reports and results
Reports & results

reports and results

Results Combined Winch and Electric Launch Open Thermal Varms Feb 24


A lovely, light wind, sunny day greeted us at VARMS for the Feb RCGA Combined Open Thermal with Electric competition. A huge thanks to VARMS for hosting us for the day and there were 3 local VARMS members who joined in the fun and quite a few who enjoyed watching from the sidelines.
We had 2 pilots fly winch and 8 fly electric and the issue for the winch launch pilots was the variable wind direction and the sun in the direction of the winchlines.
Jim won the day with superior thermalling using his relatively heavy winch launch Perfection. The bonus was if he missed the lift he could move fast to find the next patch of lift. Well flown Jimmy!
Alan, Bob and David finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th respectively and all had a full set of times and only missed higher places due to their landings.
Marcus finished 4th and was on fire early scoring 5 x 1000 scores and was proving that you can land an electric like a winch launch glider with and average landing of 99 points and he even threw in a perfect flight of 10:00 and 100. His undoing was being too aggressive in the last round when the lift had died and had to come in for a relaunch for an 8:30 flight.
Colin flew his beautiful looking own design model to great effect and had 5 great flights out of 6.
Zdnek, Bruce and Gary all had a some really nice flights and thoroughly enjoyed the day. Bruce had an out landing in the last round and we thought the worst, but luckily found the model sitting perfectly on a grassy knoll.
Gerry unfortunately had a day to forget with some damaged models, but he will be back.
Thanks again to VARMS for the fantastic hospitaliy, it was very much appreciated by all.
Cheers,
Marcus

Results Armidale Sailplane expo Combined Electric and Winch Open Thermal 2019

The hot, sunny and light conditions continued after the f5j, for this event.
Most of the f5j fliers stayed on, but for some, the heat after 2 days was enough and went home early.
Out of the 25 that flew, there were only about 8 flyers that decided to winch,
a far cry from the previous years 28 when it was winch only.
First day and there was a prevailing light breeze from the west, with basically big lift and occasionally big sink.
Setup into wind, I decided to winch for the open, and flew my 1850g  Perfection so I could get good launch height.
The motor gliders had motor cut outs at 200m, but could fly quite a bit lighter than me. I was out launching most of the electrics,
but some were making the most of the fact you could zoom past 200m (I was told of one motor glider log of 236m)
so I was probably matching them with the winch. I don’t think a lot of the other winch launchers
were launching as well as me or the motor gliders, so they suffered somewhat.
We managed 6 rounds in quite hot conditions making for an exhausting first day.
Day 2 and conditions started even lighter, and with hesitation on which way to point the winches, took a while to get started.
Looking at the forecast and at the request of the CD, we turned the flight line around which seemed correct initially,
with a light breeze into wind at the time. Of course once we set up the wind swung around, and was downwind for the rest of the day.
I heard a comment that I was being handicapped, since I was leading from the previous day. I took this as a challenge.
The rest of the guys winching weren’t happy launching downwind against motor gliders which would easily do 200 metres plus.
Two competitors switched to motor gliders, and the rest had had enough, packed up, and went home.
This left me as the sole pilot winching, and launching downwind, in a sea of motor gliders, at least I wouldn't have any line crosses.
I flew my super light Perfection at 1700g, but even trying to swing around, somewhat into wind on launch,
it was a struggle to get anywhere near the motor gliders on launch height.
However the conditions were so light and thermally, finding lift wasn’t very hard,
I would’ve struggled, I think, if it was hang time conditions.
Some said I had an advantage with being able to nose into the landing spot, (ie no motor to damage) which was maybe true,
however I was the only pilot to achieve all my flight times, so at the end of the day, it was still a thermal competition.
Anyway we managed to get through 3 rounds, before lunch, presentations, and a long trip home.
I heard from the motor glider flyers, a lot of whom hadn’t flown open thermal rules before,
that they found it much less stressful rule-wise, especially since the launches and landings we staggered with the 12 minute working time,
and you could go over your flight time without penalty as opposed to f5j,
and of course, launching to 200 metres, which is normally a last resort in f5j.
A big thanks to Hutton Oddy, for cd-ing, and Kevin Smeaton for score keeping and every one else who helped organise, feed and generally help out
at another great Armidale Sailplane Expo.
The place getters:
1st Jim Houdalakis
2nd Alan Mayhew
3rd David Pratley
This was also round 2 in the National Open Thermal AusTour list of events.
regards
Jim
armidate2019_open_places

