F5J Contest, June 2020, Visalia California. Electric RC sailplanes/gliders.

[@markbrowning6687]

A great weekend and you Ali were on FIRE!

[@jojoenno]

Did not see this before now. Congrats on the win. Cool

[@flightcomp]

Thank you

[@bmwjoon]

Nice Job! Looks like conditions favored the all around pilots. Great job!

[@flightcomp]

Thanks dude!

[@microgliders]

looks like a perfect day for catching thermals

[@559moto9]

I have no clue Visalia has these competitions I live in Tulare and would love to go out one day to check these out

[@wordreet]

Great stuff! I must get around to building 2 gliders that I've had in boxes for two years! 😬🤦

[@capodad2u]

Floating around slowlyyyyy so distant...I'll stick to slope soaring although I do like the competitive aspect?

[@TorqueRoller]

Congrats #1!

[@bobwebber8521]

Very nice thank you.

[@jimmybritt9537]

Could someone please explain what the object is ? 👍👍🇺🇸

[@flightcomp]

In really simple terms- The goal is to fly for 10 minutes each round in the preliminaries. You are allowed a 30 second motor run at the start of the round to get altitude. There is a device in the model that shuts the motor down after 30 seconds and also records the altitude 10 seconds after it stops. You are deducted points for each meter of altitude you start from. So the lower you can shut the motor off the more points you get. You then have to find thermals to keep the model in the air for 10 minutes and land on a spot at 10 minutes. If you fly over the 10 minutes you are deducted points. You are scored against the others in your round. For example if someone flies 8 minutes in a 10 minute round and all the other people only fly for 7 minutes, the 8 minute flight gets max points and the others are scored based on the 8 minute flight. After the preliminaries there are fly offs. Generally the top 30% of pilots advance to fly offs. Fly offs are 15 minute rounds, usually 3-4 rounds. Same rules as prelims. Winner of fly offs wins entire contest. There are some more rules but those are the basics. Some contests do not allow emergency motor restarts, others do. For example if you thermal way down wind and don't have enough altitude to get back you can turn the motor on again to bring the model back but you get 0 points for the round. If the contest does not allow restarts, well you land way down wind and have to go for a walk. If the model is more than 75 meters from the landing spot the flight is also a 0.

[@jimmybritt9537]

@@flightcomp thank's

[@AngelLestat2]

How they manage to shutdown all the planes at the same time? Everyone use the same electric motor and battery, and all those motors are controlled from one master control?

[@flightcomp]

Each model has a device that shuts the motor down after 30 seconds and records start altitude.

[@AngelLestat2]

@@flightcomp ah ok, that seem fair.. thanks to remove my doubt.

[@kev4354]

1st Congratulations well Done

[@JessHull]

what are they competing against ?

[@joshfreund6008]

In this case each person against 23 other pilots

[@flightcomp]

In really simple terms- The goal is to fly for 10 minutes each round in the preliminaries. You are allowed a 30 second motor run at the start of the round to get altitude. There is a device in the model that shuts the motor down after 30 seconds and also records the altitude 10 seconds after it stops. You are deducted points for each meter of altitude you start from. So the lower you can shut the motor off the more points you get. You then have to find thermals to keep the model in the air for 10 minutes and land on a spot at 10 minutes. If you fly over the 10 minutes you are deducted points. You are scored against the others in your round. For example if someone flies 8 minutes in a 10 minute round and all the other people only fly for 7 minutes, the 8 minute flight gets max points and the others are scored based on the 8 minute flight. After the preliminaries there are fly offs. Generally the top 30% of pilots advance to fly offs. Fly offs are 15 minute rounds, usually 3-4 rounds. Same rules as prelims. Winner of fly offs wins entire contest. There are some more rules but those are the basics. Some contests do not allow emergency motor restarts, others do. For example if you thermal way down wind and don't have enough altitude to get back you can turn the motor on again to bring the model back but you get 0 points for the round. If the contest does not allow restarts, well you land way down wind and have to go for a walk. If the model is more than 75 meters from the landing spot the flight is also a 0.

[@johanbergkvist8834]

@@flightcomp Thank you for that explanation, it helped a lot.

[@xnoreq]

Hey Mr. flightcomp, can you recommend any cheap models to get into thermal soaring? Doesn't need to be competitive at all.

[@Paiadakine]

The radian is a popular 2 m foamy glider. It’s cheap and is not bad for learning to find thermals. The TPG gulls have f5j fun contests just for foamy gliders to help learn how to compete and also find thermals.

[@matthiaszimmermann3078]

Which plane did you fly, Vertigo or Pike Prestige?

[@flightcomp]

Vertigo light Saturday. Strong Vertigo Sunday.

[@rock3tcatU233]

This is my kind of sport.

[@KarlAlfredRoemer]

How long can these planes stay airborne at such a cloudy weather?

[@flightcomp]

If you have thermal activity they could fly for 2 or 3 hours before battery runs out. People have flown models similar for 8 hours.

[@JohnDoe-eo8gi]

Damage at 8:12

[@alliaj1]

new design :-)

[@elliothuh669]

Nice