Typhoon Race Diaporama

A very nice diaporama about the Typhoon Race 2011:

Video of the F3F world record in 26.80

Here is the video posted about the F3F world record in 26.80s:

TR2011: Few more information from CM Cheng

This is amazing! That flying site is sure a world record producer. However, it takes some technique to master it. Wind is strong, and it is side wind. The lift band is very narrow. If you can find the sweet spots to accelerate and avoid the head wind, sub 40 is easy to achieve. Otherwise, the model will be very slow.

To get the best speed, the model needs to fly very close to the cliff. We have a lot of spectacular crashes in these 3 days!

All the 4 pilots are the best of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Kenneth and Lin are the Champion of Hong Kong and Taiwan F3F league respectively. Ho went to Kenting a week before and practice everyday.

Hope you can join us in the future! The next TR will be held by Korea. The flying site would probably be at "Huang Gang Shan". It is an inland slope and is totally different from Kenting, Taiwan.

CM Cheng

The Typhoon Race ended on a new unbelievable world record of 26.80 seconds !!!

The Typhoon Race ended on a new unbelievable world record of 26.80 seconds !!!

4 sub-30 times in the same competition is just historical from my point of view !

Copyright CM Cheng

congratulations to Ho Kwok Wai (Hong Kong) 29.70s , Kenneth Chan (Hong Kong) 27.70s , Lin Kuo Ping  (Taiwan) 26.80s,  and Chang Chang Tai (Taiwan) 29.09s.

The new world record will be very difficult to beat, believe me !

New F3F world record at the TR2011

Following my post yesterday, I just learned that the F3F world record from Inaki Elizondo at the welsh Open has been beated twice at the Typhoon Race in Taiwan Kenting. Wind speed was around 17m/s with gust at 19m/s.

First by Chang Chang Tai flying his Dingo in 29.09 seconds:




Then this new record has been beaten again later in the day by Lin Kuo Ping flying a Needle 100" in 28.58 seconds:




Congratulations to both pilots for this great achievements !

Typhoon Race 2011

This Race is to the Asia what the Viking Race is to Europe. The TR2011 is organised this week-end in the very south of Taiwan, on a costal slope. the weather forecast were very promising and it seems that it is just unbelievable: Just to understand here are the best time of each of the 9 rounds completed up to now:

• 32.67 s
• 32.67 s
• 31.45 s
• 33.60 s
• 33.12 s
• 32.21 s
• 30.73 s
• 31.85 s
• 31.44 s

What a competition ! I wish I was there. Eric Wong achieved today a 30.73s which is from my knowledge the best F3F time in Asia. Congratulations Eric !

You can follow the results and find lots of video  here

copyright Stanley Chan

New Team Black Sheep video

I'm a fan of Team Black sheep videos. This one is filmed while flying in formation with a big scale BAE HAWK R/C model:

BAE HAWK from RiSCyD : TeamBlackSheep on Vimeo.

Pike Precision new video

Here is the last video I did about the Pike Precision, a month ago.

Laurac: New photo album

Here is the photo album from Laurent TEREYJOL about Laurac 2, the last contest of the F3F french League:

F3F French league

The F3F season in France ended this week-end with the contest of Laurac.

We flew 15 rounds on VKR2010 Slope A, in very strong wind, from 12 to 20 m/s with some gusts above 20 m/s. I flew the Pike Precision most of the time full ballast and ended with the Rotmilan after damaging the Pike.

I won the competition by a large margin and got the fastest time of the comp with 33 seconds.

Few words about the plane I used: The Pike Precision is absolutely great. It carries ballast so easily that you don't feel it at the sticks.

It is always agile, very fast, but with still plenty of lift and grip in the turns. The pike is definitively in the lifty plane family (opposed to slippery planes)

Unfortunately, I damaged it at round 13th, while landing . The plane stalled at 1m of heigh in a sudden rotor, while full ballast. He touched the ground first with the nose, then with the tip. the nose is broken, and I have some damages on the wing that didn't touch the ground (delamination). Given the hit, it behaves rather well, I would say.

I'm flying at a CG of 102mm and add 15g in the nose when full ballast.

