sawtooth' propellor.  Dirk Belting of Germany also moved into the top ten today with his own performance coming on strong in the latter part of the contest.  With all these guys moving up, and I didn't have any high times to drop, I moved down to 7th position.  You can now understand the pressure I was feeling ALL day.

Carsten Garth and Christian Hanke of Switzerland

So here are the top results

Team Standings after 11 rounds

1.  Austria     1673

2.  Canada     1707

3.  USA        1727

4.  Switzerland    1736

Individual Standings after 11 rounds

1.  Gunther Mayr

2.  Daniel Mayr

3.  Marcel Schlage

4.  Delbert Godon

5.  Dirk Belting

6.  Danny Kane

7.  Randy Smith

13.  Roy Andrassy

Complete results in the attached photos.

Today I shot a video of the first race of the morning.  This video is of Carsten Garth of Switzerland, Delbert of Canada, and Travis Flynn of the USA.   This will give you a good idea of the race start procedure, takeoff through the back of the course and the race itself.   You can really only see the models briefly as they enter pylon #2 but you get the idea.  The sound of the models is pretty cool too.  See the video at this link:

It's all over in 60 seconds

So tomorrow we finish the contest with three final rounds.  Anything can happen.  Team Canada is just staying cool and continuing to do what got us this far.  Not sure when the blog post will occur tomorrow.  There's likely to be some celebrating going on.   Type to you tomorrow.

Randy

F5D World Championships Day 2

The day started out cloudy and gray but by noon it was sunny and muggy hot.  The weather system has moved on and clear skies will prevail for the rest of the contest.  Today we had a 90 degree cross wind out of the north at about 15 km per hour.  It did not present any problem on take off straight towards pylon #1 but landings had to be negotiated as the race pilots seemed to come in from all directions.  No problem, everyone survived.

Today we flew four rounds for a cumulative total of seven rounds so far.  Team and individual scores are totalled with each pilot's worst score being dropped.  The first piece of news is that Gunther Mayr of Austria reclaimed his world record stolen a day ago by Marcel Schalage.  Gunther posted three times under 60 seconds and the new world record [so far] is 59.6 seconds.  Congratulations to Gunther.  His plane is a rocket and Gunther flies well too !!!   He reminds me of a young Chris Callow of F3D (gasser) pylon.

Team Canada flew well today with Roy and I each cutting only once in four rounds.  Delbert had some challenges with achieving 10 lap motor run time but he didn't have to glide too far or long to reach the finish line.  We are flying tight but not taking too many chances.  The name of the game here is consistency and ten laps without pylon cuts.

Team Germany (one of the favorites) took a hit with one of their pilots posting his second 200 score.  This has hurt them for now but this may go away and shuffle the deck once again after we complete nine rounds tomorrow when we will drop the two worst flights for each pilot.

Team Austria is confidently in front and just have to keep doing what they are doing -- fly fast and consistently.

Team USA is chipping away at the field.  Danny Kane is certainly doing his part by posting some 60.0 times.  This has also helped him in the individual standings.  Travis is still fighting to get 10 laps under power.  In one or two races I saw, Travis was forced to take a "Super Cut" after his motor quit shortly after completing his 9th lap.  A Super Cut is a cut of pylon #1 just shortly after passing the start/finish line when the motor quits.  This saves the time of gliding all the way around the course, which is far more than taking the 10% penalty for the cut.

The team standings are jam packed near the top and it's still anyone's game.  Things can change quickly when the second score is dropped after nine rounds.  So far the standings are:

Austria              1124
Canada            1150
Switzerland     1168
USA                  1182

Individually, the Mayr boys from Austria are clearly out front.  Danny Kane crept up to third place today by posting some good times of 60.  Sixty seconds is hard to reach in the Muncie air here.   Hot, humid, and a bit of a crosswind.
I am sitting in fourth place with Delbert and Marcel Schlage only one second behind.

Gunther Mayr     359   Aut
Daniel Mayr      367    Aut
Danny Kane     376    USA
Randy Smith     379    CDN
Delbert Godon     380.1   CDN
Marcel Schlage    380.3    SUI

Complete team and individual scores posted in the attached photos.