Results Armidale Sailplane expo F5J 2019

Armidale sailplane expo 2019 and 4 days of sunny, light wind, and hot conditions ( in the 30’s).
Following is David Leitch’s f5j summary.
“Armidale F5J is over for another year. Despite expectations for more wind conditions
were basically unchanged from yesterday and the promised thunder
storm didn’t develop beyond a black cloud. We flew 6 rounds today for 12 in total
Jim Houdalakis won from Chris Graham and Col Woodward.
Lowest successful launch was David Vels who accidentally switched off at 17 metres
and then flew beautifully to follow a thermal back. Ross Ginder managed a 35 metre start height with confidence.
This was a contest where mistakes killed you.
Jim didn’t start under 100 metres as far as I recall on any flight and made time on all but one occasion.
Several other pilots eg Alan Mayhew, Ross Ginder, Marcus Stent, David Pratley even Chris Graham to an extent on day 2
would have a series of successful low launches earning 1000 but would occasionally
not get away and end with a zero or very low score.“
The place getters
1st Jim Houdalakis
2nd Chris Graham
3rd Colin Woodward
The Armidale f5j event was the last of 4 rounds in the Australian f5j team selection
for the FAI F5J World Championships in Slovakia in August.
armidate2019_f5j_group
armidate2019_f5j_places

Results F5J 9 Dec 2018 VARMS

F5j at the VARMS High-Street rd field can be a challenge with the field restrictions to the north and east ,

trees and high voltage powerlines to the west and tip to the south,

and with the forecast southerly, i had my trepidations.

Luckily the wind somewhat played ball, and dropped from medium to light  strength, down to variable and almost nothing as the afternoon progressed.

We had 8 starters including a junior Joseph Rochier, which we haven’t seen in a long time, and a few spectators.

I think the best tactic was to head west, upwind and low over the trees, and catch bubbles kicking off at the tree line.

Dave used this tactic over the day to good effect.

I was also impressed by Alan, who painted himself into the north-east corner, which is the most restrictive part of the field, on more than one occasion,

and managing to hang/surf the bubbles coming through to get his time.

I myself started a bit too conservative, with some highish launches, and my landings weren't the best, but didn't end up too far off the winner. 

Not everyone was lucky on the day, with Bob and Col coming together while in the same thermal, late in the afternoon, and Bob's plane out of action for the rest of the day.

 

Final results were:

1st David Pratley

2nd Alan Mayhew

3rd Jim Houdalakis

 

pdf overall_results_f5j_09_12_18.pdf

 

pdf flight_scores_f5j_09_12_18.pdf

 

pdf landing_results_f5j_09_12_18.pdf

 

regards

Jim Houdalakis

Results Combined Winch Electric launch Diggers Rest 11 Nov 2018

Hi all,

this was the second of our combined winch and electric open thermal events.

Weather was pretty much perfect, blue skies, light winds,

and lots of thermals to be found,

and essentially final results came down to landings.

 

The one change we made to the rules was for the timers for the electric launch fliers, started the 10 minute clock when the pilot indicated they had switched their motors off.

This meant timing and scoring was all the same which made things simpler.

We did allow electric flyers to peel away from the winch launch direction during their motor runs.

However in retrospect this appeared to advantage the electric flyers a bit much because

they could travel to a thermal sooner than the winch launch fliers, so they ended up way higher sooner.

 

Only 3 flyers opted to use winches, Gerry, Hugh and myself, the rest used electric launch.

 

The final standings were:

1st Jim Houdalakis (winch)

2nd Alan Mayhew (electric)

3rd Hugh Blackburn (winch)

 

pdf overall_results_combined_thermall_11_11_18.pdf

 

pdf flight_scores_combined_thermall_11_11_18.pdf

 

pdf landing_results_combined_thermall_11_11_18.pdf

 

regards

Jim Houdalakis

Results VMAA F5J Vic State Championships 2018 Diggers Rest

Arrived at the diggers rest field to blue skies light North-Easterly winds, and me hoping we'd finally have a day of low f5j launches and the tactics that accompany them. I was concerned about daylight savings having kicked in that morning and people running late, but 11 starters and several spectators, were ready to go by the time i had arrived.

