Great Report, Guys - Thanks
LeRoy Cordes
AMA 16974
Chicago, IL
In God We Trust
On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:02:29 -0000 "Brett" <08bdsanb_at_alma.edu> writes:
> 2008 USA Team Manager Report
>
> Most of the US Team got a great opportunity to preview the World
> Champs site by flying in the International Open contest. In the
> days
> prior to the world champs the US team and supporters became
> intimately
> aware of the hazards of the flying site in Belgrade. John Kagan
> learned early the hazards of the high temperatures on the wound
> rubber
> bands when he lost a motor stick due to an exploded motor. And,
> from
> the very first day, the team realized that it was pointless being
> at
> the site earlier than about 1:00 pm. Numerous hours of struggling
> against the low level drift and broken motors made several of team
> members sleep late on the next practice day. Brett Sanborn should
> have been wiser after seeing a Slovakian plane sucked out one of
> the
> ceiling vents during the Open contest. A few days later it
> happened
> to him. The vents quickly became one of the most avoided things on
> the ceiling. Before the contest several people conjectured that
> the
> disk would be quite friendly and planes would bounce around and
> come
> down. This was not the case. Typically,when a plane would get
> about
> 2-3 feet from the ceiling, it would be sucked toward the roof and
> begin quickly skating across.
>
> Round 1 Highlights:
>
> Jim Richmond showed promise early in the contest with a no touch
> fight
> of 34:58. Jim was the first person of the contest to break the
> current world record. Kagan also had a very promising initial
> flight.
> His plane flew up into the danger-zone underneath one of the
> ceiling
> vents and stalled out. His flight landed dead stick at 34:27; he
> figured the large stall might have cost him a minute or so due to
> lost
> height and increased prop RPM that burnt off the winds too early.
> Doug Schaefer, on the other hand, worked on attaining the lowest
> time
> of the contest after his first round try. Due to the ground level
> turbulence, Doug's plane stalled out and came down at 1:12. It's
> flights like these which really test a flier's resolve. It's tough
> not to get psyched out.
>
> The US juniors also had a promising first round showing. Tim
> Chang's
> plane was trimmed to peak out at exactly the maximum height of the
> building based on half motors. This is another trap that a lot of
> people fall into—making the half motors go exactly high enough, but
> then do not account for the bonus torque in a full motor and end up
> on
> the ceiling. Luckily though after his plane skated across the disk
> and hit the girders on the opposite side, Tim was able to catch the
> plane after a few tries and pull it back to the middle of the floor.
>
> His flight landed at about 27 minutes. Justin Young also had an
> interesting first round that involved steering. Justin was on the
> ceiling and initially reluctant to steer, but a full circle later
> the
> plane bumped a girder and was off course—a steer was essential to
> save
> the flight. Justin caught the plane and released it, but it still
> needed some repositioning. While trying to move in with the
> balloon,
> Justin missed and hit the middle of the fuselage. Rob Romash was
> watching from a distance said that the tailboom made a 90 degree
> angle
> to the rest of the plane. It was miraculous that the plane stayed
> in
> the air! At the time the tailboom broke Justin's plane had stopped
> climbing, and afterwards the circled widened, probably to his
> advantage. His flight landed at 33:27—a spectacular time for
> anyone.
> Things were really looking up for this world champion.
>
> Though the senior team had a good round, they couldn't relax yet
> since
> Lutz Schramm did a 36:18 to finish the round—everyone was on their
> toes.
>
> Round 2 Highlights:
>
> Jim and Tim both lost second round flights; steering problems lead
> to
> damaged wings. Kagan had another good dead stick time of 34:15.
> Now
> that John had two good times in for the team score he felt free to
> "go
> for it" on the rest of his flights. Defending world champion Larry
> Cailliau showed new promise after a rough first round. His second
> round flight was a safe, no touch 34:06. Doug also improved his
> 1:12
> time with a 32:18. Justin had another good flight 32:50— though
> this
> one lacked the steering escapades which lead to his high time.
