Bringing back MOM racing!

[OribaSJ88]

It's time to flight test the racers for next month's event. I was lucky enough to have absolutely blowout condition at Coyote Hills this afternoon. I arrived a little before 1 pm and winds were already 25+ mph with gusts to 30+ mph. The white molded sailplane, a Genesis, is my primary and the blue, orange & white 3D-printed design is my backup. I may quickly regret not flipping that decision given the rough life of slope racers in MoM competition. But, hey, nothing lasts forever

Ollie

 

[Steve C]

Mark test flew the 3d printed Evora today. Went great! Very nice design. His plan is to scale it up to 60" as long as he likes the way the smaller one flew.

 

[OribaSJ88]

Mark test flew the 3d printed Evora today. Went great! Very nice design. His plan is to scale it up to 60" as long as he likes the way the smaller one flew.

Nice. Were you at Los Baños? How was it? I'm hoping the wind gods grant us nice conditions in a few weeks. Ollie

 

[Steve C]

Nice. Were you at Los Baños? How was it? I'm hoping the wind gods grant us nice conditions in a few weeks. Ollie

Yes, Los Banos. Forecast was for big wind today. It finally came around 2- 2:30 but before then, it was between 0 and 5. At least we got a few flights in before we had to leave.

Thursday we went to Sunset and that forecast was a bust too. We hit Banos on the way home and it was 25-30, pretty smooth from the west.

 

[Doc James Hammond]

Yes, Los Banos. Forecast was for big wind today. It finally came around 2- 2:30 but before then, it was between 0 and 5. At least we got a few flights in before we had to leave.

Thursday we went to Sunset and that forecast was a bust too. We hit Banos on the way home and it was 25-30, pretty smooth from the west.

Classic first-gen Alpina - fabulous.

Great plane for the long course Davenport MoM

Nice one Steve.

Doc.

 

[Steve C]

Classic first-gen Alpina - fabulous.

Great plane for the long course Davenport MoM

Nice one Steve.

Doc.

Thanks! A friend found this one nib for my dad. he put a tow release in it so we can do the thermal stuff down here on flat ground.

 

[Red]

It's time to flight test the racers for next month's event. I was lucky enough to have absolutely blowout condition at Coyote Hills this afternoon. I arrived a little before 1 pm and winds were already 25+ mph with gusts to 30+ mph. The white molded sailplane, a Genesis, is my primary and the blue, orange & white 3D-printed design is my backup. I may quickly regret not flipping that decision given the rough life of slope racers in MoM competition. But, hey, nothing lasts forever

Ollie

Awesome, how did it go?

 

[OribaSJ88]

It went pretty well, Red. It had been at almost a year since I had flown the backup model and even more for the Genesis. I flew each for over 30 minutes and trimmed them out a bit for racing. Neither is going to break any records, but they fly well. I hope to get out once or twice more before the race. My biggest takeaway was that I need to approach this first event fairly conservatively. It has been ages since my last slope race and I have a lot to remember.

Ollie

 

[Doc James Hammond]

It went pretty well, Red. It had been at almost a year since I had flown the backup model and even more for the Genesis. I flew each for over 30 minutes and trimmed them out a bit for racing. Neither is going to break any records, but they fly well. I hope to get out once or twice more before the race. My biggest takeaway was that I need to approach this first event fairly conservatively. It has been ages since my last slope race and I have a lot to remember.

Ollie

Remembering: (I know I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs.)

1. If you can fly above 50 feet you are too light.

2. Normally you can find an object or feature downwind as your turn queue to back up your caller if you have one. That can be a lot easier and more accurate than looking from model, to flag, to model, to flag etc to judge the turn.

3. I always ask my caller to use a certain way to indicate turns. i.e: as the model nears the flag he begins to say "andddddddd"....and then a couple of seconds later on reaching it: "TURN!" somehow this prepares you and you can do a well-executed turn rather than a sudden bank and yank.

4. It's best to have a caller who is a friend, as a good caller is really important - so I brief mine before the race.

Works for me anyway.

Doc.

 

[OribaSJ88]

Doc,

That's all good advice. I do remember the advantage of having a caller who is familiar with my flying style who can help me anticipate the turns. To be sure it's best to train with a buddy who'll be attending the event, too, for just the reasons you're mentioning. I still have the hope that I'll find someone locally who'll be interested in training together. We'll see how aggressive I am with ballast. After all, it has been a day or two...rather a decade or two or three...since my last race.

Ollie

 

[Doc James Hammond]

Doc,

That's all good advice. I do remember the advantage of having a caller who is familiar with my flying style who can help me anticipate the turns. To be sure it's best to train with a buddy who'll be attending the event, too, for just the reasons you're mentioning. I still have the hope that I'll find someone locally who'll be interested in training together. We'll see how aggressive I am with ballast. After all, it has been a day or two...rather a decade or two or three...since my last race.

Ollie

"After all, it has been a day or two...rather a decade or two or three...since my last race..."