Unfortunatly Graham had technical issues with the plane he'd been fixing up late the previous night, as did Norm Ripp, so they both dropped out early.

Mak Kroger had once again came along to help out on the day, so i could run 2 heats per round, which also meant for a busy day of eight rounds ahead.

First round and everyone was fairly conservative with low to mid hundreds in metres launch height.
However by round 2 and 3 most were pushing the lower limits with Marcus winning a heat from a 25 metre start height, but was in a close battle with Dave Pratley in the same heat, and in the same thermal, until Dave zigged when he should've zagged and fell out. 

By lunch time there was a big storm front developing to the North and the sky had heavily clouded over, with a 180 degree switch in the wind and now a medium strength wind blowing. So a change of tactics and most ballasted up and went for conservative launches closer to 150 or more metres.

As the afternoon wore on and with luck on our side the storms slipped past with only the odd drop of water here and there, and with the departing storm front the winds abated as well. So as the afternoon wore on, with the sky still cloudy, we encountered soft lift conditions. Occasionally someone would gamble on a lower launch, but it just didn't pay off, so the launches remained conservative, but were slowly getting lower again. Surprisingly I managed to spec out on my last flight, so there was still good air to be found late in the day.  

Congratulations to:

1st Marcus Stent

2nd Jim Houdalakis

3rd David Milward

Thanks to Dave from Dave's Toys for Big Boys for sponsoring first place with a flight battery pack prize.

Thanks to the VMAA for providing the trophies.

And thanks to everyone who helped setup, pack up and enter scores, making my job easier.

 

pdf overall_results_f5j_state_champs_2018.pdf

pdf flight_scores_f5j_state_champs_2018.pdf

 

See you in Wentworth next week,

regards Jim H.

 

Group photo

Competitors

Jim 2nd, Marcus 1st, Dave M 3rd

Jim Houdalakis 2nd, Marcus Stent 1st, David Milward 3rd 

Marcus

Marcus and Stork

Dave P presenting prize to marcus

Dave Pratley presenting prize

max and gary

Max and Gary

Z and Alan

Z and Alan

Dave P and Bob

Dave Pratley and Bob

Hugh and Marcus

Hugh and Marcus

Dave Milward

David Milward

Results Combined winch and electric Open Thermal Diggers Rest Sept 2018

 

Results for first round of open thermal for our season, and our first go at combining electric launch and winch launch gliders, with some work-in-progress rules to try out. I was worried we wouldn't have enough flyers to get a good mix, but we had 11 starters, with 6 on winches and 5 using motorised gliders.
They say melbourne weather is four seasons in one day, well Sunday's event was four seasons in one comp. we setup with blue skies and about 15 kph wind, about an hour in, it got cold and overcast and then started sporadic but brief showers getting more frequent so we called early lunch. Mid afternoon the wind began to abate with the sun was peeking through the clouds again, and some floaty air and soft conditions, and then the lift strengthening as the cloads shrank and day warmed up.
To give you an idea, I flew my perfection ballasted to about 2.2 kg, which was enough to climb, cover sky and get back from down wind, for about the first 2/3 of the day, then I flew it with the ballast out, and then finished with my light-strong perfection (1850g)
Thanks again to Max K for hanging around all day to time, which meant we could run 2 heats per round, which sped things up, and Dave Hobby paid a visit in the morning and is keen to join us, once he puts his new planes together.
Unfortunately Marcus had to leave early, so he missed the last round with a zero, and no dropped scores, was a big dent to his score.
It was good to see Zdnek at an open class comp with his homebuilt electric, managing to get some good flights in.
As for the electric launch rules, things went reasonably smoothly, I added, to the rules we came up with at the rcga agm, a rule regarding relaunches for electrics have to be from the flight line. Grouped the electric launch fliyers to one end of the flight line to avoid entanglements with winches, and with launches forward and parallel to the winch lanes while motors were running. Electric flyers had height limiters set to 200 metres and a 30 second motor run limit.
Timing was the main issue people had different views on. We had decided on the electric launch flyers timing 10:30, and subtracting 30 seconds from final time, so we ran with that, a process which several flyers thought could be improved upon, and I have some ideas on that.