Overall a great plane !

I also flew the Rotmilan few rounds, with 1.4kg of ballast, 900g in the fuselage and 500g of tungsten in the joiner.

With the setting I already published on planet-soaring, the plane is great and carry ballast very well too. The straight speed is excellent, and the plane demonstrated very good capability to manage crossed wind.

The upwind turn is superb with a great gain of speed and altitude. The downwind turn is a little bit more challenging but with the right setting and if you don't pull too much on the elevator, you can keep the energy very well. The secret there is in the trajectory: In the downwind turn (wind in the back I mean) the strategy is to engage a large turn, flying away from the edge, diving a bit, before to really turn, but which much more speed and energy. Of course I use reflex camber (ailerons and flaps about 1mm up).

During the 30 s of gain of altitude, The rotmilan was also very good, pumping well and high, a real pleasure !

This last win allow me to win also the french league 2011, the 7th in a row, and a total of 10 leagues over 12 leagues organized since 2000 .

Below is the evolutive ranking and the plane list.

Go Pro HD Hero 2

Go Pro is releasing a new HD Hero2 with some improvement. First of all the new sensor with 11 MP, 3 different angles. Photo mode is also enhanced with 11MP resolution and a burst mode with 1 picture every 0.5 second.

Here are the specs:

Camera Optics

• 2X Sharper Professional Glass Lens
• f/2.8 Fixed Focus
• 170º Wide FOV (Including 1080p)
• 127º Medium FOV (In 1080p + 720p)
• 90º Narrow FOV

Video

HD RESOLUTIONS:

• 1080p: 1920×1080, 30PFS
• 960p: 1280×960, 48FPS + 30FPS
• 720p: 1280×720, 60PFS + 30FPS

STANDARD DEFINITION RESOLUTIONS

• WVGA: 848×480, 120FPS + 60FPS

High Performance,1 /2.3” CMOS Image Sensor
Light Sensitivity: .84 V/lux-sec
Video Format: H.264 codec, .mp4 File Format
Exposure Control: Spot, Center Weighted
White Balance: Auto

Photo

• RESOLUTIONS: 11MP, 8MP, 5 MP
• FOV: Wide 170º FOV, Medium 127º FOV
• CAPTURE MODES: Single, 10 Photo Burst, Time-Lapse*, Self-Timer
• * Now supports time-lapse photo every 0.5 seconds. Requires Class 10 speed SD Card.

Audio

• Mono, 48 kHz, AAC Compression, Auto Gain Control
• Stereo External Microphone Input (3.5mm)

Storage

MEMORY:
SDHC: Up to 32GB (Class 4 or Higher)

The price is the same than the previous model at its introduction on the market.

Here is the advertising video:

MPX new Item: the EasyStar II

The best seller of Multiplex, the Easystar is renewed and bring new features:

• Brushless motor, with 3x more power than the Easystar 1
• Folding prop for better gliding ratio
• Removable tail
• Precut ailerons, so you can install the 2 servos easily and enable this function
• large fuselage compartiment for easy high capacity LiPo hosting. Up to 4600mAh, means 90 minutes of autonomy, for long distance flight.

It is clear that MPX had FPV in mind when designing this new version...

Source: http://multiplex.zhype.com and http://www.multiplex-rc.de/en/home.html

Picture of the day

While doing some cleaning on my computer, I retrieved this picture, That I modified a bit with Picasa to keep the color only on the place and have almost only black and white all around. This picture has been taken at Le Col Du Glandon, north slope, facing the highest summit of the Alps, Le Mont Blanc with 4810m of altitude. The plane is of course the Supra.

New transmitters approaching ...

the 2.4 Ghz saga continues ...

While Jeti DC16 transmitter is now anounced for February, www.RCmania.hk published some pictures of new items.

Futaba continues to confuse the market by releasing the T8J, using a the low cost S-FHSS system: No sliders, only one proportional knob and only 8 channels. More than a little step down from the 8FG. Also no compatibility with FASST.

JR, on its side is accelerating, and proposes the XG6:

And the new flag ship of the brand with the XG11. Both radio are DMSS.

