Planet-Soaring

Pardines, THE towing event !

2013-05-16T23:25:00.000+02:00

Pardines has becomed one of the biggest towing event in France over years. Organized by Dominique and Madeleine Bely, 2 true RC glider addicts, Pardines is located in the beautiful area in the center of France, the Auvergne. Some figures to give you an idea:

42 pilotes
5 countries (Switzerland, UK, Czeck Republic, Netherland, and France).
12 tow planes
17 gliders in the air simultaneously (and no mid air)
Gliders from 4m to 10.5m wingspan …

Pascal Tournache participated to this meeting and came back with the following photo album:

An afternoon at Puy de Manse

2013-05-16T16:57:00.003+02:00

Spring continues to be very bad in France with lots of rain, water flood here and there, cold temperature. Weather forecast even plan some snow next week-end ! Hopefully, time to time, there is one or 2 consecutive beautiful days. Last saturday was nice, so I decided to drive to the region of Gap to retrieve Serge and Arnaud there and enjoy some super conditions at Puy de Manse.

Serge had his brand new Stinger he maidened, Arnaud was flying his Vampire. I took my Pike Precision, and didn't forgot to take my GoPro3 and also the Keycam #16 V2 lens D to shoot some onboard and ground video.

I had about 30 minutes of onboard video before the battery of the keycam dies, plus some Go Pro sequences, so I edited the 6 minutes video below. Hope you will like it.

Pike Precision at Puy de Manse par Planet-Soaring

Warriors Trophy

2013-05-13T10:50:00.001+02:00

Le Model club du Pays Bellegardien pour sa troisième édition, organise le 15 Juin une rencontre de combats d'ailes volantes en vol de pente (Warriors' Trophy) sur le Grand Colombier dans l'Ain. Le tout agrémenté d'un concours avec "formule spéciale M.C.P.B".

En cas de mauvaise prévision météo pour le 15 juin, la rencontre sera reportée au lendemain ou au week end suivant, le 22 ou le 23 juin (4 dates possibles). Le moment venu cette information sera en ligne à partir du jeudi sur le site Internet du club : http://mcpb-01.blogspot.fr/p/warr.html . Vous y trouverez également le règlement et le déroulement de la rencontre.

Pour participer à cette rencontre, vous devez vous inscrire avant le 13 juin et être licencié FFAM. Cette inscription est gratuite mais obligatoire (voir modalités sur notre site ) , et limitée au 40 premières inscriptions (le 2.4 est donc recommandé).

A bientôt pour une journée de détente et de bonne humeur sur ce site de vol de pente grandiose qui domine les 3 grands lacs des Alpes, le lac Léman, le lac d'Annecy et celui du Bourget.

L'équipe du M.C.P.B

F3F French League: Séderon

2013-05-10T11:28:00.000+02:00

Usually flying in the southern Alps always means sun and wind on great slopes. This year, weather forecast was really optimistic for saturday with some strong north wind (Mistral), and possibly some south west breeze for the sunday. It was also the opportunity to discover a new slope that we have never flown before.

Unfortunately, weather didn't keep its promises. When we arrived on the north slope we had no or very little wind. the slope is very deep and offers a beautiful scenery. We waited until 2pm, discussing, laugthing, but also free flying. I had a very interresting free flight, when after few minutes without thermal, I finished very deep with my Pike Precision hoping for a thermal. It has been a long and scary wait before I found a first thermal very far, almost out of sight. I finnaly found a second then a third thermal, thanks to Matthieu and his Solius (electro glider) who indicated me clearly the lift.

Around 2:30pm, the wind reached 3 to 4 m/s so we could start the F3F contest. Conditions were very variable with some time difference between 10 to15s for the same piloting level. We continued with round 2 and 3 before the wind died slowly at the end of round 3. What is very funny is that at 20km from there, the wind was blowing strongly all the afternoon.

Sunday has been worse has the wind was totally absent, and we got some rain, so the organiser decided to declare the contest end around 1pm. Overall this edition was a bit disappointing, but I'm sure next year will be a great contest, as it has always been in the past.

Below is a video filmed on saturday that will give you a good overview of the contest, the place, and the flying conditions.