Team standings after seven rounds (worst score dropped)

The energy limiter testing continued today.  At least one pilot from each team has had their energy limiter tested to comply with the rules of 1000 watt-minutes.  They are allowing a tolerance of 1.9%.   If you limiter is deemed to allow 1020 watt-minutes you will have a re-test.   If the second test is 1020 watt-minutes or more, you fail the test and score a 200 for your last flight.   Roy and I have each been tested and have passed.  Delbert voluntarily had two of his spare limiters tested and found at least one of them failed.  Delbert has installed a 'legal' limiter into his plane.  The limiter testing has certainly brought times back to reality.  You will notice that there are only two or three pilots under 60 seconds in the world championships while, in the NeuCastle Cup, there were several.  In the NC Cup, limiters were not tested.

Individual pilot standings after seven rounds (worst score dropped)

My backup plane is flying well as expected.  It is essentially identical to my #1 plane.  Here's hoping that it all hangs together for the balance of the competition.  One of the pilots from Team Russia crashed today shortly after turning pylon #1.  A plume of gray smoke was seen rising from the crash site.  Rob Ashley of the UK had his spinner and prop come off during launch which resulted in a nose-in crash into the pavement damaging the motor and fuselage.

For those of you familiar with pylon racing in North America, you will know Peter Bergstrom our contest director for this world championship.   Roy has acquired a Peter Bergstrom doll and has added it to his collection of stand up comedy.  Peter runs a real tight ship here at the contest so Roy adopted the Pirate theme.   See photo.

"Guess Who"

'Not much else to say.   Trying to turn in a bit earlier tonight.  Four more rounds of racing tomorrow.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's results as we drop a second race.



Randy

F5D World Championships Day 1

Team Canada pilots with Ed Smith of Brampton, ON (Starter)

The day started out with light drizzle or rain.  Those who had to test fly their energy limiters did so with rain and low cloud.  Not much fun for sure.   Team Canada slept in and some did laundry ....   We got to the field in good time to set up and prepare.  Racing began at 12:30 sharp as scheduled.  The rain quit right on time.  Roy and I and Delbert were in heats 2, 3, and 4 of the opening day of competition.  Due to the late start we only flew three rounds today.

We generally had a good day of competition.  Roy found the pylons and achieved good motor run time to finish the race.  Roy posted a 63, 64, and 65.  No cuts.   Delbert posted a 61 with one cut, then two 63's.  I posted two 62's in the first two rounds.  Then in round three, after six laps, my elevator servo decided to stop racing.  My model crashed outside of pylon #3. It just sank slowly into the ground with no response from elevator control.  Normally, this would cost me a 200 score for not finishing the race.  However, the one piece of good luck was that there was a problem with the light signalling system on the course so the whole race was declared void and we all were given a re-fly.  I quickly pulled out one of my back-up models and prepared for the re-fly.  In the re-fly, I was MAD from the crash and I flew hard.  I posted a 60 second time but cut pylon #1 by only 10 feet.  One cut is a 10% time penalty.  So I ended up with a 66 second time.  Not bad actually.

There was only one other crash incident today.  Marcel from Switzerland and a fellow from Russia had a whopping mid-air collision between pylons #2 and #3.

Gunther Mayr of Austria with his VERY sleek bird 

The Austrians are going fast.  The two young brothers, Gunther Mayr and Daniel Mayr are hard to beat.  Gunther broke the world record this morning with a 59 second time.  This looked like the time to beat.  However, Marcel Schlage of Switzerland, the fellow with the saw tooth propellor, posted a fast time and new world record of 59.60 .

From a team perspective, we are doing well.   It is early yet - only three rounds of 14 to be flown but things are looking good.  We just need to keep flying clean and stay out of trouble.  After day 1, Team Canada is in second place behind Austria and in front of Switzerland.

From and individual perspective, I am sitting in 5th.   Delbert is 7th and Roy is 8th.   This is without any throw-away races.

Team USA is working hard.  Their team is right behind Switzerland in fourth.  Danny Kane is sitting 6th individually, while Troy Peterson is 10th and Travis Flynn is 19th.  It's way too early to draw any conclusions so no one is out of the running yet.

Roy was checked for energy limiter compliance and his Neu limiter just passed the test.  Delbert submitted his spare limiter from his tool box for a voluntary check and it failed !    One of the members from Belgium team was checked for limiter compliance and he failed.  This resulted in a 200 score for him.

