2000 USA F1D Team Selection Report
By John Kagan
I've been asked to share my experience at the F1D Team Selection Finals. Rather than try to report on the general goings-on I'm going to focus on what happened with and near me because, frankly, I don't remember much else! I hope that others aiming to participate in the Finals will find this of some value. This response is a little late because I couldn't find a list of the times to remind me what happened until the INAV #98 came, but better late than never.
I entered this Finals with far less anxiety than the previous two because I'd spent a lot of time eliminating "weak points" from my program. I'd recently been able to crank out repeatable flights with a pretty high success rate. This is one big piece of advice I'd give to anyone competing: when something fails, give some real thought on how to prevent it from every happening again. Maybe it's a redesign of the component, maybe it's a new procedure for handling the model. But I've seen too many people, myself included, have the same problem over and over until the light finally goes on.
My only potential problem was that I only had two models and parts for a third wing. I hoped for good luck, and as it turned out I ended up using both models and all three wings.
In the first round my wing twisted up on launch. I caught it before anything broke, but the wing stayed twisted. It looked just like wings do when a bracing wire is hung up somewhere. I spent the rest of the round trying to find where it was hung up and didn't get a flight off. Exasperated I started cutting the wires one by one. I cut them all, and the wing was STILL twisted. I finally realized that the film had stuck to itself and was warping the wing. That's the first time that ever happed to me, and it hasn't happened since. Go figure.
The round two flight went off with the second wing, and without much trouble, posting a 49:50. The only anxious moment, and it almost was a real disaster, came when the model ran out of turns above the second catwalk. The circle opened up and the model actually flew through some girders and over the catwalk. From my position under the model I was sure that it was stuck and was quite surprised when it came out the other side. I almost lost 50% of my fleet and my best prop.
When I launched round three I had another wing twist. This time it popped back into place, but there was some confusion getting the watches reset for a second launch. Even with the delay there was still too much torque for the wing on the second launch, and it twisted again. I recorded an attempt for the round after two failed tries. I felt a bit stunned, standing there with a wound model and no reason to fly it, since the day was now over.
At this point the thought occurred to me that, after all my efforts, I might not be able to manage a good backup flight. F1D is such a interesting challenge that even with good preparation it is still hard to get every flight to go. Here would be advice number two: problems are going to happen, you've got to be able to regroup and not let them stop you dead in your tracks.
I spent that evening recovering and rebuilding the wing with stuck film. This time I used Don Sluczarcak's C-to-the-fifth microfilm(Cleveland Clown's Cloudy Commercial Covering) and it worked great. A minor piece of advice: get lots of sleep before the finals because the late hours and stress really do take their toll.
Day two: there was a good amount of drift when I launched for round four. I'd been watching a lot of steering by others, and my flight was no different. I keep drifting into the corner of the hanger, so on about the fourth steer I dragged the model way out into the middle. It then promptly made a mad dash for the other end of the building. I had a few more successful steers, but finally managed to get the balloon into the wingtip and folded the wing with the model at the roof at about 34 minutes. While the model floated down I had a good two minutes to stomp around and curse. It was a great reliever of stress, although it probably looked a little funny. Advice three: when steering at the roof it has always worked best to park the balloon and let the model fly into it (and then start moving, of course) - don't try to maneuver the balloon into the model or you'll squish it.
Round five went up with the wing rebuilt the night before. There was a bit of a trim problem and the model only went up halfway. It looked like it would be a short flight, but it hung around for 45 minutes. VP props are great!
Round six finally resulted in a decent backup flight of 49:49. Unlike the first flight of the day, this one required almost no steering - the air had calmed down quite a bit. These two times were personal bests, but I was really hoping to break 50 minutes in what might be my last contest with the 65cm models. The model deadsticked from above the second catwalk again, so there was still room for improvement.
I thought about rebuilding another wing that evening, but sleep seemed like a much better idea at the time.
Day three: I had been flying on 10/97 rubber up to this point because, although it didn't have the energy and turns of something like 7/97, it was much safer. For round seven I got a small strip of 2/99, another good batch. A similar weight and loop length motor of 2/99 took more turns with higher average torque, but lower peak torque. Now this was what all flights should be like. It went to a high, but safe, altitude, didn't require any steers, and ran out of turns right at the ground. The 51:11 was my first flight over 50, and with that and a reasonably assured spot on the team I was quite happy to put the models away and skip the last two rounds. That would be my last piece of advice: set goals for each session and stop when you've achieved them or take a timeout when things are going hopelessly awry. If you finish with an achievement, or at least with your models still intact, then every session will be a success.
