Other lads and what they are doing

[garrykeogh]

Hello again,
I myself am guilty of flying anything that can haul itself against the earth's gravity, mostly helicopters lately (well that's where I have diverted most of my hobby spend).  To this end, I have been involved in the promotion and administration of our new "3D Heli Challenge Trophy" national championship.  All said, I have had far too much family and work interruption of my precious hobby over the last year and have not flown much at all.

Where is all this going...
Some of the other guys I fly with in the Shankill Radio Flying Club http://www.srfc.net have just come back from a trip to South Wales.  They tried thier hands out at F3F racing and had an other go at proper organised combat.  Now I went on this trip two years ago, combat only and wrote an article about the trip for the MACI Flightlines when I came back.  According to the lads, this F3F is absolutely compulsive stuff when you try it.  My experience in South Wales was of unbelieveable lift, I mean yank the model out of your hands...look up quickly like it is on a bungee to the heavens!  The fun we had in the combat goes beyond description.  Have a look on the Shankill Club website, our webmaster was on the last trip (ringleader) and has put a lot of stuff on the front page...just click on the photo and it opens up a new page.

I am keen to get out a little more with my silent stable (all sport stuff) and am going to point all the gliding folk towards this forum in the hope that we can all join in a little more.  I have a feeling that with a little "rebel" rousing (sorry for the pun) we can get some stuff going.

What sort of stuff is happening that we don't know about?  Is there any organised "fun" stuff happening?  I am thinking combat, 60" epp racing e.t.c.

Sorry if I sound a bit dis-jointed, I am looking to find what's happening and looking to see if we can row in together to get some more rapport and fun on our hills.

Talk soon

Garry

[Alan_Perse]

Hi Garry. Welcome to the forum. I would be up for some 60" EPP racing. But I would have to by a model for it. I think Phoenix Models from the UK do some good EPP racers, www.phoenixmp.com .

[joe]

Hiya Garry.
Thanks for the post.Just checked out the pics on the SRFC site.Looks absolutley brilliant.Thats some stunning flying site!
I'll add a bit about it on the http://www.islandsloperebels.com website and a link(hope thats ok?).
I'd imagine a few of us (myself included) would be interested in a similar trip to Wales next time round,if fancied havin a few more along!
As for whats coming up our for us.
We have our first glide-in on the 17th of June at Mt Leinster.Hoping to have a good few show up and take part!
It'll mostly be funfly , although we will be encouraging some friendly competition.We plan on combat,racing,scale and maybe some aerobatics! The emphasis will be on people coming and flying and havin a laugh!
We might try plan some other flying days for the summer if people are interested.Maybe weekday evenings around dublin or the occaisonal trip to Mt Leinster.
At the moment we usually just come on the forum Thurs/Fri and try to arrange something for that Sat/Sun if the weather looks good!
What I might do is put up some sort of form for people interested in flying where they leave their email/number and we can do a mail out/txt out when we know people are getting together!
Thanks again for the post.We would be delighted to get a few more people out flying and as you say if we can row in together we could get something going!
I'll prepare my combat wing
Joe

[garrykeogh]

Hi Alan,
I have owned and flown a few of Stan Yeo's models and I have to admit that they are pretty good.  The last time I was in wales, he had just launched a new 60" model which was apparently quite good too.
I don't own a 60" foamie but would buy one if it looked like we could get a class going.
Bob Finley, Neil Agnew and Alan Rasmussen in the Shankill club have F3F type machines.  Maybe this is a better route to go if we are going to organise anything formal as I guess you guys have some suitable moulded bullits

Garry

[Alan_Perse]

F3F sounds good. But the only problem is F3F machines are pritty expensive and if you crash it its going to cost you even more when you buy a new one. The EPP one's are pitty cheap (as far as I know) compared to the F3F and they have a pritty good performance based on the reveiws I have read.

[garrykeogh]

Hi Alan,
I agree with you fully.  Being of moderate means a fancy molded carbon F3F type ship would mean beans on toast for a few weeks :cry:

I would however go and buy a foamie at the drop of a hat... I am weak, I have had a peep at Phoenix 60" racers already :oops:

Speaking of foamies, have any of you guys ever tried the Weasel or Mini Weasel from California?  We were using these for combat among ourselves and they are fantastic end result for a chunk of white EPP.  Michael Richter, the designer uses totally different root and tip sectons in each panel.  The root is higher performance and the tip is very forgiving...result is a foamie that works superbly from light lift to fully ballasted crazy stuff.  They are a bit fragilse when they are severely assaulted by other combat wings, especially at high speed in mega-lift (don't ask how I know...nice snow storm though) but will out fly most of the others.