Team Standings after Day 1 (three rounds)

That's the highlights for today.  We should put in five rounds of close racing action tomorrow.  Stay tuned for Day 2 results tomorrow.  Ciao.



Randy

Individual standings after Day 1 (three rounds)

Model Processing and Opening Ceremonies

Quick post this morning before the competition begins....

Yesterday was official processing of the models and equipment.   Lots of Hoo-ha and drama over the energy limiters.
Many of the Uni-logger energy limiters [used primarily by the Europeans] are showing test results as much as 15% more than the allowable energy cut-off.   This is very significant and could explain why some team posted some nice low times in the NeuCastle Cup while others could not get under 60 seconds.   I'm just saying......

This has thrown some teams into a tail spin one day before the official competition.  They must now change software loads in their limiters to bring them down to the legal limit of 1000 watt-minutes.   Then they must recalibrate their propellors to this new energy limit.    The contest administration has allowed one half day of practice and testing today so that teams can do this.   (One reason for this is that the watt limiter testing machine was not available for use during the NeuCastle Cup, so this is now a big surprise).    Therefore the competition will not begin until 12:30pm today.

Team Canada is running an energy limiter from Neumotors.com    It is a fixed value limiter that cannot be programmed by the pilot.  (At least not that we know of)    Therefore our limiters are OK -- in theory.   Assuming proper programming and calibration at the Neumotors factory.   So we had a good sleep-in this morning.   Light rain this morning will likely clear away by noon.  Presently sitting in the laundromat freshening my panties !!!    Mom always said wear clean underwear to a race !
:o)

Yesterday evening, the official opening ceremonies and team managers' meeting was held.   The ceremonies were short and sweet without political speeches.   Great !    It was nice to see all the teams in their official colors and waving their country's flag.

The team managers' meeting had lots of discussion about the energy limiter of course.    A few other minor issues but the NeuCastle Cup worked out most of those.   Too bad that the energy limiter testing machine was not given a dry run during the NeuCastle Cup.  

Yesterday during practice, Team Canada worked on propellors that will give us >60seconds of run time.  We had some success and feel confident we can achieve 60 seconds for ten laps and even break the elusive 59 second [Muncie] barrier.

The laundry is dry, more tonight.



Randy

NeuCastle Cup - Open Race Day 2

We finished the NeuCastle Cup open competition today.  This part is over but things have not yet begun...

Today was hot !   30+ degrees and humid with no wind.  We cleaned out Walmart last night by buying the last few electric fans they had on the shelf.  These were great to have on the tables in our pit area today.  I think some teams were jealous.  Some moving air, lots of Gatorade, ice in the cooler and a spray bottle make it tolerable for me.   The large tents for each team were great to at least provide shade.   I don't know how Ed Smith (Starter) and Mike Deneve (Starter's Helper) could stand out on the pavement starting area all day.   Props to them.

Team Canuckistan and the "Fan Club"

We flew five rounds today for a total of nine rounds total over two days.  We were allowed to drop our two highest scores (time in seconds) to earn a seven round total score.  First place was Marcel Schlage of Switzerland.  He is the fellow that is flying the incredible Tubercle propellor (saw tooth).  Marcel flew nine rounds without one cut.  His fastest time was a 57.65.  Second place was Gunther Mayr of Austria.  Third place was Nick Vaes of Belgium.

For Canada, I finished in 8th place with no cuts in nine rounds.  My best time was a 60.48.   With nothing to lose going into the last round, I tried to fly my best flight ever.   I turned as close to the poles as I dared without cutting but still could not find the elusive 59 second time.  I am pleased with my performance however.  Delbert placed 9th just behind me by three points.  Delbert's fastest race was 60.72.   Roy had a rough open competition taking three 200 scores early yesterday.  Roy came back today and put up some good flights with only one cut in five races today.  Roy's fastest time was 63.42 and he finished 27th.

Final Results F5D NeuCastle Cup

Troy Peterson from Team USA showed up today, in recovery mode from his hernia operation.  Troy put up a few flights today to get his setup dialled in.  Troy posted a 59.68 for his fastest time today.  Danny Kane placed 11th overall and had two races today with cuts.  Danny's fastest time was 59.79 in his last race yesterday.  Travis Flynn placed 25th and had a rough day today.  Three races with cuts and two with double cuts today.  I think Travis is just playing with us.  He will be on his game during the "real" competition.   Complete results posted in the photo.

