Reports & results 
F3J - Thermal duration Results Combined winch and electric Open Thermal Diggers Rest Sept 2018
F3J - Thermal duration Results Combined winch and electric Open Thermal Diggers Rest Sept 2018
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
overall_results_rcga_open_thermal_16_sep_2018.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
Setting up
Dave Milward nailing the spot.