Today is the second of the World Championships and our 6th day in the mine, rounds 3 and 4 have been flown with some interesting results, from a personal perspective I needed to do a lot to improve on yesterdays dismal performance and think I came away successful.
Air conditions in the mine were near to perfect minimal if any drift, my first flight (round 3)was a straight up and down no touch (no steering), climb was around 135′ and touched down at 20:06 circling was smooth, no stalls and a very nice decent rate, for those who do not know how we get these incredible durations the trick is to climb as quickly as possible, a good flyer will get to the ceiling in 2 and half to 3 mins, cruise around level(ish) for 3 to 5 mins then the slowest decent possible the target is to land with no turns remaining on the motor as an example of what can be achieved Kang Lee (team USA) made a 29:41 flight in this round.
Round 4, I achieved a little better at 20:26 but the leaders are a mile ahead with Kangs two flight total at 57:47 so nearly an hour in the air, in team UK Hans Staartjes made a flight hitting the catwalk at 160′ but fell off and into the wall, as a result he was down at 12:37, these thing happen, his second flight climbed like a rocket a little short of the catwalk (he backed off turns on the motor) but his decent was not the best and he landed at 21:22. Tony Hebb on flight 3 had a reasonable climb and a good decent for 23 mins and his second flight a better climb but some bad air and a stall saw him down at 22mins.
At the end of round 4 UK standings were:
Hans Staartjes 13th
Tony Hebb 16th
Terry Adams 17th
Tuesday is the last day with everything to go for, I have some different rubber to try and everybody will be pushing to the limits so expect hang up and collisions.
Two photos today, a general view of the pits, see if you can count the models and the second a view of the ceiling, if you find the greenish light beam and zoom well in you will see my model at max altitude.”
Terry Adams, Team GBR F1D