Telleth it unto me Ollie...

Doc.

 

[Wayne]

Genesis should be a pretty good model. As I recall they can turn a good bit of speed with an HN airfoil. I also recall that plane responds decently well to small amount of snap flap. I always liked that that plane liked to pull a sharp turn and keep its energy. Could be an advantage in a passing turn.

 

[OribaSJ88]

Genesis should be a pretty good model. As I recall they can turn a good bit of speed with an HN airfoil. I also recall that plane responds decently well to small amount of snap flap. I always liked that that plane liked to pull a sharp turn and keep its energy. Could be an advantage in a passing turn.

Yeah, it is a pretty solid slope racer and, as you said, retains speed well in turns when using a bit of snap flaps. I haven't detected any bad behavior in its flight characteristics. I've wanted to fly it in a race for a while. It must be 12 or 13 years old. I bought from Aloft when you were still in SoCal.

I had forgotten how light the Genesis is at only 860 grams. The 3D-printed model weighs almost the same, 822 grams, but has is almost 20% smaller.

Ollie

 

[Wayne]

That is a large advantage of fully molded models, they can be lighter and a much stronger while being very accurate aerodynamically compared to any other building method.

 

[OribaSJ88]

That is a large advantage of fully molded models, they can be lighter and a much stronger while being very accurate aerodynamically compared to any other building method.

Molded sailplanes rock. They are better than printed models in almost every respect. If a competitive design isn't too expensive, I'll choose a modeled racer over the alternative for MoM racing every time. The cost and their relative "disposability" of the printed models, to me, is their biggest advantage, especially for MoM events.

My experience with 3D-printed models with PETG/PLA is that they are strong enough to fly, strong enough to race, but probably won't survive a hard landing--and they're heavy. I know there are other materials out there, but I don't have a printer capable of printing most of them. But, as for accuracy, while not at the level of a molded sailplane out of CNC-machined molds, they are pretty darn good. I doubt that I ever built a fiberglass covered bagged wing that was of comparable accuracy of the airfoil and the airframe. Also, if you want a non-straight tapered wing planform, well, it's just no big deal to print if you can do the CAD work.

Another plus for me personally has been the cleanliness of 3D printing.I don't have a workshop where I can do fiberglass/composite work due to the mess it can create. The printing and assembly processes largely don't produce much debris, dust or fumes and what little they do produce I can manage.

Ollie

 

[Doc James Hammond]

Genesis should be a pretty good model. As I recall they can turn a good bit of speed with an HN airfoil. I also recall that plane responds decently well to small amount of snap flap. I always liked that that plane liked to pull a sharp turn and keep its energy. Could be an advantage in a passing turn.

Thanks, Wayne.

Nice to hear good things about a 30-year-old design.

Doc.

 

[JJ Colorado]

Well I'm glad to see some one on one racing picking up somewhere other than Wilson, KS.

MOM is WOW (Wings Over Wilson) upside down.

At WOW there has been 4 up racing for One Design Racing (ODR) which we fly every year. The event also has Open racing which is any airplane you want raced in a one on one double elimination format. These require a good strong wind so some years we skip Open racing but this year we had ODR, Open, and (wait for it)... Dream-Flight racing. Race any Dream-Flight glider and try not to smile too wide.

Here are pics of my ODRs and Open racer.

 

[Wayne]

That is awesome!

 

[JJ Colorado]

A hysterical perspective on the Dream Flight race format. Way back in 2024 winds were a little too light to race our Open class at WOW (Wilson KS). Pilots want to fly and so while the turn posts were still up people brought their Alulas, Ahis, and Weasels out to race each other around the course in the light winds. At our end of contest gathering people started talking about having a "light wind" racing format, but the last thing we wanted was a lot of complexity, special builds and ugggh, rule making. So we all decided we would bring a Dream Flight plane (any) and race those in 2025 should we have a light wind day.

So we did.

Sixteen of us signed up for the DFR event. The most of any event! After literally minutes, of discussion our CD decided to decline my "all up" race proposal in favor of a four plane at a time race (like ODR). The one exception is that rather than flying past turn points with flaggers, we were required to turn around the flag poles in a figure 8 course. The race was a resounding success. Competitive, but most folks were laughing as they flew.

But after the final heat was flown, our CD decided that we should run an "all up" race. The few people who weren't flying started filming in anticipation of the first turn calamity. To our astonishment, all 16 planes (I think it was 16) made the turnpoint. We didn't even thin the herd much until the third lap. The DFR format is a keeper!

 

[Wayne]

Love it - we do some informal pole racing at Sunset. Just a gaggle of whatever wants to play. The figure 8 is the best. At Sunset it never accounts to much but a couple of planes racing each other while everyone else is doing as they like. Sooner or later a pole is yanked out by a pilot that has landed out near a pole and he starts swinging for planes.. OK- That pilot is usually me. (For the record I usually get a couple of 'em!)