Swiss Championship F3F 2010

The Swiss Championship F3F 2010 will be help in October at Hahenmoos Schalmi.
I do not know Hahenmoos but as it is "close" to the Wallis where I spent my vacations in August with amazing flights, I assume it is also a great locaion for slope flying.

Spontaneously I asked the organization team whether a German can participate as well.
Would be great!

Wasserkuppe F3F Open

Competition was cancelled because of bad weather 





Saturday morning, Fulda Quelle on arrival

Briefing(s)
First at 9:00am, second at 11:00am, third at 1:00pm at last for today at 3:00pm

Good wind at Abtsrodaer Kuppe, gusts up to 20m/s - but heavy rain and very little sight range

Sunday around 11:00am, march to Westhang, still no good sight range with very little wind

We all wait for better conditions

Dieter measures wind - ~ 3m/s - GO

Final briefing at Westhang

No more photos as I have start number 1.
When I should start, competition was cancelled because of too little. What a pitty!!!


As I had choosen my Organic 2.5m for these little wind it was no problem to fly some rounds with this little winds around us.
Good thing - I fly at Wasserkuppe since 30 years more or less sporadically, but that's the first time where I flew at Westhang ;-)...

final training session

Today I made a final training session for the Wasserkuppe F3F Open at Südhang, Wasserkuppe.
Causes some troubles in office but for me it was important to have at least one session with the Tracer at the slope.

One of the exprienced F3F guys gave me two, very helpful tips as I had strong stalls in some turns:

1. trim a bit top-heavy (I had trimmed the Tracer a bit tail-heavy as I always do it for thermal flying)
2. carry Wölbklappen with the ailerons

Another great improvement!

Tracer: additional trim flights

This morning I did additional trim flights via airplane towing.
Now speed increase is much butter, but still far away from that what I expect from a F3F competition plane :-(... 


Next weekend is the Wasserkuppe F3F Open. 
My Tracer is still quite slow, additionally losts a lot of its little speed in turns.
Ok, I did not expect to be within the "Top 50%" for my first F3Fcompetition, but now I think I can be be happy not to be the tail light.

Tracer: reduce longitudinal dihedral

Reducing longitudinal dihedral is a quite easy job. Done within one evening...

Tracer - looking for a reason not flying fast

Target, participant of the Viking Race 2008 gave me a hint: reduce longitudinal dihedral!
Will do...

Tracer: more flights via airplane towing - I am frustrated!

After successful maiden this morning I had the chance to some more flights via airplane towing late afternoon.

Tracer flys great from a thermal or alrounder point of view but takes up speed hardly - I am frustrated!
All that know me in person know how difficult it is to frutrate me...

successful maiden of Tracer!

Because of lots of overhours I have I decided to go to the airfield this morning before driving to the office.

As I got no settings for the Tracer everything is a bit more thrilling than other maidens.

3 hand launches - 3 times more lead, then lay out the 15m rubber and 60m rope (airfileld is only 120m), breathe deeply - launch - straightaway up - releasing towline - a bit tail heavy - very precise to pilot

4 more high starts with some minor adjustments.

So it was a successful maiden of the Tracer :-)!

Tracer flys great, but seems to be not a very fast plane...

Tracer: problems with V-tail area solved and radio installed

All problems solved, but this had lead to additonal ~ 50/60g. Not good wit the long lever...

 Additonal resin, filler and glass fiber for the V-tail attachment

New bowden cables and 3 bracings from foam (no polystyrene as photo shows) soaked with resin (Harry, thanks for this tip!)

Radio installed, left some space for a vario in the front as there is no space behind the cockpit.

Not perfect for CG...

Tracer: problems with V-tail area

The  V-tail area has a lot of room for improvement.

• Mingy sticks on the V-tail wings
• V-tail attachment in the fuselage has a lot of air pockets so I am sure the first tough turn would end without V-tail wings 
• one of the mingy bowden cables is not usable
• fabric tape for one rudder is lacerated for ~ 1cm on fuselage side

But the quality of the rest of the airplane still seems to be very good.

This will cost time as I have no experience (luckily :-)) with mouldie repair or modifications and will add some additonal weight to the tail section (what I really don't like!).