Kevin
Wickart's 14AL-2003 Launch Report
Here are some of the things I noticed over the weekend.
Contest event reports are the view of one Team competitor, and do not reflect
the opinions of any other persons or the Internet in general.
GENERAL: The weather was fabulous all weekend, and the range ran very smoothly.
OPEN SPOT LANDING: Always a hotly-contested event. During the Biohazard team's
flight a freak gust of wind canceled our OSL expert's careful planning. We ended
up second to the Thrust Junkies and their hard-to-beat (and attractively-named)
"Fart Blossom" saucer.
DRAG RACE: This red-haired stepchild of NAR competition has an unusual point
structure. Two models are ignited simultaneously. One point is awarded to the
model that gets off the pad first, one to the model that achieves the lowest
altitude, and one to the model that hits the ground last. The winner of each
heat is the model that scores the most points.
For an event with a weighting factor of only 2, this event generated a whole lot
of excitement and confrontation--one competitor was seen actively taunting the
members of the opposing team, pointing and...umm, never mind.
Anyway, Team Division was the least exciting since there was only one heat
needed to settle the matter for the two teams. I used an augmenter tube to help
kick my fierce-looking "Mongoose" model into the air well ahead of the Thrust
Junkies' Fat Boy. I wasn't sure that the Mongoose would reach a lower altitude
than the Fat Boy, but it did--which is fortunate, because the huge parachute I
packed into it failed to open and it hit the ground first. But we had two points
to the TJ's one, and thus some really lame bragging rights that we'll be using
for decades to come.
One other flight of note came during C Division flyoffs, when Fred--in a rare
foray into competition--nailed all three points to win the event.
Overall, Drag Race came off to be a whole lot more fun than people give it
credit for.
A HELICOPTER DURATION--Pavel was trying out a new rotor hub design and some new
rotors. On our first flight the model flew a little squirrelly but got decent
rotation, though some heavy oscillation ate up a lot of altitude for a mediocre
first flight. But the second flight, made with a lighter rotor section, boosted
and spun better for a very good flight to capture first place.
B PARACHUTE DURATION (multi-round)--Overall, nobody achieved a maximum time in
this event, and Mary Wolf was the only competitor (as far as I could tell) to
get full parachute opening on all three flights. Thermal activity was limited to
ground-level warm air on Saturday, but was better on Sunday.
Biohazard made all of our flights on Saturday, which was probably a tactical
error. Our weapon of choice was one of my clean-lined homemade composite
boosters with an assortment of parachutes made by Thomas "Spiderman"
Hanzlik-Pinkas. We had one "plastic wad" recovery and two relatively mediocre
flights with 19" and 24" parachutes, respectively. Thrust Junkies made all of
their flights on Sunday. After one fair flight they also suffered a plastic wad.
But since our plastic wad outperformed theirs, they needed a three-minute final
flight to beat us. And with the thermals available, they might very well have
done it. But Murphy's Law and the humidity conspired against them, fusing the
parachute closed for a second plastic wad.
C SUPER-ROC ALTITUDE--Though this event is usually an aerial ballet, there were
very few crimps and loops to be seen. Most of the competitors flew
maximum-length models, taking advantage of the good weather.
I left this event, as I usually do, in Pavel's capable hands. Our maximum-length
model managed to reach higher than the Thrust Junkies' maximum-length model, to
take first place.
Probably the most tragic flights were Mike Vande Bunt's. Mike made the strategic
decision to fly something relatively safe and low, counting on the usually high
percentage of disqualified models to leave him in one of the top spots. It's a
valid strategy that has worked for many competitors. Unfortunately, the C11
motors were unable to lift Mike's Mean Machine (or was that "Mach Meanie"?) very
high, and he couldn't get a closed track.
PLASTIC MODEL CONVERSION: This granddaddy of all demolition derby events failed
to produce anything really spectacular. I have a bit more information on this
event than the others, since I was one of the C Division judges.
Combined A/B Divisions had Mary Wolf's "Battlestar Galactica" Viper, Sarah
Wolf's SCUD Missile, and Zak Stehlik's Micro-Maxx jet in contention. During
flights, Zak's model failed to fly in a stable manner and he DQ-ed out of the
event. Sarah's SCUD flew very well. Mary's Viper kicked the motor on its first
flight, but held onto it on its second flight to (if I remember right) win the
event.
C Division had four entries: Dan Wolf's Corporal missile, Mark Stehlik's
Micro-Maxx X-15, Mike Vande Bunt's Juno-1, and Eugene Kromray's Pan Am Clipper
from "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Mike and Dan had tried very hard to overcome several shortcomings in their
models, but the flaws were very noticeable. This, combined with the relative
simplicity of their models, landed them third and fourth after static. Mark's
X-15 was a neat-looking little model, and he'd done a fairly good job on it. But
by replacing the kit's vertical tails with identical balsa wedges, he scuttled
the model's asymmetry and wound up in second. Gene's Pan Am Clipper was a
slightly less-impressive-looking model, but he'd done quite a lot more work to
convert it for flight. It was difficult to tell where the seams were in between
plastic parts, and all of the major
color areas were carefully-masked painted section.
C Division ultimately came down to the flights. Mike's Juno had a bit of a
wobbly boost, but made a good flight that threatened to drift away. The model's
only damage was a spot where the ejection charge escaped the internal tube and
melted through the side of the plastic airframe. Dan's Corporal flew very
nicely, taking only a small ding to the nose tip when it hit a small rock. It
was enough, though, to move Dan ahead of Mike in the standings. Mark's X-15 flew
nice and stable, but the recovery system failed to deploy and the model
lawn-darted for a safety DQ. On the second flight, the shock line snapped for a
separation DQ. Gene's Clipper boosted fast and high on first a D12-3 then a
C11-3, but kicked the motor on both flights to DQ him out of the event, leaving
Dan and Mike in first and second places.
Team Division was a real nail-biter. Biohazard Team's X-15 (built by yours
truly) scored higher on Craftsmanship than the Thrust Junkies' Chinese jet
fighter, but the TJ's model scored higher on Difficulty to put them in first
place by fifteen points. The X-15 had no mission, while the TJ's jet was to fly
on two C6 motors and partially duplicate the historic crash with an American
plane by flying when a previously-launched glider was in the air. There was,
however, some concern as to whether the jet would be stable in flight.
The X-15 flew quite well, with only a bit of tip-off wobble and slight roll,
putting it in first place, at least temporarily, by 75 points. All
the Thrust Junkies needed was a nice flight from their jet, and they got it. The
jet proved to be marvelously stable, boosting to a beautiful overall
flight--except that the parachute did not eject and the model kicked both
motors. They re-prepped the model, reconfigured the parachute, and readied for a
second flight. Once again they got a great boost, but this time the parachute
deployed. Unfortunately, both motors kicked again to DQ them from the event.
At the end, the Thrust Junkies took second to Biohazard in all but one
event--but they made us work very hard for every victory. The biggest factor was
not bad design or strategy, but bad luck.
The really important thing is that WOOSH earned a ton of points--higher than our
current average per Regional--to put us very likely in a fairly comfortable
first place going into NARAM for the second year in a row. This, as Dan so aptly
put it, paints a big target on our backs for the other Sections to shoot at.
It'll all come down to the number of competitors we take to NARAM and some fancy
flyin'.
--Kevin--