Astrowings Sets Flying Circus Events
Competitions will be held every Thursday evening at 5:43 pm starting on August 16th. The competition will end on the last Thursday in September. Everyone in the club is encouraged to participate.
To make this fair to members that cannot participate in every event there will be two “bys” for every person participating. If there are 7 events (assuming no rain-outs), 5 will be scored. If you have participated in every event your top 5 scores will be taken.
Points will be awarded for each event and accumulated throughout the
competition. At the end of the competition, prizes will be awarded. Prizes will be awarded to the top 4 pilots. The prizes will be a choice of the remaining items from the fun-fly pilot raffle.
Download the complete list of tasks and rules here astrowings-circus.pdf
August 17th, 2007 at 11:12 am
8/16 - Event was “Don’t Spill the Beans”. Scott Orten, Steve Tarney, and myself participated. John, Dan, Roger, and a new member named Dave did show up to watch the calamity though. All of us had fun.
Steve made two attempts with his electric. The first try he had a rough take-off and spilled 6 beans right away. He tried again and only lost 2 beans and scored 5 points.
Scott flew his Blue Angel. On the first flight we aren’t sure where all the beans went, but we may have some chick-peas growing next year. He tried again, things were looking better, although you would see an occasional pea falling to earth. He had a dead-stick landing and did a little tumble, no beans survived. He scored 1 point.
I flew my Balsa Nova. On the first attempt I managed to keep all the beans. Scott and Steve are taking my cup to the crime lab to check if there is any glue in it. I scored 6 points.
Next week should be a blast, bombing run! We need more people to show up.
Scott: 1
Steve: 5
Ben: 6
August 24th, 2007 at 7:32 am
8/23 - Event was “Bomb Drop”. The event could be considered rained out, but Steve Tarney and I still showed up between rain showers. I ended up making the bomb drop platforms out of coroplast and balsa to allow light weight planes to participate.
Steve and I both flew electrics. One the first attempt Steve did a roll from about 8 feet up and forgot to use down elevator while he was inverted. The plane came down with a thud, appeared undamaged. He loaded up another bomb and took off again. After about 30 seconds he was yelling/laughing that his firewall and motor seperated from the plane. He landed in a somewhat controlled fashion. It is repairable. Steve and I flew for about 45 minutes trying to out-do each-other. We had a rubber mat on the field as our target. Eventually we were seeing who could get it closest from the highest altitude. The bombs plugged in the water soaked runway.
We had a great time, this event will be a favorite. I’ll be bringing the bombs to the field more often just incase someone wants to play.
-Ben
August 30th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Ben was unable to be at tonights contest and asked me to fill in for him. The weather was perfect and the field was in perfect shape. The only problem was that I was the only one to show up! Its hard to believe that with 60+ members in our club that we can’t have a few show up on a perfect night in August. We don’t have too many events in our club and Ben was nice enough to get this one going and I thing the least we could do is support the effort and maybe even have some fun in doing so. Well here’s hoping some of you will show up next week. I will be there either way.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:41 am
9/6 - Event was “Circus Class Pattern”. Steve and I were the only ones to attend again. The wind was blowing pretty hard (15-20MPH). Steve and I were flying around with electrics casually. I landed, the airplane was sitting there, a wind gust lifted it off the ground, rolled it inverted, and smacked it back to the ground. The rudder was snapped in half. So, Steve was the only one who could participate. He made two attempts, his first time was 1 minutes, 11 seconds. He tried again and cut it down to 60 seconds.
New scores:
Steve: 11
Ben: 7
Scott: 1
September 7th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Guys,
I don’t have an appropriate plane but I feel bad enough that there is no participation in this event beyond you two that I may buy something! What plane would be a good entry into the fun? I’m sorta thinking about the Mutiplex Magister.
Greg
September 13th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Greg,
I love my Typhoon. I don’t know what the Mutiplx Magister is. I know if you purchase a Typhoon you won’t be sorry.
Steve
September 14th, 2007 at 6:59 am
9/13 - Tonight’s event was “Don’t Spill the Beans”. Steve and I were the only ones flying again. Dick Larsen was there to spectate. I thought the event would be easy… the first time we did it, it was. I was wrong. The wind was blowing pretty hard (15+) and Steve and I both had small electrics. After two attempts each, neither of us had any beans left. We agreed to each take a third attempt. I went first and managed to land with all 20 beans left. The pressure was on Steve. He delivered with his giant figure 8’s and smooth loops. Landing with all 20 beans. We each had 5 points, but we weren’t satisfied knowing it was a tie.
We agreed to do the “Circus Class Pattern” from last week again for a final tie-breaking point. I thought I could win by beating Steve’s record of 60 seconds from last week. My first flight beat it with 54 seconds, the gloating/show-boating began. Steve didn’t take that sitting down, he beat my 54 seconds with a record breaking 44.54 seconds. I boasted that I could break the 40 second mark. I took off and nearly re-kitted the airplane trying to start my rolls 5′ off the deck. I ended up completing the sequence in 45.6 seconds.
Steve holds the club record for Circus Class Pattern with 44.54 seconds.
Newest Scores
Steve: 17
Ben: 12
Scott: 1
September 14th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Greg,
Any airplane that can take-off and land (not hand launched) would be capable of competing in all of our contests. I am not going to discriminate either, if all you have is a hand-launchable airplane we can figure something out for you.
September 21st, 2007 at 6:55 am
9/20 - Thursday’s events were cancelled due to a thick layer of fog that rolled in.
October 5th, 2007 at 6:57 am
9/27 - Thursday was a pretty rainy day until about 4pm. After 4pm, the clouds cleared and the sun came out. There was no wind, a great night. Steve feared the rain, since he has a longer drive, and decided not to show up. I did finally get my Katana 350 balanced properly, to get that done I had to cut one of the fuselage formers so that I could move the battery about 2.5″ forward. That really helped the airplane out, it is much smoother flying now.
I spent the night practicing “Circus Class Pattern” and am confident that I can beat the club record of 44.54 seconds (held by Steve). I’ll have to wait to meet Steve at the field and challenge him.
For the 2007 club events Steve is the winner with 17 points, I came in second with 12 points, Scott came in third with 1 point.
I had really hoped that this would draw more of our members and get people flying again.