2009 Season
Competitor |
Class
|
Country
|
Event 1
26/04/09
|
Event 2
10/05/09
|
Event 3
07/06/09
|
Event 4
25/07/09
|
Event 5
31/08/09
|
Event 6
27/09/09
|
Rain
11/10/09
|
Total (best 4 from 6)
|
|
1 | Nigel Potter | F5B | UK | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 97.36% | 0.00% | 400.00% | |
2 | Alan Flockhart | F5B | UK | 99.20% | 97.96% | 99.90% | 99.34% | 92.06% | 97.40% | 396.41% | |
3 | George Shering | F5B | UK | 98.51% | 96.65% | 94.04% | 95.08% | 100.00% | 99.23% | 394.39% | |
4 | Jos Mouris | F5B | NL | 95.49% | 94.71% | 0.00% | 97.15% | 98.58% | 100.00% | 391.22% | |
5 | Mark Haigh | F5B | UK | 94.01% | 95.73% | 94.19% | 76.30% | 99.68% | 97.28% | 386.88% | |
6 |
Steve Burns
|
F5B | UK | 94.26% | 96.33% | 93.03% | 82.46% | 93.30% | 95.38% | 379.27% | |
7 | Dick Whitehead | F5B | UK | 0.00% | 0.00% | 93.52% | 92.22% | 95.00% | 93.46% | 374.21% | |
8 | Tony Wilson | F5B | UK | 85.20% | 86.65% | 84.83% | 86.61% | 88.81% | 88.36% | 350.42% | |
9 | Stuart McFarlane | F5B | UK | 83.47% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 86.19% | 85.91% | 89.57% | 255.56% | |
10 | Alan Carr | F5B-1000 | UK | 78.02% | 77.60% | 0.00% | 53.48% | 0.00% | 83.57% | 292.68% | |
11 | Mike Seale | F5B | UK | 94.35% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 94.35% | |
12 | Bruce Flockhart | F5B-1000 | UK | 0.00% | 76.95% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 76.95% | |
13 | Phil Roberts | F5B | UK | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 29.60% | 0.00% | 29.60% | |
13 | Martin Bell | F5B-1000 | UK | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | |
14 | Malcolm Tye | F5B-1000 | UK | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | |
2009.zip | |
File Size: | 44 kb |
File Type: | zip |
25th July Shawbury
We had a good event at Shawbury. Again blessed with sunshine - Thanks Stuart/Lorraine for arranging everything.
The first round was a bit of a disaster for everyone and you could see we hadn't had a competition for 2 months! Lots of people hitting the limiter and landing early and some not even going up. Our tame dutchman had a problem with the language and tried to climb at base B after being told to cut a 6 short which was taking ages :D
After round 1 things settled down and we got some good scores in. Jos did 2 rounds with 44 legs which is a PB and given the "slow air" was very good. His plane is very nicely dialed in and he is flying a good course now.
Whilst we await the results to be posted I have uploaded some video footage taken from Base B. http://www.f5b.co.uk/Shawbury%20-%20Video/ You'll need to download the individual files to play them. The idea behind this footage is to see if we can get an automatic practice system so people can train on their own.
The first round was a bit of a disaster for everyone and you could see we hadn't had a competition for 2 months! Lots of people hitting the limiter and landing early and some not even going up. Our tame dutchman had a problem with the language and tried to climb at base B after being told to cut a 6 short which was taking ages :D
After round 1 things settled down and we got some good scores in. Jos did 2 rounds with 44 legs which is a PB and given the "slow air" was very good. His plane is very nicely dialed in and he is flying a good course now.
Whilst we await the results to be posted I have uploaded some video footage taken from Base B. http://www.f5b.co.uk/Shawbury%20-%20Video/ You'll need to download the individual files to play them. The idea behind this footage is to see if we can get an automatic practice system so people can train on their own.