 

Final placings:

1st HOUDALAKIS, Jim (winch launch) 7970.0

2 HASKELL, Daniel (winch launch) 7534.2

3 BLACKBURN, Hugh (winch launch) 7430.5

4 CARTER, Gerry (winch launch) 7423.3

5 WOODWARD, Don (winch launch) 7298.8

6 SIZER, Bernie (winch launch) 7041.2

7 PRATLEY, David (electric launch) 6978.8

8 MILWARD, Dave (electric launch) 6910.7

9 WILSON, Bob (electric launch) 6652.0

10 STENT, Marcus (electric launch) 6488.0

11 BUSEK, Zdnek (electric launch) 5886.1

 

pdf overall_results_rcga_open_thermal_16_sep_2018.pdf

pdf flight_scores_rcga_open_thermal_16_sep_2018.pdf

 

Thanks to eveyone who helped me setup and pack up, 

and til next time, happy flying,

regards

Jim Houdalakis

 

diggers_sep_2018

Setting up

 

dave_m_openthermal_sept2018

Dave Milward nailing the spot.

Results F5J Diggers Rest Sept 2018

 

Sunday saw the start to our Victorian competition gliding season after a 2 1/2 month winter break.

We had 6 starters  for F5J electric launch glider, and a few apologies from people who wished they could've attended.. 

The conditions were cool, with about a 20 ish kph westerly all day and gusting to a bit more on occasion, with a mostly overcast sky.

The cycles were pretty far apart for most of the day, with the occasional strong lift cyle coming through, so you had to be on the ball, 

because it was very easy to miss the boat at catching a core. Trying to catch up to someone already in a core usually meant ending up with not enough height to come back.

The gusty conditions made a mess of a lot of landings, and caused quite a few >75metre out landings with zero score, and some very long walks into adjacent paddocks, to retrieve planes.

In fact there was one heat mid-day where everyone landed out and got a zero. 

It was also pleasing to see blast from the past at the event, in Max Kroger, who, even though didn't compete this time , is keen the get back into the swing of things,

and I have to thank for hanging around and helping as a spare time keeper and caller.

 

As usual consistency won out and congratulation go to :

 

Hugh Blackburn 1st

Dave Milward 2nd

Jim Houdalakis 3rd 

 

pdf f5jflightscoresrcgasept18.pdf

pdf f5j Overall Results RCGA Sept18.pdf

 

see you at the next one,

JimH

FINAL Calendar for the 2018 - 2019 Season

Hi Everyone,

The RCGA calendar for the 2018 - 2019 season was finalised at the AGM on 30th August. The season will start on 9th September with F5J followed by Open Thermal (both winch and electric launch glider) on the 16th September.

There are 11 open thermal events, 10 F5J events (plus 4 open thermal events with electric launch included), 4 F3K events and 1 F3B event.  We have focused on more local events with 16 of the 26 events in Melbourne.

The AGM minutes will be available shortly.  However, the AGM agreed on the following rules for the first open thermal event with both winch and electric launch glider on 16th September. These rules will be reviewed and amended if needed after each event with the aim of agreeing on a final set of rules before the Midway Club in April. The RCGA encourges other groups to use these rules or similar and provide feedback.

RCGA AGM agreed rules - winch and electric launch rules

1. Winch launch gliders will fly to the normal 10 in 12 rules.

1. For saftey reasons - electric launch gliders must launch in a direction specified by the contest director (normally into wind) with a first turnpoint also specified by the content director (eg: 100m from the launch point). The CD will determine this based on number of pilots and the conditions of the day.

2. Electric gliders will have their motor turn off after either 30 seconds of motor run OR at a height of 200 meters - whichever comes first (or when the pilot turns it off if earlier).

3. Electric launch gliders will fly 10:30 in 12 minute working time (to account for the 30 sec motor run).

4. For scoring purposes 30 sec will be deducted from the final electric flight time (eg: A 10:31 will be scored as 10:01).

5. Both winch and electric launch gliders will land to the F3J landing rules - maximum of 100 points.

 

2018/2019 Calendar

rcga calendar 2018-19 final 02092018.pdf

 

Cheers,

Tom

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