>
> The heat was turned up again, this time by Ivan Tregar with a
> seemingly ridiculous time of 36:23.
>
>
> Round 3 Highlights:
>
> Tim had a few stalling problems at launch but after a second toss
> the
> plane took off. Unfortunately, though, enough torque burned off
> during the first stall to effect the overall flight. Tim's plane
> only
> got to about 65' instead of 85-90 and landed with 30:19. By this
> time
> Tim's only competition was his own teammate Justin. Justin decided
> to
> try a different plane. The VP on this one was setup a bit
> differently. The flight profile was such that the plane would
> climb
> to half altitude then a second climb would take the plane to the
> ceiling after the prop closed. This turned out to be less
> efficient
> since the plane landed at around 28 minutes.
>
> Doug's third round flight did not reach the height that he wanted,
> but
> the 31:44 was a good backup time to his higher 32 minute flight.
> Larry Cailliau had a motor explode early in his third round flight.
>
> Luckily the model was not damaged badly. John Kagan had an early
> mid
> air during his flight—just a brush but it put his mind at ease in
> case
> the flight landed short of the mark. Three stalls increased his
> prop
> RPM enough to cause him to dead stick again. John decided to keep
> his
> mid air time, though - a wise choice since it was 35:38.
>
> Round 4 Highlights:
>
> Doug Schaefer had a worrisome flight. Not many people can get away
> with spending 12 minutes of flight time bumping the ceiling.
> Luckily
> Doug had plenty of winds which provided a very good time—34:24.
> Doug's plane reached the roof at 8 minutes and finally came off the
> ceiling at 20 minutes. The majority of people who tried a flight
> profile like that—albeit unintentionally—ended up plummeting to the
> ground, hanging up, or getting sucked out a ceiling vent. Kagan
> had
> rough round due to heavy top level drift. Forced to steer against
> the
> ceiling early in flight, John had a tough time keeping the model
> horizontal because of the highly torque motor. Several right hand
> circles later, a dizzy Kagan released the model. Unfortunately
> John
> got turned around and the model was not positioned where he wanted
> it.
> He steered again, but while trying to release the model he pulled
> down too hard and I saw both wing tips flare up into a V shape. I
> let
> out a loud groan thinking a wing spar had broken. Kagan
> though—ever
> on his game—raised the balloon a few inches and the wing popped
> back
> into shape. After he released it everyone was amazed to see it
> still
> in the air. This seems to be a clear indication of the superiority
> of
> non-boron wing spars. John's flight ended up dead sticking again
> probably due to the increased RPM at the ceiling, but still had
> good
> time on the watch –35:15. Cailliau was forced to steer near the
> ceiling on his flight as well. Like the Kibbie dome, models are
> difficult to see near the white ceiling disk. Unknowingly, Larry
> moved the line into the inboard wing tip and put a large slash in
> the
> film and broke the tip. This greatly increased the drag on the
> airplane and it landed at 29:33; there is no way of knowing how
> much
> time the plane would have done without the damage. Justin had
> another
> good flight of 32:14, but the time was not good enough to improve
> his
> backup time. Justin showed fine form successfully steering his
> model
> just a few feet beneath the roof. Tim Chang and Jim Richmond had
> difficult rounds again. Tim stalled out twice, using both attempts.
>
> Jim had problems at the ceiling and the flight ended early.
>
> Round 5 Highlights:
>
> Rounds five and six were bound to be the most difficult due their
> placement in the schedule. Since the rounds started at 10:30 AM
> instead of the afternoon it was the general strategy of the US
> team
> to fly as late as possible to get in the best air of the day.
>
> By the end of the second day the US team was in second place. It
> was
> up to Jim to put in a flight of at least 23 minutes – child's play.
