April 21st
and 22nd, 2001 Launch Report
MWRC Contest at Bong – Hosted by WOOSH
Dan Wolf:
MWRC 2000 was held over the weekend (April 21-22). The weather wasn't the greatest as everyone knows. Kudos to everyone who came out and flew the meet under some difficult and challenging circumstances. We had 13 contestants, 2 in A division, 10 in C and 1 Team entry. So, Team (Chedar-1) had to fly against C division. We also had a number of members who did not enter, but still came out to support the club, assist in range set up and tear down, timing, and other duties. Thanks everyone. It's great to see such a good turnout of club members on such a weather poor weekend pull together and make an event like this work. Visitors to the meet (both competitors and non-competitors) came away very impressed. Special thanks to Fran Miller for serving as check-in/RSO for the majority of the weekend and doing a great job. Thanks also to everyone else who assisted including Dave, Mark, Mike, Dean, Fred, Kevin, Brian, Scott, Kurt, Brent and anyone else I may have forgotten! As an added treat, we had some cub scouts show up on Saturday and Brian, Scott, and Fred kept busy assisting them with their Alpha IIIs. Countless flights were made with the venerable models (we can't go yet, we still have engines left).
For the contest, Open Spot proved a challenge in the brisk winds. Dave Lyle took first with his Skywinder, which just barely managed to deploy the blades before touching down a mere two meters from the upwind spot. Dan Wolf took second flying a Hi-Jax on an A8-3 with nose blow recovery. Those who used streamers or chutes landed much farther away. Kevin Wickart and Paul Smith took 3rd and 4th in C/T with 32 and 39 meters respectively. Everyone else was "far" (greater than 50 meters) or DQ’ed for separation. In A division, Sarah Wolf took first flying a Firestreak on an A8-3 with streamer recovery for 24 meters while her sister Mary barely avoided the being "far" with 48 meters.
In Random Duration, the target time was 35 seconds. Kevin Wickart flew an original Astron Drifter with a long streamer on a B6-4 to a perfect 35 seconds. Paul Smith had to settle for 2nd, with an excellent 32-second flight. First time competitor Brent Lillesand grabbed 3rd with a 41 second effort with Mike Vande Bunt close behind in 4th at 26 seconds. In A division, Mary and Sarah had a "ladies" agreement to only use A8-3 engines in the event due to the wind. Mary's Custom Rockets Redliner with crepe paper streamer barely edged out Sarah's Firestreak 12 seconds to 11 seconds.
In flex-wing, Chedar-1 took first, mainly because they were the only ones to put up two qualified flights. It was also due to the many "cut and try" and practice-flying sessions they did before the meet before they finally got their flexies working. Paul Smith only made one flight, but it was good enough for 2nd place. Dan Wolf managed 3rd after his first flight DQ’ed for no glide as it came in straight. On the second flight, Dan pulled out a flexie that had worked in the past, but had a tendency to stall. It did so again, but the glider still managed to do 45 seconds. In A, Sarah Wolf's glider started to fly straight down, just like her Dad's, but it pulled up a couple of times into a glide long enough for the RSO to qualify the flight of 24 seconds. Mary Wolf had to settle for "chump change" when her flexie, a veteran of NARAM 41, glided beautifully in a nice circle, even pointing dead into the wind at one point for several seconds. It was still as high as it was when it ejected when last seen in the sky over the swamp southwest of the park.
Future/Fiction scale had a nice assortment of models. Kevin Wickart took first with a beautiful model of the "Fafnir", a model from G. Harry Stine's science-fiction writing. However, he had to work to do it. On the first flight, a wind gust as the model cleared the rod caused it to weathercock into cruise missile mode and it wasn't able to pull up prior to ejection. Kevin managed to put the pieces back together and the second flight flew straight and true to give Kevin a well deserved first. Dan Wolf took second flying the old Estes Star Wars X-wing fighter on a C6-3. CHEDAR-1 took 3rd flying a Goddard concept rocket, the V-2ish looking Model B. Mike Vande Bunt's Fried from the black and white sci-fi movie "Frau in Mond" (fly to the moon) was one of the most interesting entries. Mike flew it on an F62 Darkstar and it boosted well initially, but started to fall back to earth after burnout, crashing into the runway and totally destroying one of the fin units. A sad ending to a neat model that the club has been able to see as Mike has been bringing it to club meetings for show and tell as his work on it progressed. Mike vows to repair it and try to fly it again.
