Post by Ed Anderson on May 29, 2012 9:28:15 GMT -5
May 26 LISF ALES Contest Report
By Ed Anderson – CD
For the LISF Newsletter
Saturday was forecast to be beautiful with mild breezes and temperatures around 80. As I finished loading the car it looked like the forecast was right.
When I arrived at the field I was delighted to see a line of cars and pilots doing test flights, preparing for the contest. I, on the other hand, was running a bit late. But the kind fellows of LISF left me a parking area right in the middle of the group.
The grass was hip high. Fortunately with electric launched gliders this is not a problem. And the tall grass actually helped with landings as it arrested the gliders as they landed, and softened those less than perfect arrivals.
I set up my tent and registration table. I set up my battery charger and got my plane ready. Then I called for registration around 9:20. We had 13 pilots, an excellent turnout.
Around 9:45 we called the pilot’s meeting and then first launch. We flew 3 flight groups per round with 4 or 5 pilots in each group. Tasks were 10 minutes all day. We used 50 point ALES landing tapes which are 10 meters long so you have a circle of approximately 65 feet in which to score landing points.
Here is how each round went.
Top pilots for the first round were Ed with a Radian in first, Frank Strommer in second and Ken Holder in third with Pete and Trevor close behind. George Hill had a problem with the motor on his e-Supra so he was not able to launch within the 10 second window resulting in a zero for the round. Paul Zink had an ESC fail which took him out of the contest for the rest of the day, but he recovered his plane with relatively little damage.
Second round, the top pilots were George Hill with his e-Explorer followed by Ken Holder flying a Electron, Trevor and Ed taking the next spots. Frank Strommer pushed a little too far over the trees and, seeing he might end up in the woods, made the smart decision to turn on the motor, save the plane and take a zero for the round. Herb dropped out in the second round. So we now had two pilots out of the running.
Third round scores showed George Hill and his e-Explorer taking top score again, Ed 15 points behind him with a much abused Radian, Pete Nicholson and his electrified Gnome were 21 points behind Ed with Ralph in 4th with his Radian and Dimitri in 5th flying a Radian Pro.
Fourth and last round again saw George Hill in first for the round, Trevor in second, Ed in third with Pete in 4th spot and Frank Strommer taking 5th for round 4. Dimitir had a little excitement on launch as one of his prop blades failed causing so much vibration that it took the nose off his Radian Pro. It was not a graceful landing.
So as you can see, on a round by round there were several who took consistently high spots but there were others who managed to get into the top 5 here and there.
When the scores were put into the computer and final scores for the day were totaled Ed took first with 4,075 points. Pete took second with 3,802 points. Trevor took third with 3,608 points, Ken took fourth with 3,315 points and George Hill took 5th with 3,121 despite having a zero round.
A quick survey at the field after the contest seemed to reflect that everyone had a good time and the popularity of LISF’s ALES contest is likely to continue and grow. This is great news to me because I find contest flying a lot of fun. And, as you have heard me say many times, the best way to learn and to build your flying skills is to fly the club contests. Whether you are an expert of a Novice you are invited to fly the ALES contest. You will need an ALES unit in your plane, but other than that any e-glider is eligible to fly.
I had several conversations with relatively inexperienced pilots who were new to contest flying. They agreed that they had learned a lot during the contest. A combination of having an experienced pilot as their timer/coach and seeing what other pilots were doing was a great learning experience.
Another benefit of these contests is you get to know other members of the club. When you fly with and time for people you don’t know you quickly find those new friends that you might not have met otherwise.
The vast majority of the planes at the contest were foam or wood. Most were 2 meter. The top three spots were taken with a battered foam Radian, a kit built Gnome and a Radian Pro, showing once again that it is the pilot, not the plane that wins the contest. And, with everyone having the same launch height potential, this is especially true in the ALES format.
If I may, I would like to offer a few tips for future ALES contests.
• Recharge your battery after each flight; you will get a better climb.
• Watch the flight group before yours to note where they were finding lift.
• Survey the sky for signs of lift before you launch.
• Plan your flight before your launch. Where will you search first?
• Ask your timer for their opinion of where they think there might be lift.
• Have your timer check how the other pilots are doing.
• If someone is in lift consider going to join them.
• Note who the top pilots are in your flight group. If you are new to contest soaring, consider following them. This is called covering and is a completely legitimate strategy
I hope to see you at the June ALES contest which will be on the third Saturday, June 16, due to the ESL contest the following weekend. Till then, clear skies and safe flying to everyone!
Thanks to Dimitri and Herb for the photos that are shown in the report. Here are the final results.
Name Score Percentage Overall
Ed A 4075.0 100.0 1
Pete N 3802.1 93.3 2
Trevor I 3600.3 88.4 3
Ken H 3315.0 81.4 4
George H 3121.3 76.6 5
Frank S 2705.9 66.4 6
Ralph G 2667.3 65.5 7
Joe A 2345.8 57.6 8
Dimitri K 1946.4 47.8 9
Phil A 1364.9 33.5 10
Alan C 1305.3 32.0 11
Herb S 236.6 5.8 12
Paul Z 30.1 0.7 13
By Ed Anderson – CD
For the LISF Newsletter
Saturday was forecast to be beautiful with mild breezes and temperatures around 80. As I finished loading the car it looked like the forecast was right.