2009 Nationals
August Bank Holiday, this year 28 - 31 August, sees the largest get-together of UK modelers with about 10'000 people coming for the trade fair, swap meet, demonstrations and of course the "National" championships in all the many categories. F5B took place in a nearby field on Monday 31st. In addition to being the National championship, or maybe even more importantly, it was our fifth league event, see the normal competition results page for the detailed scores.
The day was sunny, dry, good visibility and very high wind. So much so that in an earlier e-soaring competition, on Alan's recommendation, I tried landing backwards with not very good results! The F5B planes were much less affected by the wind, but as the wind was from Base B to Base A the scores were down.
Round 1 was won by George, that's me, to my great surprise. George, Nigel and Joe did 41 legs, not too bad against the wind. Unfortunately Alan had a wing flap servo fail but happily was able to land the plane OK. Round two saw Nigel getting into his stride and winning with a 42, but several people used too much energy fighting the wind and landed early. Round three saw a big push with Nigel making 44 but had to land early, not helped by using a new battery which used more energy. Joe did 43 but also used a lot of energy so that he was scratching at the end and missed the landing. That left me again winning only my second round this year! Round four was again tough. It was my turn to run out of energy and land early. Nigel attempted a subterranean last leg, Alan flew into the sun and lost it for a bit, again happily getting it back under control. So Mark won the round, well deserved as he had put in four four solid no fault rounds.
Further down the field Dick, Steve and Tony put in good solid performances, auguring well for the future. This year's new "boy" Stuart did well, but would have done better if he had been able to restrain his "pylon" instincts and wait for the Base B signal. Phil, this competition newcomer, flying a Bandit, did well in the first round but cut case B in the second and in trying to return for it crashed in the wind. He is undeterred, happily, hopes to come to the next event, and re-join us with a new plane next year.
When the results were tallied it was George, just a fraction ahead of Mark, and Joe our tame Dutchman third.
The day was sunny, dry, good visibility and very high wind. So much so that in an earlier e-soaring competition, on Alan's recommendation, I tried landing backwards with not very good results! The F5B planes were much less affected by the wind, but as the wind was from Base B to Base A the scores were down.
Round 1 was won by George, that's me, to my great surprise. George, Nigel and Joe did 41 legs, not too bad against the wind. Unfortunately Alan had a wing flap servo fail but happily was able to land the plane OK. Round two saw Nigel getting into his stride and winning with a 42, but several people used too much energy fighting the wind and landed early. Round three saw a big push with Nigel making 44 but had to land early, not helped by using a new battery which used more energy. Joe did 43 but also used a lot of energy so that he was scratching at the end and missed the landing. That left me again winning only my second round this year! Round four was again tough. It was my turn to run out of energy and land early. Nigel attempted a subterranean last leg, Alan flew into the sun and lost it for a bit, again happily getting it back under control. So Mark won the round, well deserved as he had put in four four solid no fault rounds.
Further down the field Dick, Steve and Tony put in good solid performances, auguring well for the future. This year's new "boy" Stuart did well, but would have done better if he had been able to restrain his "pylon" instincts and wait for the Base B signal. Phil, this competition newcomer, flying a Bandit, did well in the first round but cut case B in the second and in trying to return for it crashed in the wind. He is undeterred, happily, hopes to come to the next event, and re-join us with a new plane next year.
When the results were tallied it was George, just a fraction ahead of Mark, and Joe our tame Dutchman third.
2009 Season Summary
2009 was again a qualifying year for the World Championships to be held in Muncie, Indiana at the AMA HQ.
12 competitors attended the competitions this year with some new faces trying their hand at F5B. More people entered the Open Class than ever before, proving that the post round cell, LiPo era models are easier to prepare, maintain and fly.
It was a case of deja-vu with Nigel taking the seasons honours but not at the canter he had done in previous years. An intense off-season practice schedule from Alan, Steve and Dick showed its worth with some early round scores pushing Nigel to fly to his best to maintain his lead. The season finished with Nigel in first followed by Alan and then George to form the 2010 F5B UK Team.
