DAY .. 30.august 2009 -
National Championship F3J
Last day of National Championship F3J and also
today the wind picked up a bit so it could be
flown a bit thermal slope if you followed a
thermal over there. In the morning this was
essential but there was a lot of them so most
filled their times in the last two rounds. The
top finishers did not change at all and we had 4
finals with no throwout. We changed winch
positions after 2 of the final rounds. This is
slightly stressful but very fair since some of
the landing spots were quite turbulent in the
landing. The finals became a bit of a landing
contest. Probably because the level is becoming
higher in Norway and all understood the
conditions well after 8 preliminary rounds. Those that dared could save some
time by taking short launches and take their
chances on nearby thermals. Alf Erik was the
only one that did not get full times since he
had a line brake and tried to fly it out from
very low altitude. The rest was set by launch
times and especially the landings. I managed to
get some very good times in with a safe first
one. Two extreme ones and then a fairly safe one
to ensure the score in the last one. Times were
if I remember correctly 14:51 14:54,6 14:55,3
14:52,7. This is fairly good on winches that is
slower than running.
In the individual contest (24 pilots): 1.pl Jo
Grini, Valdres 2.Knut Vidar Moløkken, Løten 3.
Erik Morgan, Vingen
In the junior contest: 1.pl Stein Marius
Pedersen, Lillehammer 2pl. Fredrik Grini,
Valdres
Team event (5 teams of 3 pilots): 1pl. Vingen
2pl. Valdres (me, Fredrik and Aril) 3pl.
Lillehammer
Very cool to get my son up in 14 place with the
seniors and he got so good scores that we got
the silver medal in the team event.
Vingen have made a fantastic job and can be very
proud of their work on this National
Championship. We can also call it F3Food because
we had so much good food and all were gathered
for super time on the campsite friday and
saturday evening with so much food saturday that
there was no way we could eat it all. And the
warm lunch each day is a lifesaver! All went on
rails so big applause!!
Detailed scores
HERE -
txt by CD Egil Roland HERE (in Nor.) -
all pictures by Jojo/Espen Bakke -
all pictures by Erik Morgan
Medaljevinnere under NM F3J 2009.
Ceremony pictures by Espen G. Bakke with my
camera
Jojo and Fredrik gets medals. 2 each ;)
general Egil on left. middle Lillehammer 2 gets
their team bronze. right: Valdres gets their
silver medal
Left: Vingen gets their gold medal team. Right:
Gold and silver juniors.
DAY .. 29.august 2009 -
National Championship F3J
First day finished and one to go. 24 pilots and
we got 6 rounds in. A bit too easy with a slope
nearby but cool and difficult with 3-8m/s and
45-90 degrees from the side. The slope is 5-600m
away and works most of the time but can be a
disaster also. I get a bit more tired than usual
wanting to give my son all the best help but so
nice to see him fly round after round out
without flying the slope other than 2 rounds at
the end of the day. I take him up late and he
lands early to keep the spirit and not have a
crash or late landing. Soon there is time to
push the boundaries though. Me, him and Aril
Røsvik is the team score and we are currently in
second place with good chance for first still.
Lets hope. Myself I am currently in 3rd just a
few points behind because of bad landings
(turbulent and un-concentrated maybe. Organizers
doing a super job with warm lunch and sales at
the field. They also put up a huge tent for us.
Results after day one:
Team scores
- Individual
DAY .. 27.august 2009 -
Perfect SL ET
Low clouds and it had been raining but I got
some hours of nice flying in humid conditions.
One could fly with more camber if one flew
nicely and calm. Checking launch settings in
headwind today. All well and ready for this
weekends National Championship F3J. We will be
24 pilots in 5 teams this time and that is very
good I think. My son Fredrik will fly also.
I also enjoyed my mothers cuisine again as she
is here on the mountain farm taking care of the
cows ;)
DAY .. 26.august 2009 -
Perfect SL ET
A wonderful and hot day in the mountain. I flew
my SuperLight Perfect with ET tips for a rare
occasion. This because I have ordered a flight
to Bovec for the last Eurotour and they say a
light model might be ok to have there... And
since my ET tips are fairly light (270g each) I
just as well installed them on my SL Perfect.