>
> However, throughout the earlier rounds when Jim would attempt to
> steer
> he would lose the flight due to difficulty in seeing the plane and
> balloon. The US Team requested that Jim be allowed a proxy
> steerer,
> and thanks to decisive action by the FAI Jury, the request was
> granted. Although he was nervous, John did a fine job negotiating
> Jim's model around the building hazards and other models on both
> 5th
> and 6th round flights. Jim pulled off an excellent flight of 33:10
> to
> secure team gold for the United States. Tim Chang worked out his
> stick-bow and launch problems. A good solid launch lead to a safe,
> no
> touch flight of 30:40.
>
> John went first in the 5th round and found out the hard way not to
> wind and launch in direct sunlight. After breaking around five
> motors
> John launched his plane. He later drifted to the side and needed
> to
> steer. A few minutes later in the flight Kagan was forced to steer
> again. Just as John parked the balloon to let the model run it,
> the
> rubber motor exploded violently sending the plane into a glide.
> The
> flight terminated when the middle rib of John's wing floated to the
> floor. After the plane landed, John listed off about 8 things that
> had broken or popped loose due to the motor. For most people this
> would be a devastating occurrence that would ruin their day. But
> before lunch, Kagan reported that he had fixed all the problems and
> planned to fly the same plane in the last round. Remarkable.
>
> Round 6 Highlights:
>
> Since the US tried to launch as late as possible in the rounds the
> logistics of round six were tough.
>
> Because John was Jim's proxy steerer John was busy with Jim's plane
> until very late in the flight. Jim's prop folded too late to bring
> down the rest of the competition. The flight was still quite long
> for
> how late the prop folded—32:42. Since John was in a position to
> potentially move up in the final rankings he flew last. By the
> time
> Jim's plane landed, John had only 20 minutes to process, wind, and
> launch his plane—not that any one of these tasks is particularly
> time
> consuming, but the travel time adds up. Though John's plane got up
> high enough to do the time, it landed with turns and only 34:01 on
> the
> clock. This was probably due to all the parts that broke from the
> exploded motor and possibly the air in the building—people began
> going
> in and out which probably caused more low level drift.
>
> After a few days full of launch problems, Tim finally got a fully
> torqued flight up. Though his plane had a nice slow climb it
> quickly
> got sucked up against the disk. Tim's plane skated across in just
> one
> or two circles. Usually when planes went across the disk and into
> girder territory they bumped a few times. Tim was quite unlucky;
> after just one pass under the girders the plane hung up on a
> low-hanging wire.
>
> Thank you to:-
>
> Ray Harlan – Ray's balloons were a godsend for this contest. All
> members of the US team used his balloons. One major advantage was
> that the Mylar was a little tougher and held up better against the
> rough concrete ceiling and girders than a rubber balloon would have
> been. By watching our European counterparts we learned that Mylar
> balloons must be handled with care. Plus, Mylar balloons seemed to
> be
> "in-style;" everyone had them.
>
> Also thank you to Phil Sullivan and the NFFS, Tim Goldstein, and
> the
> Oakland Cloud Dusters for their generous contributions to the team.
>
>
> The event organizers did a fine job running the contest. Though
> the
> US team was concerned after the perils of the Open International
> contest, the championships was truly a world class event.
>
> US Senior Team manager Rob Romash also made a major contribution to
> the team. Realizing the need for at-hand scissors, Zap CA glue,
> Zip
> Kicker, and tweezers, Romash created a device he called "the caddy."
>
> Brown leather epoxied to styrene outfitted with a belt clip served
> as
> a holster for the essentials of launching an F1D. The items in the
> caddy were not only used to aid the US fliers; one Czech Junior had
> a
> motor break and scissors were needed to snip the motor. Quick on
> the
> draw, Brett Sanborn rushed over and snipped the motor. After that,
> the caddy was dubbed "the common denominator of F1D."
>
> - Brett Sanborn and Rob Romash,
> with severe editing by John Kagan
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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>
LeRoy Cordes
AMA 16974
Chicago, IL
In God We Trust
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Received on Fri Sep 19 2008 - 08:24:30 CEST