Archive for July, 2007

Tracy Brown Emerges as King of the Fling

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

A trio of hand launch pilots from Milwaukee went to the 1.5 m Summer Fling near Madison, Wisconsin Sunday July 15, 2007

Hosted by the MARCS club the 2007 1.5 m HAND LAUNCH CONTEST was held at Paul’s Turf and Tree Nursery near Marshall, WI.

Tracy Brown and Greg Smith, founding members of MSG, as well as slope convert Michael Davidson made the hour and a half drive to the contest site where they were greeted with nearly perfect weather, a beautiful contest field and 8 other competitors for a total of 11 pilots.

The contest was flown man-on-man by rounds and usually involved activity by all competitors during each round as those not flying were timing for the pilots. We flew 6 rounds with some interesting tasks.

At the end of the day Tracy, with 5 x 1000 point rounds, took top honors with Ben Yahr 2nd and Steve Meyer from Racine, WI taking 3rd.

A few on-lookers came to watch which is interesting considering the out in the boonies nature of the field.

I look forward to it next year.

Complete results (Perfect score 6000):

1    Tracy Brown        5640
2    Ben Yahr        4947
3    Steve Meyer        4902
4    Chris Shubak    4858
5    Scott Zastoupil    4831
6    Greg Smith        4816
7    Steve Yahr        4584
8    David Suttie        3815
9    Brian Andreas    3657
10    Rob Scidmore    3353
11    Michael Davidson    1166

Posted in Hand Launch | No Comments »

German F3B teammates, and brothers, take 1-2 at F3B Worlds

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

The F3B worlds ended a week of competition this past weekend. Results at the highest level of RC sailplane flying were:

1. Martin Herrig – Germany
2. Andreas Herrig – Germany
3. Fidel Frick- Liechtenstein

Team USA had a great showing against the best in the world with the Team earning a 3rd place and individual placings as follows:

Mike Smith 8th
Tom Keisling 15th
Aaron Valdes 16th

Congrats to the Herrig brothers and Fidel Frick and a big Well done team USA!

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F3B World Championship Going on Now!

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

The F3B World Championship runs from July 7 through July 14 and is being held in Emmen, Switzerland.
F3B is a multi-task thermal glider competition that focuses on three tasks.

Duration – flight time of exactly 10 minutes with landing as close as possible to a marking on the ground.

Distance – passing a flight zone of 150 meters as often as possible within a limited time.

Speed – passing a flight zone of 150 meters two times in both directions as quickly as possible. Speeds reach up to 150 km/h!

Local and National competitions lead up to the F3B Worlds and pit the world’s best model glider pilots who vie for gold, silver and bronze.

The high-tech sailplanes are among the most beautiful in our sport and many are as high-tech in their construction as an F1 car!

Keep up with the official Worlds site at:

http://www.f3b-wm.ch/index.php?show=49

Or view the Team USA site at:

http://www.usrainfo.org/teamusaf3b/5_6/html/index.html

There is even an RCGroups discussion at:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=708862

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Do those things have motors?

Monday, July 9th, 2007

Several of our club members are avid slope flyers and often have the chance to talk to the general public about our sport. We field all sorts of questions but one we hear pretty frequently is “do those things have motors?” or some variation like “how come the motor is so quiet?”. I think that due to the speed, maneuverability and close in flying we do at the slope it may be hard to believe for some folks that, no, these things do not have motors. So, even though the question may seem obvious to those of us involved in slope flying I think it is a good one from the general public and provides us with the opportunity to explain how slope soaring works and how we are able to extract energy from something as simple as wind hitting a slope. The next time someone comes up to you at the slope and says “Do those things have motors?” use it as an opportunity to be an ambassador for our sport!

If you’ve asked the question “do those things have motors?” in the past and want to know more about radio controlled slope soaring take a look at the slope flying section of this website.

Posted in Slope | 1 Comment »

Soar Milwaukee Flickr Photo Group

Monday, July 9th, 2007

I’ve set up a Public Flickr Group for Soar Milwaukee to become a repository for photos of our radio control soaring activities Milwaukee area. The Flickr Group is at:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/soarmilwaukee/

If you are already a Flickr member you probably know how to post to group pools but if not, join the group above first then find a photo you uploaded, look at the icons directly above the photo and choose send to group, then pick the group you want to send the photos to. You can do it through the batch tool as well.

If you are not a Flickr member basic memberships are free and Flickr is one of the biggest communities for photo sharing and is a Yahoo! company. Great place.

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AMA Charter Renewal

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

I am working on the renewal of charter #1865 for the Milwaukee Soaring Group. It hasn’t been that long since we had an active charter and I was Secretary so I can get this going. I already have the info from the AMA and will keep you posted on the progress.

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1.5 m Summer Fling in Madison, Wisconsin July 15, 2007 (Hand Launch Contest)

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

Info below from Al at the MARCS club.

The 2007 1.5 m HAND LAUNCH CONTEST will be held at Paul’s Turf and Tree Nursery near Marshall (same place as usual). This relatively low key event provides a hands on competition for these little gliders. Newcomers to this aspect of flying are encouraged to participate in this fun event. You can gain a lot of flight experience with the typical hand launch tasks and contest format. The contest is flown man-on-man by rounds, and typically involves activity by all competitors during each round. We encourage on-lookers to come watch and even get involved as timers. (more…)

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Welcome to Soar Milwaukee!

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

Welcome to Soar Milwaukee! This is the website for a Milwaukee based club called the Milwaukee Soaring Group; dedicated to growing the hobby or radio control sailplane flying and promoting competitions for rc soaring enthusiasts.

MSG members are active in all facets of radio controlled soaring;

  • Slope
  • DLG (Discus Launch Gliders)
  • HLG (Hand Launch Gliders)
  • TD (Thermal Duration)
  • Electric Soaring
  • More!

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