More picture can be seen on JR website: http://www.jrpropo.co.jp/blog/2011/10/51.html

Pyrenees cup eurotour F3F new photo album

Mickael Llorca sent me the link to his nice Picasa photo album about the last Eurotour contest of the season 2011 near Toulouse. Enjoy !

Pike Precision Video

The following video has been taken few weeks ago at le Col Du Glandon, the place where F3F was introduced for the first time in France in 1994. This end of afternoon with a light breeze gave super smooth flying and laminar conditions. This place has a north and a south slope. South slope, the one on the video, is facing a valley and the lake of Grand'Maison, built between 1978 and 1985. The slope is not very deep and sharp, but, as soon as the breeze is blowing, provides a very homogeneous lift, with no thermal effect. Really a magic place to fly !

The video about the Pyrenees Cup F3F Eurotour

Excellent video from Lukas about the Eurotour contest of Laurac (Pyrenees Cup):

Onboard Video on a FOSA F3B

This great video from Fabrice Estival is taken using a GoPro mounted on the nose of a FOSA, and facing rear. Action take place in Alicante (Spain) where Fabrice is spending holidays regularly.

Pyrenees cup eurotour F3F

The Pyrenees Cup was the last contest of the Eurotour 2011. In addition it was also the last of the 4 contests entering in the selection of the french F3F team fro Rugen 2012.
29 Pilots from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, without forgetting our guest from USA, David Cortina.
the weather forecast was very good, and after a superb training day on Thursday, we got 2 windy days in Laurac with gusts between 15 to 18 m/s.
On Friday, after a breifing around midday, we started quickly and managed 7 rounds in perfect conditions. The wind surprisingly was not so crossed. Time to time, a strong thermal was popping, boosting the plane like a rocket. Most of the time the thermal was to short to stay the whole run. I should have won the round one because I got excellent condition on the second half of my run, but because of a very bad and looonng cut, I do only the second time, too bad !
Stefan HÖLBFER flew a amazing 29.83s in round 2, making this round a joker for everybody. People were saying: "just enjoy your flight, and experiment what you want because in any case, it will be your throw".
Jean-Luc Foucher won the next round with his Alliaj, then Lukas the round after. But Stefan was clearly dominating the competition, and on top of that was getting consistent condition during his flights. He won the rounds 6 and 7.
At the end of Day 1, Stefan was leading, followed by Lukas, and myself at the 3rd position.
The second day was similar to the first day, with maybe more crossed wind, especially at the end of the day. Stefan continue to dominate, but Alexis did a very good climb in the ranking to end at the second rank, just above Lukas. Matthieu Mervelet also flew well and placed in 4th Position. On my side, after few bad flights, and too much cuts, I finished the day in 5th position.
Unfortunately Sunday, as forecasted, was a transition day, the wind switching from south east to north west on monday, so after an attempt to complete another round, we stopped the competition and Andreas declared the Pyrenees cup end.







Strong winds means heavy ballast for everybody, so we assisted to several plane damaged, especially during the landing. Personnally, apart 2 flights with my Alliaj HM, I flew all the competition with the Pike Precision and have been very happy with it. Most of the time I fleww full ballast, that is to say 1.7kg of brass, so a total weight of 3.8kg. I have been amazed how easy the Pike could carry the weight, without changing its behaviour, and showing no bad habits at all. Lots of FS4, very impressive, with a flying weigth about 4.9kg, which is the FAI limit of 75g/dm2, several Caldera R, Vampire, FS3, Cyril, Ceres, etc ...

At the end, Stefan won the competition, and Lukas (3rd) won the Eurotour, bypassing Espen Torp by few points. The price ceremony, on the slope, and very friendly, closed this superb and very intense week-end of F3F.

Below is the video of the 29.83s flight of Stefan:






Full results on the organizer website: http://pyreneescup.free.fr/

Planet-Soaring picture on RCSD front cover

One of the pictures I provided to RCSD has been chosen to do the front cover of the october issue. The webzine (PDF format) is available here.

Jeti in Prague

A very short video about the DC16 transmitter from Jeti. The DC 16, announced initially for July, is still not released, as the Jeti box profi.