SEN 2718 - Schedules and sharing while waiting
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SEN 2718
Schedules and sharing while waiting
1. Planning for Outdoor Free Flight Nationals
2. Ways to miss a round
3. More thoughts on the International Schedule
Planning for Outdoor Free Flight Nationals
From: Ed Carroll
March 26, 2020
All:
I hope all of you are taking care and staying well. I want to let everyone who is planning to attend the Outdoor Free Flight Nationals July 27-31, that I will continue planning for having the event on schedule. Obviously, we do not know what the status of the COVID19 issue will be at that time. If our country is clear then we should be able to have the Nationals as scheduled. I will continue to confirm, ask and build the volunteer list needed with the understanding that we may have to cancel/postpone the Nationals.
Ed Carroll
2020 Nationals Free Flight CD
Ways to miss a round
From: Ken Bauer
It seems that there is no end to the number of ways one can have a bad
flight in a Free Flight competition or miss a round. I've found I'm always
discovering new ways to blow a flight and I'm wondering how many others out
there have had the same experience? Just for fun I thought I'd share a
couple of recent experiences. If others out there can come up with more
good stories I might use them as inspiration for a new song I've been
thinking about writing - the "Seven Round Blues". Might feature the top
seven ways to miss a max.
A few years ago Mike McKeever and I both maxed out in F1A at the April
NorCal champs. We decided to settle the matter with a 7am flyoff the next
morning. With no others available to help we decided to launch and time
ourselves. Since I practice self launching all the time I volunteered to
launch Mike first then launch my own model. Unfortunately the tall grass
complicated things. After launching Mike my first self launch failed
getting caught in the high weeds. On my second attempt I successfully
pulled my glider out of the launcher and into the air but while furiously
running and pulling in line I inadvertently knocked the glasses off my
face. I'm near-sighted so without my glasses all I can see is a blob at
the end of my towline and a few attempts at finding my glasses in the weeds
while towing prove to be fruitless. Since I'm on my second attempt I have
no choice but to launch the model. I manage to circle tow the blob without
much sense of which direction it is pointing or what it is doing but when I
accelerate the model my timing and position is off resulting in poor height
and a lousy transition giving the victory to Mike. So after over 40 years
of flying glider I found a new way to lose.
Another fun one happened at a Scat Annual a couple years ago. It was a wet
rainy weekend but we got the rounds in between showers. On one round
conditions seemed ok but just as the glider came out of the hands of my
launcher a gust of wind hit the model. When I planted my foot to reverse
direction and run towards the model my foot completely slipped on the wet
grass and I fell flat on my face. I looked up just in time to see that the
model had unlatched and was diving straight towards earth. A quick push of
the RDT button interrupted the near crash about 15 feet high and saved the
model but the rest of the contest did not go well. Another new way for
things to go wrong. Never had that happen before in all my years of flying.
So there's a couple examples. I'm sure there are many more good stories
out there and maybe sharing them during these challenging days of social
isolation will lighten our moods.
-Ken
More thoughts on the International Schedule
From: John Carter via FB
Hi just been informed by our UK body the BMFA that in the absence of any direction from the FAI ,the BMFA has pulled all UK teams from all model flying champions in 2020
So in the unlikely event that the 2020 Free Flights champs are still on the Britsh team will not be represented.
Being a team member the action taken by our national body is the right action to take
As this safeguards our sportsmen .
I am very disappointed but fully respect and endorse our national bodies decision .
To this fact I believe other European nations should follow suit and have our sport in line with other international events for many other sporting activities the championships must be cancelled or rescheduled for some time in 2021 moving 2021 world champs in
F1 classes to 2022