Feedback comments from Dion

Irony:
In a Matthew voice: “I want a leeetle thermal” - 5 min 51
In a more anxious voice “I want a beeeg thermal” – 10 min 01

Lucky break:
Dion steering a V-tail model on duration landing approach – found the correct one shortly afterwards.

Whats difficult:
10 models in a 50 – 100m diameter thermal, 7 are Crossfires which have exactly the same markings.
Flying up and down in straight lines.
Trying to make a model stay up when the heavens are beating it back down to the ground. (The earth sucks but heaven bats)

Joke:
Waiting at a stop street just outside the field for a really hot chick passing on the cyclist path after a hard day at the field. Craig “Nice bike!” Dion “….and you just want to ride it” (You had to be there)

Bad luck:
Pulling an early slot in speed, 15 guys do similar times, the conditions change, and the last 15 do ave. 3 sec less
Craig flying his brand new model into a line cutting the wing to the spar. Having a midair on the same day, destroying a brand new fuselage and V-tail.

Swiss precision and organisational skill:
Is a myth.

Swiss cheese:
Doesn’t actually have holes in.

Wow:
The Herrig brothers flying skills
Bartovski’s weather carts. Realtime radar images and charts which predict within 10 – 15 min accuracy windspeed & direction, precipitation, temperature, radiation levels, dewpoint, your next pee break.

Believe it or not:
The mud bath for 27 nations competing in a world championship could not be addressed by the farmer putting straw until his cow had finished calfing. The grass couldn’t be cut because the pig needed attention. The CD got fired. (not directly because of previous but I’m sure it contributed)

Essential equipment :
Wellies
Earplugs
Battery cart (Because the winch system must have a resistance of 23 ohm or more and the current the motor can draw is limited, and R=V/I , if the battery goes flat the resistance drops below the legal. So you have to charge after every 2 launches. Dumb rule)

Model trends:
Absolutely no protrusions on the wings (servo or link fairings).
Lots of UHM carbon.
Small diameter fuselages
Thin wingsections. Probably limited by the servos at this stage, but Multiplex are making a new generation of thin servos with less depth. So if the servo is further away from the TE there’s another mm or two thickness available.

The hot models:
Radical, Ceres, Precious, Tool, Isabelle

The has beens:
Estrella, Europhia, Race Machine, Team GBR

Why didn’t we do better?
Match practice, awesome pilots, stupid mistakes, very different conditions, risky decisions which didn’t pay off.

How to do better next time:
When you see serious clouds gathering or a thunderstorm brewing, grab your model and go to the flying field. Wear wellies while practising.
Fly faster speedruns.

Would you do it again?
Oh Yeah, F3J is for girls


Regards
Dion