Todays test also involved launching in downwind
conditions and also on the wrong side of a
mountain at 1000m altitude. It is very important
to have a launch setting that you can use in any
condition. Mine is working fairly well (12mm
camber equal along trailing edge. Elevator set
so the model can "fly" and hook inside at 112mm.
CG is 112mm.).
I also flew my double carbon Perfect a bit to
check the launch setting there also. The
conditions were good with only 2 flights out of
20 without thermal. I had to pick the launch
time not to launch into one...
DAY .. 20-24.august 2009 -
Lines
Dont want to read it all? Conclusion = Too much
water will make lines brake.
There was a lot of talk about this after WC F3B
and also after some had bad lines at EC F3J in
Poland.
I have not found anything on tests of our lines
anywhere on internet.
So I did some simple tests on my own to
establish if what I already knew was the case
(and it was)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1,55mm EMC-Vega scaleline 15m 90kg tension
One line as original
One line soaked in water (40C used to simulate
hot days)
First test both lines as original
Stretch equal about 3m
Second test
One line soaked in 40C water for 2 hours (at end
of soaking 25C)
Stretch for 20 seconds. Soaked line 1m longer.
After 1min on ground line is 20cm longer
Stretch for 20 seconds. Soaked line stretched 1m
longer. After 1min unstretched line is 20cm
longer
Third test
Line soaked for another 2 hours in 40C water (at
end of soaking 25C)
Soaked line was 10cm longer.
Stretch for 20 seconds. Soaked line stretched
0,5m longer. After 1min on ground line is 20cm
longer
Stretch for 20 seconds. Soaked line stretched
0,5m longer. After 1min on ground line is 25cm
longer
Fourth test (second day)
line soaked for another 4 hours in 50C water
(total 6 hours)
Soaked line was 5cm longer.
Stretch for 20 seconds. Soaked line stretched 1m
longer. After 1min on ground line is 20cm longer
Stretch for 20 seconds. Soaked line stretched 1m
longer. After 1min on ground line is 25cm longer
Now I could stretch the line slightly longer
though after rest it is still ok.
Fifth test (third day)
Line soaked for one night in 50C water decending
to 20C (total 6+12 hours)
Soaked line was 5cm shorter than testline
through the whole test.
Stretch for 18 seconds. Soaked line stretched
1,5m longer.
Line broke in second attempt at about 50kg near
knot
Retested with new knots and line broke again
after 60-70kg just outside knot.
First impressions
Soaked line can be 35cm longer = 350cm at 150m.
Be careful in F3J total length.
Stretch at first two launches can give 1m = 15m
extra altitude before zoom. On third launch will
give 7,5m extra altitude.
But for safety length. lines needs to be cut
3,5m shorter so total is 4m extra altitude.
Can give extra 7,5m longer safe dive without
catching up with line.
BUT remember that we tension up high in F3J so
line stretch for altitude does not help much
unless anchour is moved or direct tow is used.
Soaking of lines in water as expected good for
performance. Also good for softness (resistant
to brake)
Soaking together with ultraviolet light not
tested (sunshine is mentioned as bad for nylon
in litirature).
For F3B 400m lines these numbers will need to be
adjusted accordingly (0,5m stretch on 15m line
means 13,3m on 400m)
Checked also older and new 1,42 pentagon and
old/new 1,55mm scaleline. All very equal in
stretch length and length after test (reports on
bad batches from some producers).
About 20hours needed to make lines brittle
because of too much moisture.
This is also mentioned in litirature and
experienced by Team Norway in WC 2006 when we
had lines in a small pool for several days
during daytime and in sunshine.
Lines were then seen getting suddenly longer and
broke easily after only few launches.
Lines are not sold as UV protected by producer.
So far conclusion:
Some soaking is good and 40C water can be used.
Will make line less brittle and length action is
better.
