Results F5j Diggers Feb 2018

Hi All,

This event was almost called off because the forecast was for 30km/h winds, fowever the FAI limit for F5J is 12m/s (43km/h), so we decided that we needed to lift our skills and fly in the challenging conditions.

5 pilots braved the wild conditions and unlike Open Thermal the launch part of the task could be completed relatively safely and there were no incidents on launch.

The day turned out to be a terrific learning curve for everyone and everyone agreed it was a really worthwile and fun day. The biggest lesson from the day was to get a power system that could launch to 250m, with a full ballast and still penetrate 300m forward in 30km/h winds... hmmm, more work to do!

The only major incident of the day was when Marcus lost radio contact with his model 450m high and 400m downwind and the resultant kiss with terra firma meant we were bringing back parts in a carry bag. :-( Thanks to Hugh and Dave M for their help getting the parts back.

Congratulations to:

1st Hugh Blackburn

2nd Alan Mayhew

3rd David Pratley

Interestingly the top 3 pilots had very different techniques:

Hugh Blackburn had a more conservative approach with his underpowered Maxa and he launched relatively low for the day (78m - 193m) and then surfed the gusts and found corridors of lift.

Alan Mayhew flew a very heavy Explorer 2 with a powerful powerplant and had a more agressive aproach and could often be seen chasing thermals a long way downwind.

David Pratlety used a technique of flying out very fast and very low and then pulling vertical to convert that speed into height, launching between 143m and 220m for the day.

Interestingly, the different techniques worked at different times throughout the day and Hugh won the day with some very smooth and consistent flying. Well done Hugh!

pdf f5j flight scores.pdf