I am well practiced now for the world championships that begin on Saturday.  Tomorrow is the day when all team must have their models and equipment inspected and certified to meet the international rules.  We will do some more practicing tomorrow and try to find that propellor setup that will get us under 60 seconds.  To be sure, if you are not flying in the high '50s and doing it consistently you are not world class.  The competition is very tough and these are the best in the F5D world.  It's a lot of fun to be here.  Everyone is very friendly.  We have even learned a few Austrian swear words !!!

Team Great Britain discussing strategy

Team Switzerland checking out flight data on the computer

Tomorrow we get to sleep in !!!   Yeah !   We will visit the model aviation museum on site here and have our models processed.  A better sleep tonight as I pack it in early.   My next blog entry will be Saturday evening after day one of the world competition.



Randy

NeuCastle Cup - Open Race Day 1

Hello Race Fans,
I know you are getting tired of hearing it, but today was another long day.  Today was the start of the NeuCastle Cup.  This is a F5D race open to anyone who wants to enter.  For the world championship participants, it is a chance to test run their equipment in real race conditions with two other competitors on the race course.  There are 32 competitors.

The weather today began slightly showery in the morning but the clouds soon went away and the day was 30 degrees with no wind.  The humidity was tolerable.  I feel the heat is having an effect on the race times we are used to in Calgary.  Today many competitors had trouble getting their race times below 60 seconds.  Only the top seven pilots were under 60 seconds.

We flew four rounds today and will fly five rounds tomorrow.  After four rounds the leader is Gunther Mayr of Austria. Second is Nick Vaes of Belgium.  Third is Dirk Belting of Germany.  Fast time for today is 54.49 seconds held by Darron Rodrigues of the UK.  Marcel Schlage of Switzerland, the fellow with the bumpy whale fin technology in his propellor, was fast today and finished fourth on the day with a time of 57.69.

For Canada, I finished the day in ninth place, Delbert is sitting at 15th and Roy is 31st.   I posted 62's, 63, and 66.   Delbert flew some 62's, and 65's.  Roy had a rough day with three flights resulting in 200 points from double cuts in three races out of four.  Roy did put in one flight at 68.  After tomorrow's five rounds we will be allowed to drop our two highest scores.  This will shift the final results quite a bit.   I have posted a photo of the score card.

The race administration had their challenges today with the race course equipment and the pylon judges themselves.  A few electrical and mechanical issues were resolved by Tom Scott.  Mike Tallman had his hands full at pylon #1 with a crew of judges that had never worked in pylon #1 as judges before.  Ed Smith and Mike Deneve spent their [hot] day on the start line trying to get us all organized at the start and launching in proper order.  There were a few problems that resulted in a five or six re-flys during the day.   However all in all, the judges and helpers did a good job.   It is good that we are having the NeuCastle Cup Open competition prior to the world championships.  This competition allows everyone, including the judges and administration a chance to work the bugs out of their system.  I'm sure things will run more smoothly tomorrow and by the time we get to the world championships, all will be sorted out.

Team USA had their challenges today.  Travis flew well but cut in a couple of races.  Danny nearly crashed on takeoff in his first race as we were launching out of the back of the course and had to make a sharp left turn during throttle up.  This gave Danny some over rotation to the left and nearly crashed.  In another race, Danny nearly had a mid-air collision on takeoff and lost track of his plane during the mix up.  Dan had to recover his model and get it back on the course.  This put him significantly behind in this race.  Troy Peterson, the third member of the USA team, did not compete in today's race as he is recovering from a hernia operation just days ago.  He might show up tomorrow.

We packed up about 7:00pm and headed to the Olive Garden, Roy's favor soup and salad joint.  It's now midnight and Team Canada is up in heats #1, 2, and 3 first thing tomorrow morning.   Nighty-nite all.



Randy

F5D Practice Day 2

Team USA (Danny and Travis) - Troy Peterson did not show today

Today was another good day of practice.  Most everyone has showed up for practice now.  Danny and Travis from the USA team arrived today with a number of their Batleth models.  Travis put up a blistering flight for 8-1/4 laps before his watt limiter shut him down.   Hmmm, must select new prop and battery setup.  Danny was flying well and finishing 10 laps.  Troy Peterson, the third member of their team did not show today.

