Brant:
The longest flight at the SoCal SciOly state finals in 06 was a
monoplane tha flew 2:59 in a gym with a 25 foot ceiling (Tesoro High
School in Orange County). I coached that team and it lost the gold
medal when the ribbon dropped off the motor stick and wrapped around
the leading edge of the stab and wouldn't come off during the
flight, forfeiting the 15 second bonus. The ribbon flapped in a C-
shaped configuration, adding drag to the flight, reducing time
aloft.
The gold medal winner at Tesoro was a biplane that flew 2:52 in the
air plus the ribbon drop for a total of 3:07. There were horrible
down drafts in the middle of the gym from two open eight foot square
air shafts leading to the roof. The ceiling was full of flourescent
light boxes, and the gym was narrow, just barely wider than a
basketball court. Two raised basket ball backboard frames, one at
each end, projected dadangerously into any flight path chosen to
avoid the air shafts.
Thank goodness the ribbon drop is gone, although my team did come up
with two fixes to ensure a proper ribbon drop for the next year.
Received on Mon Oct 16 2006 - 22:01:06 CEST
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:44 CET