The final event was to have been D Dual Eggloft Altitude. The altitude flying started at 3:30 PM Sunday and after first a D21 powered egglofter and then even a D12 powered draggy model (Estes Scrambler II variant) penetrated the clouds, CD Dan Wolf cancelled the flying. The plan is to fly this final event on May 19th at 14AL-2001, pending approval from the contest board. I will send the contest results to Scott and he can post them on the WOOSH website. However, so far, the total points look like this:
A Division
1 Wolf, Sarah 1410
2 Wolf, Mary 783
C & T Division
1 Wickart, Kevin 1050
2 CHEDAR-1 762
3 Wolf, Dan 666
4 Smith, Paul 510
5 Elliott, Adam 162
6 Lyle, Dave 150
7 Lillesand, Brent 132
8 Vande Bunt, Mike 72
9 Hansen, Scott 12
-- Miller, Fran 0
-- Schachner, Kurt 0
Sections
1 WOOSH 5403
2 NIRA 117 162
3
Pavel Pinkas:
To answer (at least
partially) Al's question: MWRC 2000 happened but not completely. Saturday was "windy day", Sunday
"rainy one". The inclement
weather soon became the "Enemy No.
1". My impression was that
this contest was not "contestants against other contestants" but
"all contestants against weather".
Wind speed could be anywhere from 20 to 45 mph.
We've got enough contestants to declare the meet "regional" but
T division had to merge with C division (one team only). In addition, I think that A-division was
only Mary and Sarah Wolf.
Open spot landing and random duration were flown on Saturday. I do not remember the results, but I'm sure
Dan will post them soon. Chedar-1
managed to miss the 50-meter circle, thus finishing Sunday with points. And yes, I heard the comments about descend
speed of our spot Lander and we are withdrawing it and will fly something else
at 14AL.
Random duration target time was 35 second and the event was very
competitive. Paul Smith took a lead with
32 seconds and held it until very late afternoon when Kevin Wickart hit 35
seconds exactomundo. Brent Lillesand did
also very well (40s +-). Chedar-1 DQ’ed
for separation and while the main culprit was plastic Estes nosecone, using
lightweight competition chute (packed for immediate opening) and Kevlar shock
cord without the elastic was not exactly the smartest move for this kind of
weather.
We spent the rest of Saturday gossiping everybody who did not come to
contest or left earlier :-) Wind did not die by
Weather on Sunday was much better.
Wind was just 10--20mph (said the man on radio), freezing rain. Paul Smith again took a lead in Flimpsy
Wimpsy event with single 50s flight but he did not placed his second flight,
which cost him a blue ribbon. Chedar-1
placed two qualified flights, 40 and 23 seconds and took 1st, Dan Wolf got
third with 46 seconds and DQ. However,
the absolutely best "garbage bag on sticks" was flown by Mary
Wolf. Timers lost her glider at
100s. I was "deep in field"
and I was following Mary's glider to the shore of nearby swamp. It apparently picked up some good air (or
swamp gas?) at the end and when last seen, it was still going up.
FF Scale was fun (Mike may have different opinion though). Kevin had to fly his magnificent Fafnir plane
twice, but he qualified on second flight and got first in the event. Dan took second with his X-wing and Chedar-1
finished 3rd with their Model-B (should they read the rules of this event
before they've turned the model in, they could do better (said the judge Fran
Miller)). Mary Wolf flew Death Star (and
it blew up nicely) while Sarah flew Darth Vader Tie Fighter (it even made the
evasive maneuver at the coast phase, but judge did not give any mission point
for this unannounced embellishment).
Adam Elliot took 4th place at C+T division with his A23.
So far so good, we've been beating the unfortunate weather. Unfortunately, D-ELA event had to be
postponed again. We tried one flight on
D12-3 engine and it disappeared in quickly descending fog, so there was no
point trying further. The contest
"jackpot" is still waiting for happy winner (the person who will send
his/her eggs highest).
Dan did a wonderful job as CD, making good decisions, keeping us informed
and hopeful. Fran did lots of work at
RSO/LCO post and the whole contest was pretty smooth. But next time, somebody please turn off the
wind and rain before we start flying
Final Results:
D Dual Egg Lofting Altitude
Place Contestant NAR Section Flight 1 Flight 2 Flight 3 Total NAR Points
A Division
1 Wolf, Mary 46379 558 EGG 146 146 870
-- Wolf, Sarah 53453 558 EGG EGG 0 0
C & T Division
1 CHEDAR-1 T-087 558 254 254 870
2 Elliott, Adam 62456 117 207 EGG 207 522
3 Smith, Paul 74760 558 EGG 180 180 348
4 Wolf, Dan 24516 558 UNS 123 123 174
5 Wickart, Kevin 33110 558 99 99 87
MWRC 2000 Meet Champions
Place Contestant NAR Number Section Total Points
A Division
1 Wolf, Mary 46379 558 1653
2 Wolf, Sarah 53453 558 1410
C & T Division
1 CHEDAR-1 T-087 558 1632
2 Wickart, Kevin 33110 558 1137
3 Smith, Paul 74760 558 858
4 Wolf, Dan 24516 558 840
5 Elliott, Adam 62456 117 684
6 Lyle, Dave 69845 558 150
7 Lillesand, Brent 79225 132
8 Vande Bunt, Mike 65174 558 72
9 Hansen, Scott 73268 12
-- Miller, Fran 45011 0
-- Schachner, Kurt 70030 0
SECTIONS
1 WOOSH 558 7752
2 NIRA 117 684
3