Team Canada put up several more test flights today.   The weather began to get quite a bit warmer from morning to afternoon.  My 10 lap times slowed by two or three seconds today.   I think Roy and Delbert found the same effect on their models.  So we just tried to fly the tightest course we could and play with a few different props.  Nothing seemed to get us much below 59 seconds.

Marcel Schlage from Switzerland is the fellow with the incredible saw tooth propellor.  Hank sent me a link and surprisingly, this is patented Canadian technology for wind turbines known as Tubercle technology.   I filmed a video of one of Marcel's practice flights.   You can see it on Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU7gaGXnItc
The sound is quite amazing.   Sorry for the quality of the video.   I'm just using my simple point and shoot digi-cam.

A more conventional and typical F5D flight was also filmed.   I can't remember which team this was but you can see a pretty typical flight here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpIzzrS71Ao

Strange Bird from Austria -- Daniel Mayr Pilot

Daniel Mayr from Austria also displayed and interesting piece of model technology.  He was flying a very high tech wing and fuselage design from Austria [I think]. The nose moment was very long and it sported a flying stabilizer.  It had very small ailerons and did fly very fast.  Daniel fussed quite a bit over the plane in somewhat of a perfectionist manner.  Attention to detail seemed very important.  I've posted a photo of Daniel's plane.


Pete Bergstrom, Ed Smith, and Mike Tallman set up the lap counting and turn signalling system today.  Everything seems to be working well.  We have been using the Jim Smith "Dog Dish" single turn light for practice and it has come in very handy.  We are dialling ourselves in.   It is surprising to sit out near #1 pylon and watch other teams flying.   Many pilots often turn short of #1 pylon and think they are going fast.

Russian Remains...

There was only one mishap today.  One of the pilots from Russia had a failure of some sort shortly after his turn at pylon #1.   The plane nose dived straight into the ground.  Shortly afterwards, smoke was seen rising from the crash site.  Pete rushed out with a fire extinguisher but it was too late to save the contents of what was, just a few minutes prior, a nice model.


Tomorrow is Day 1 of the NeuCastle Cup.  This is a competition open to anyone with a F5D model.  You do not have to qualify for the world championships to fly.  Most everyone from the world competition is flying plus a few extras from the USA who did not qualify for the worlds.   This will be the real test of pilots and judges so we'll see how things shake out.


Another long day at the field.  It was a good day but I'm tired.  We need to be up at 6:30am tomorrow as first heat takes off tomorrow at 9:00am.


Cheers,






Randy

Arrival and Day 1 Practice

Holy Smoke, it's 11:15pm and we just got back to the hotel after being at the field ALL day !    Muncie boot camp has begun again.

The drive for Roy and I was great.  Smooth and uneventful.   No cops and no deer.  We left Calgary Friday after work and drove [mostly] in rain to Swift Current.  Saturday morning at 6:45am the van headed east.  At 11:15 Saturday night, the van stopped in Missouri Valley, Iowa.  By the time Sunday morning arrived we were fully in sunshine and dry roads.  The temperature and humidity was beginning to rise.

We picked up Delbert at the Indianapolis airport at about 5:30 local time.  By this time it was 29 degrees and very humid.  We arrived in Muncie at 7:00pm.   No problems.

Today was a great day of testing and trimming for local conditions.  Fortunately, it was cooler today and less humid.  I think it only reached 25 or 26 today and no that humid.  It was really quite pleasant.   We each put in seven or eight flights today across all of our models and things are running well.   The pylon site is coming together nicely with Pete Bergstrom and his crew doing a great job to get the grass cut and pylons set up by mid day today.   We didn't run into any trouble with equipment and everything is running well.

Many of the international teams showed up today and began their own test flying and trimming.  We had dinner with three of the guys from the team from the UK tonight and Roy was in fine form once again.   A good time was had by all.

The most notable technical item today was an incredible propellor design from one of the guys on the Swiss team.  It difficult to explain so I have two photos of it.  It's a carbon fiber folding propellor.   Each blade is about six inches long.  The leading edge of the blade has a saw tooth profile.   Delbert claims it is modelled after the flipper of a hump-backed whale where the edge of the flipper is serrated.  It is powered by a low KV motor of unknown spec fitted with a gear box.  It is incredibly quiet and it is fast.  Time will tell how it works out but, if nothing else, it is a technical marvel.