Any other good sources for 60" foamies?

Garry

[joe]

Here's what i'm going to use.Flys pretty good and is fairly solid.I think :?
http://www.gliderireland.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56

[Fred]

Hi Garry,
Welcome to the forum  

Well, if there are people interrested by combat, may be we can add a day on the ISR glide in (the saturday) for people who want to do more combat, 60" and F3F... If interrested...

About the F3F now... Well, for sure, the price of the machines can stop most of the people (800 euros for the cheapest old machines, but an average of 1200 euros is more realistic...), and being a long while ago a proud owner of an Ellipse (still to me, the best glider in the world !   ) to do some F3F at " La Madeleine", but like F3A, I don't think that worth the investment except if you are doing this most of your time.
Another thing, it's not easy to find a good slope around here to fly F3F. A good slope for F3F need to be deep and the glider path on the lift. Cliffs and so on are good spot. The slope where the National was held last week end was good too (did some runs with the Destiny, and that was working perfectly.. Sorry Peter, I think we had a close call during one of my turns !  :oops: )
By the way, the French F3F Nationals was last week end.. Pictures are here : http://pierre.rondel.free.fr/images2/quillan_cdf2007/index.htm

There is a new category that has been launched in France recently, and this category is working great !
We've called that the "60 mousse", or "60 foam".
That's a 60" glider category, but with EPP / Foam gliders with strict rules for reinforcing and so on. The Redback is a good example. Cheap, Good speed, Minimum damages, and most important, good fun ! I think, for clubs and so on, that's the category of the future because of all the reasons above. And you don't have a race between the most expensive machines ( I was more in favour of a monotype type race...)
If people are interrested, I can release plans for this category, and I've heard that some kind of foam cutting cnc machines is on the way...   :?:

About combat /race wings, you have combatairmodels.com wings that are really good, and check out eppconcept.free.fr website, and particulary the AZ wings. One of the best around, and for the price...  :clap:

So, people interrested to add a day to the ISR to discuss and try categories ?

[Wight]

F3F can be competitive without spending that much. The MiraJ from your part of the world Fred was a fantastic "economic" F3F performer. Wouldn't be a player at top level any more but at club level it'd work out. Anyhow 60" pylon would be much more exciting..

[Fred]

True, forgot the Miraj, but that is still around 600 euros a piece.
Note that you can find some old F3F models at around 500 euros. Still too much for me, and finally, like the F3A, that will finish in a race to have the latest and the most expensive toys.

And I agree, in a club environment /use, the 60" normal or foamy is the best ratio fun/money  

[Alan_Perse]

If you look at the May 2006 Issue of "Quite & Electric Flight International" there is a review of a 60" EPP Slope Pylon Racer from Phoenix Models, the Rampage. Its a flying wing. It even has compartments in the wing to take ballast.

[Wight]

I say it should be "all timber" 60" racing. No foam, carbon or anything else exotic. Just wood.

Alternative is to do one class. Then you want the cheapest easy-to-fly model possible. Actual performance makes no difference if everynoe is racing the same machine.

[garrykeogh]

Hello again...
I am thinking that 60 mousse, foam, epp or whatever you want to call it may be the way to go.  I am with Fred on the F3F sentiments.  I only have to look at the F3A guys every week at our club (both of whom love to fly epp on the hills) and it really is cheque-book stuff.  Nearly a stigma attachet to old or less high-tech F3A stuff, tut, tut, tut.

I can't help thinking that something as cheap, forgiving and easy to abuse as an epp model is the way to go.  Who knows what will happen to financially challenged individuals like myself if racing got popular.  Just imagine we all had identical hardware...sort the men from the boys!

Bob and the other guys were not flying F3F in wales, sorry if I got it all wrong.  I think they were flying 60" but using all molded machines, I think Bob's is a "carbon blade".  Damned fast whatever it is :shock:

In terms of an other event for the ISR, why not, let's see if we can get the interest going?

Talk soon

Garry

[joe]

I'm with the Foamie guys!
They're cheap and simple to put together which means anyone interested could get involved.That's what we want!
If people want to fly molded models thats fine! Maybe we could have two categories one for foamie and one for molded? If we had enough people that is! Maybe is should be 60" and under? so if people want to race there smaller wings they could?
Myself and Fred are putting together a foam cnc machine and we would be happy to cut models for use in racing/combat.Freds got some good designs including ex french 60" winners.We'll try get it up and running soon! Have all the bits it's just a matter of putting it all together!
Joe

[Alan_Perse]

If we are going to go the one design root make a good looking one. One that looks like its going fast even when its sitting still     .