When I arrived at the field I was delighted to see a line of cars and pilots doing test flights, preparing for the contest. I, on the other hand, was running a bit late. But the kind fellows of LISF left me a parking area right in the middle of the group.
The grass was hip high. Fortunately with electric launched gliders this is not a problem. And the tall grass actually helped with landings as it arrested the gliders as they landed, and softened those less than perfect arrivals.
I set up my tent and registration table. I set up my battery charger and got my plane ready. Then I called for registration around 9:20. We had 13 pilots, an excellent turnout.
Around 9:45 we called the pilot’s meeting and then first launch. We flew 3 flight groups per round with 4 or 5 pilots in each group. Tasks were 10 minutes all day. We used 50 point ALES landing tapes which are 10 meters long so you have a circle of approximately 65 feet in which to score landing points.
Here is how each round went.
Top pilots for the first round were Ed with a Radian in first, Frank Strommer in second and Ken Holder in third with Pete and Trevor close behind. George Hill had a problem with the motor on his e-Supra so he was not able to launch within the 10 second window resulting in a zero for the round. Paul Zink had an ESC fail which took him out of the contest for the rest of the day, but he recovered his plane with relatively little damage.
Second round, the top pilots were George Hill with his e-Explorer followed by Ken Holder flying a Electron, Trevor and Ed taking the next spots. Frank Strommer pushed a little too far over the trees and, seeing he might end up in the woods, made the smart decision to turn on the motor, save the plane and take a zero for the round. Herb dropped out in the second round. So we now had two pilots out of the running.
Third round scores showed George Hill and his e-Explorer taking top score again, Ed 15 points behind him with a much abused Radian, Pete Nicholson and his electrified Gnome were 21 points behind Ed with Ralph in 4th with his Radian and Dimitri in 5th flying a Radian Pro.
Fourth and last round again saw George Hill in first for the round, Trevor in second, Ed in third with Pete in 4th spot and Frank Strommer taking 5th for round 4. Dimitir had a little excitement on launch as one of his prop blades failed causing so much vibration that it took the nose off his Radian Pro. It was not a graceful landing.
So as you can see, on a round by round there were several who took consistently high spots but there were others who managed to get into the top 5 here and there.
When the scores were put into the computer and final scores for the day were totaled Ed took first with 4,075 points. Pete took second with 3,802 points. Trevor took third with 3,608 points, Ken took fourth with 3,315 points and George Hill took 5th with 3,121 despite having a zero round.
A quick survey at the field after the contest seemed to reflect that everyone had a good time and the popularity of LISF’s ALES contest is likely to continue and grow. This is great news to me because I find contest flying a lot of fun. And, as you have heard me say many times, the best way to learn and to build your flying skills is to fly the club contests. Whether you are an expert of a Novice you are invited to fly the ALES contest. You will need an ALES unit in your plane, but other than that any e-glider is eligible to fly.
I had several conversations with relatively inexperienced pilots who were new to contest flying. They agreed that they had learned a lot during the contest. A combination of having an experienced pilot as their timer/coach and seeing what other pilots were doing was a great learning experience.
Another benefit of these contests is you get to know other members of the club. When you fly with and time for people you don’t know you quickly find those new friends that you might not have met otherwise.
The vast majority of the planes at the contest were foam or wood. Most were 2 meter. The top three spots were taken with a battered foam Radian, a kit built Gnome and a Radian Pro, showing once again that it is the pilot, not the plane that wins the contest. And, with everyone having the same launch height potential, this is especially true in the ALES format.
If I may, I would like to offer a few tips for future ALES contests.
• Recharge your battery after each flight; you will get a better climb.
• Watch the flight group before yours to note where they were finding lift.
• Survey the sky for signs of lift before you launch.
• Plan your flight before your launch. Where will you search first?
• Ask your timer for their opinion of where they think there might be lift.
• Have your timer check how the other pilots are doing.
• If someone is in lift consider going to join them.
• Note who the top pilots are in your flight group. If you are new to contest soaring, consider following them. This is called covering and is a completely legitimate strategy
I hope to see you at the June ALES contest which will be on the third Saturday, June 16, due to the ESL contest the following weekend. Till then, clear skies and safe flying to everyone!
Thanks to Dimitri and Herb for the photos that are shown in the report. Here are the final results.
Name Score Percentage Overall
Ed A 4075.0 100.0 1
Pete N 3802.1 93.3 2
Trevor I 3600.3 88.4 3
Ken H 3315.0 81.4 4
George H 3121.3 76.6 5
Frank S 2705.9 66.4 6
Ralph G 2667.3 65.5 7
Joe A 2345.8 57.6 8
Dimitri K 1946.4 47.8 9
Phil A 1364.9 33.5 10
Alan C 1305.3 32.0 11
Herb S 236.6 5.8 12
Paul Z 30.1 0.7 13