Too tired to write much more.   That's about it for today.  All in all, a successful day one of practice.   More to come as it's still very early.


Randy

Hello and Background Information

Welcome to my blog for the 2010 F5D world championships for electric pylon racing.

Roy and I are driving from Calgary to Muncie, Indiana departing Friday, August 13th after work.  This is a road trip 2/3 of the way across North America that lasts 2 1/2 days. You really have to like corn fields and Roy's Shania Twain CD's to survive this drive. I bring my MacBook and iPod stocked with a sufficient amount of good old rock 'n roll and standup comedy tracks to overcome the Shania.  Delbert couldn't stomach the thought of the drive so he chose to fly.  We will pick up Delbert at the airport in Indianapolis, which is about two hours drive from Muncie, and then carry on from there.

There are 11 countries and 30 competitors registered for the official world championship competition.  The competition consists of a total of 14 rounds where each competitor puts up an official flight in each round.  Three pilots fly on the race course at the same time.  Each model is timed for the amount of time (in seconds) it takes to complete ten laps of the course.  If a pilot cuts inside of any pylon during the race, he is penalized by adding 10% of his ten lap time to make his total time for the race.  If a pilot cuts inside two or more pylons during the race, he is disqualified from the race and is given a score of 200 seconds. Scoring is the competitor's total time in seconds for each race.  The winner of the competition is the pilot with the lowest overall score after the end of 14 rounds.  Like golf, low score wins.  If nine or more rounds are completed, each pilot may discard his two highest scores.  A typical ten lap time is 55 to 58 seconds, so a score of 200 is a huge penalty.  Below is a diagram of the race course layout.

F5D RC Pylon Race Course Layout

The models are highly technical in their design, assembly, and operation.  Their flying speed is well over 200 mph so every detail is critical.  The models are precision molded from carbon fiber, Kevlar, and fiberglass composite construction.  The wing span is about 1.3 meters and they weigh 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) in total weight including the power system, battery pack, and control system.  Each competitor will be running a high speed electric motor and propellor of their choice that will provide him with sufficient power to complete ten laps of the race course.  The battery packs used are of lithium polymer chemistry consisting of five cells that provide 20 nominal volts. The pack capacity is about 2.2 amp-hours.

Each model is fitted with an energy limiter.  This device is essentially an "electron gas tank".  The energy limiter allows only a finite amount of power to be supplied to the motor over a period of time.  The rules allow the consumption of 1000 watts in one minute of motor run time.  After 1000 watt-minutes of energy is consumed the limiter shuts down power to the motor.  If the pilot has not finished the race before the motor shuts off, he will attempt to glide across the finish line.  This, of course results in a slower time than if he finished the race under power.  So the objective of each race is to select a propellor for the power system and fly the model as close to the pylons as possible resulting in the energy limiter shutting down the motor just as the pilot crosses the finish line. This is the optimum flight with no energy left over, but enough motor run time to complete ten laps.  After the race is completed, landing is achieved with the motor off by gliding the model in for a safe landing in the grass.

The competition, held in Muncie Indiana, begins during the week of August 16th.  Before the official competition begins on August 21st,  there is a series of preliminary activities.  One of these is the NeuCastle Cup.  This is an international open competition prior to the world championships.  It is a nine round race using the same aircraft, competing on the same race course as the official competition.  The intent is to allow official competitors a chance to test their models and equipment in actual race conditions prior to the official competition, and to allow other modellers a chance to race among friends.

Following the NeuCastle Cup will be the official processing of each competitor's models to ensure their equipment and models meet the requirements of the rules. There is also an official opening ceremony, welcome reception, and official practice session for each country that will be competing.

The world championships are being held at the international aeromodeling center of the American Modeling Association.  It is a 1000 acre facility that is specifically setup for all types of model aircraft competition.  It is literally the Mecca of model aircraft flying.  Photos of the facility can be seen here:   http://www.modelaircraft.org/aboutiac.aspx

Check my blog daily after August 16th.   I'll try to post the daily news and highlights almost every night ~ 10pm EST.   This may vary depending on how the day went and how tired I am.  Thanks for following my blog.
Go Canada Go !!!

Randy, Roy, and Delbert