Extensive soaking will make lines brittle/easy
to brake. Seems to last only few launches.
Still need to find when it is too much or/and
how bad UV light is.
Background material
http://www.ides.com/articles/design/2007/sepe_05.asp
http://books.google.com/books?id=68kSAQZKvYcC&lpg=PA116&ots=IJKeIWkvF8&dq=Nylon%20sunshine%20degrade&hl=no&pg=PA116#v=onepage&q=Nylon%20sunshine%20degrade&f=true
DAY .. 18.august 2009 -
Xplorer
At the WC the conditions were of a kind that I
have never experienced. The setup of my Xplorer
did not work there at all but so said others
with the 3800 version. Lastly at the EC I
learned they flew the 3500 version at almost
3000g with ballast and nobody flew the 3800
(they had problems setting it up). I did try the
4m version and that seemed to fly well and has
the same tips as mine. That much ballast is not
possible in my bigger 3800 and maybe that was
part of it. Anyhow I did some flying with heavy
ballast but did not get any more answers by
that. I will need to find places with turbulence
and high winds to get some answers. Anyhow I
feel a bit tired after a long week and travel so
the best was just to get out and also get dinner
by my mother... ;)
DAY .. 17.august 2009 -
Nemo / wing
Not even back home and Fredrik wanted to fly ;)
We went to a local slope were I crashed the Nemo
in a tree and Fredrik flew his wing for about
15min. Nice to see Fredrik is asking to fly.
Guess he enjoyed the trip to EC!
back home from
the
European Championship F3J
VERY happy with 4th place fro me and 30th place
for my son in the junior class
Check our team site HERE:
www.f3x.no/f3j/2009
DAY .. 4.august 2009 - Xplorer/Perfect
ET
Good thing I took another session of flying and
brought out the winch. Heavy rain here the last
days so I set up at 1000m on a road just a few
meters from the field we own. The new Xplorer
3800 I finished suddenly had a different neutral
setting on elevator and I narrowed it down to
partly my fault and partly the ball link in the
tail that was not fit for the elevator pin.
Fixed now.. I also flew my Pike Perfect ET and
had a good time working backside thermals.
really difficult but that is what's fun!
I also did a radical move on my programming. I
am a big fan of KISS (KeepItSimpleStupid) but
one thing has bugged me for a long time. Coming
in for a landing with full breaks takes away
most of my aileron control. I do use my rudder
automatically and I tend to go back to 50% brake
to get that nose pointed. I now also put in a
free mix for ail-rud mix as soon as I have 50%
brake. At 50% brake or more I now have 80% ail-rud
mix. Might help me in those cases my rudder
thumb is not "thinking". Beware I DO NOT use
ail-rud mix other than in launch mode as I am
not a believer in it. This is purely the last
phase of the landing to get those pointy
landings. Oh and btw this was really easy to do
on my cheap and neat JR 9303 2.4ghz radio ;)
Sorry for the bad picture. I have been lazy and
just taken video of my launches lately (also to
check my launches..)
Zipping of to EC F3J tomorrow
DAY ..
2.august 2009 - Xplorer
To be 2 going for a European Chamopionships
means double amount of models... My son is
flying as junior at the EC F3J and he needs to
have the good stuff. I already have made good
use of the Xplorer 3800 but I had one more
almost ready and it was about time I got it
flown. This is slightly stronger yet still 2080g
with 3,8m span.... I should have ordered some
small elevators (the big ones are not needed)
but have not. Model flew as expected very well
and I just need a few winch launches for the
hook to be set.
temperature was 18C (64F) in the valley but only
14C at 1000m and slight rain in the air. Some
nice thermals were still found and I could fly
long flights if I wanted.
DAY ..
1.august 2009 - Perfect
Since I crashed a model at the Nordic
Championship F3J I needed to check out lighter
tips on my heavy model. I also wanted to fly a
bit ET tips on my SL model so a lot of testing
and flying was done today. With one new
midsection being delivered at EC (thanks
Samba!!) I should have two Perfect's and my
son one. Hopefully that is enough.