In respect of equipment, the Neu Motors from Steve Neu in the USA proving to be the popular choice, running on the spread of 4 to 6 series cells, of capacity from 3300mAh to 5000mAh.
The new generation of LiPo cells, rated at 40C showed to be a revelation. A simple pack swap from old to new generation cells giving an immediate power boost of upto 800W without changing any other components. This proved in itself to be a problem by immediately cutting the available motor run time to complete the task. At the end the magic figure of a 30 second motor run, on an average of around 5kW was what the majority of pilots hovered around.
Equipment proved to be reliable, and most pilots flew the entire season on one or two battery packs. Pilot errors aside, airframes tended to be resilient and didn’t suffer landing damage and scars that had been seen in previous years. Very reassuring in these days of falling exchange rates and the cost of imported foreign produced airframes. The upside of this may the emergence of ‘home brew’ models appearing next season.
The weak link in the chain at the moment seems to be the speed controllers, but at these high power levels, this could well have been expected. Not withstanding this only the odd two or three controllers failed the whole season, which is not a bad attrition rate over 280+ flights.
What’s in store for 2010? The biggest gains in performance look likely to come from the optimisation of the propeller profile, pitch and diameter to the motor. Towards the end of 2009 new designs were becoming available from Steve Neu in the USA, eFlight in Switzerland, Sergey in Russia and the venerable RFM from Austria. The jury is still out on whether small, narrow high revving propeller is better than a larger, wider, slower turning propeller, but factor in the prevailing conditions of temperature, wind and humidity and the choice gets even harder. The answers probably lies somewhere between, but I suspect that the truth will be revealed in August 2010 in the good ‘ol US of A!
12 competitors attended the competitions this year with some new faces trying their hand at F5B. More people entered the Open Class than ever before, proving that the post round cell, LiPo era models are easier to prepare, maintain and fly.
It was a case of deja-vu with Nigel taking the seasons honours but not at the canter he had done in previous years. An intense off-season practice schedule from Alan, Steve and Dick showed its worth with some early round scores pushing Nigel to fly to his best to maintain his lead. The season finished with Nigel in first followed by Alan and then George to form the 2010 F5B UK Team.
In respect of equipment, the Neu Motors from Steve Neu in the USA proving to be the popular choice, running on the spread of 4 to 6 series cells, of capacity from 3300mAh to 5000mAh.
The new generation of LiPo cells, rated at 40C showed to be a revelation. A simple pack swap from old to new generation cells giving an immediate power boost of upto 800W without changing any other components. This proved in itself to be a problem by immediately cutting the available motor run time to complete the task. At the end the magic figure of a 30 second motor run, on an average of around 5kW was what the majority of pilots hovered around.
Equipment proved to be reliable, and most pilots flew the entire season on one or two battery packs. Pilot errors aside, airframes tended to be resilient and didn’t suffer landing damage and scars that had been seen in previous years. Very reassuring in these days of falling exchange rates and the cost of imported foreign produced airframes. The upside of this may the emergence of ‘home brew’ models appearing next season.
The weak link in the chain at the moment seems to be the speed controllers, but at these high power levels, this could well have been expected. Not withstanding this only the odd two or three controllers failed the whole season, which is not a bad attrition rate over 280+ flights.
What’s in store for 2010? The biggest gains in performance look likely to come from the optimisation of the propeller profile, pitch and diameter to the motor. Towards the end of 2009 new designs were becoming available from Steve Neu in the USA, eFlight in Switzerland, Sergey in Russia and the venerable RFM from Austria. The jury is still out on whether small, narrow high revving propeller is better than a larger, wider, slower turning propeller, but factor in the prevailing conditions of temperature, wind and humidity and the choice gets even harder. The answers probably lies somewhere between, but I suspect that the truth will be revealed in August 2010 in the good ‘ol US of A!