Scienceguyorg Ramblings: Oktoberflug Free Flight Contest

Monday, October 9, 2017

Oktoberflug Free Flight Contest

It was the best weather this year for the final outdoor free flight contest in Minnesota. The wind was very light in the morning but switched around almost 360 degrees throughout the day. To start out the morning drift was towards the trees which worried me, better flyers were getting their models to fly over the trees. I flew my e36 Super Pearl before any contest flights with fairly short DT to avoid the trees; it flew perfect as it had the last time.

Gordon Dona Flew Model Past the Trees

My main goal was to get some longer flights on my Wilbur rubber model, at the last contest when I increased turns from 200 to 400 it was going straight up and sliding backwards. Adding some side and down thrust appears to have cured that. It stalled in the glide somewhat but it caught some lift on one flight and was staying up even with the stalls, next flight I had fixed the glide but didn’t find any lift. I still did not have anywhere near maximum turns but it was drifting towards the corn almost 180 degrees from the drift before. It is fun to see the propeller fold back and I did get in three contest flights with no damage.

Wilbur Rubber Model Folded Prop

Wilbur Landed

Before the wind came up I wanted to try my Peewee 30 model Basic Yeller. The first flight did not get super high but the glide was perfect and stayed up until the DT brought it down but now the drift was behind us. I tried another flight and it went to the right into the ground, no damage. Thinking it was just a bad launch I tried it again and this time there was damage, broke the pylon off. I noticed there were only two wood screws on one side holding the motor on. My thought is that it was loose before causing sidethrust giving a severe turn. I plan to fix it with bolts instead of wood screws.

Basic Yeller Landed Behind Pit Area

Pylon Broken in Crash

I flew my Polecat X P30 in the contest for the first time and it went very well. Still I was not up to maximum turns which no doubt would have taken it higher. I am using the 3/32” rubber motor that gives a long run but a slow climb. During the long run there is a good chance it will encounter lift which it did but the pop off wing brought it quickly down.

My Polecat X Brought Down by DT Before Cornfield

Just before I left I tried one flight of my Jetstream towline from a launcher. By now the wind was up and I was not familiar with that. It rose quickly and I stopped running but the wind took it up like a kite until it came off the hook and banked sharp into the ground. Only damaged one wing tip but I can see I have more to learn about towing in different wind conditions.

Starduster X

I used my binoculars when timing flights for others as I want to get better at following the model this way. Also hoping to take some video but I only got video of a Starduster X flying one flight. At least I had rubber boots for this contest and did not have to leave with wet feet from the morning dew.