Re: No touch LPP flying in Cat I

From: John Kagan <john_kagan_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:18:30 -0000

Jim Clem, who certainly loved to "push the envelope" rather than "follow the perceived intent", came up with an LPP prop that used two parallel carbon strips at the hub. It would flare until the strips made contact and then stop. I believe it was ruled a gadget, illegal for LPP, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Pushing no touch LPP times in Cat I will require a prop with a lot of flare. Controlling it will be tricky. You need it to flare enough to reduce the climb, but change to low pitch in time to keep it off the floor. That's hard enough to do with hinges, springs, and set screws!

--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Don DeLoach" <ddeloach@...> wrote:
>
> I set that Senior record back in 1990. It was at the Bedford Boys Ranch in
> Bedford, Texas, a smooth-tiled site just under the 8 meter maximum. It was
> the home of many records in the 1980s and 1990s.I flew there about once a
> month in those days, learning at the feet of my mentors Jim Clem, Jesse
> Shepherd (Sr and Jr.), and Stan Chilton.
>
> The night I set the record Jim also set the Open (at the time) LPP record,
> of one second less! 9:55. And remember: this was with FAI black rubber. Our
> records stood side by side for about a year IIRC until Jim upped it a little
> bit. Then around 1996 Warren Williams set the current Open record in what I
> understand was a ridiculously lucky flight above the girders at a much
> higher site (40 feet I think) with Tan II in southern California. It was a
> *legal* Category 1 site because of the nebulous "15-meter circle" rule.
>
> Anyway, based on my long experience with Cat. 1 ceiling banging I think it'd
> be very difficult to do more than 8-9 minutes no-touch, even with modern
> rubber that is 15-20% better than what we had back in 1990.
>
> Don D.
Received on Fri Jun 03 2011 - 21:18:38 CEST