Sederon 2013 from Pierre Rondel on Vimeo.

Video: Needle 100, F3F and DS

2013-05-07T10:20:00.000+02:00

Here is a short video while practicing F3F on Laurac Slope B (VKR2010 slopes) and also flying some DS. The Needle was at around 3 kg with ballast. Conditions were very bumpy frontside and very turbulent back side.

Eurotour F3F Pyrenees cup 2013

2013-05-02T15:08:00.002+02:00

The pyrenees cup is organised every 2 years in alternance with the Alpine cup in Briançon. Being end of April, we were expecting the weather to be cooperative, especially because few days before we got sunny weather and very nice temperatures. But unfortunately, a strong depression and rain crossed Europe over the week-end.

I arrived in Laurac on Thursday for some practice. We had the last day of beuatiful weather with Autan wind (south east). We have been able to fly all the afternoon, do some DS, some F3F practice, with the other pilots presents. Wind forecast was tramontane (Noth West) all over the week end with a switching during friday.

for those who don't know this region, there is mainly 2 winds in this part of France: Autan and Tramontane:

The tramontane is created by the difference of pressure between the cold air of a high pressure system over the Atlantic ocean or northwest Europe and a low pressure system over the Gulf of Lion in the Mediterranean. The high-pressure air flows south, gathering speed as moves downhill and is funnelled between the Pyrenees and the Massif Central.

The Autan is caused by high pressure moving NE from the Azores or the Eastern Mediterranean to the Baltic. Starting as a damp maritime wind, the Autan is blowing over the Languedoc into the Aquitaine, channelled and intensified by narrowing of lowlands between the Montagne Noir and Pyrenees and undergoes sudden acceleration between Corbieres and the south of the Massif Central.

Both wind can be strong so are good for F3F :)

Friday, we arrived to St Ferriol slope. Sky was grey, and the wind inexistant. We spent the day discussing, flying electro foamies, or quadricopters. We were also following carefully the evolution of the forecast, and it was not really encouraging for the 2 next day. On Saturday, forecast was saying that the rain would stop at the end of afternoon, but with good wind, and on Sunday we could expect a dry day, but with low and cross wind.

The organisation decided to setup the course to do the first flight of the compeitiont around 10am on Saturday, just in case. In fact we waied until 12:30 and suprisingly, the sky cleared, so we have been able to start the competition around 1pm. In fact we got a 5 hours window with no rain to few drops only, good wind between 8m/s to 15m/s with some gusts reaching 17m/s. All day long we had the company of up to 20 vultures flying in the lift, not disturbed at all by the F3F gliders whistling close to them. We managed 7 rounds before the wind shift to north, so too crossed to continue the competition.

Matthieu Mervelet, in a olympic form took the lead from round 1 and never left it, starting to fly with his Freestyler 4 before to damage it a bit at landing and continuing with his Freestyler 3.

Matthieu Mervelet:

After 2 average rounds, I changed gear and followed Matthieu closely, even winning 2 rounds, and flying the fastest time of the competition in round 6 with a nice 33.14s thanks to my Pike Precision loaded with 1.4kg of ballast. Martin Newham (UK), flew his Fresstyler 4 very well to end in third position. Reto Blummer (Switzerland) was waiting in ambush, and ends in 4th position, and Laurent Lombardo in 5th.

Video of the Fastest time:

Saturday evening, we all finished in Limoux for the banquet, hoping some more rounds on Sunday, despite of the low wind announced. On Sunday, we stayed on the slope, under the ligth, then stronger rain until 1pm, before the organiser decides to end the competition and invit everybody to the price giving in the nearest village hall.

Finally we can say that this competition has been short (5 hours only) but intense and we all had great fun. A big thanks to the organiser (Andreas Fricke) and his team who welcomed us with croissants and coffee on the slope, and ran the competition very smoothly.

Results and evolutive ranking (round results can be found here: http://pyreneescup.blogspot.fr/)

Video: Shark XL electro

2013-05-02T13:53:00.001+02:00

Here is the video I did about the Shark XL. Sorry for the lack of light. Weather was very bad, with dark grey clouds, but hopefully no rain at that moment.

Towing meeting of Brignoles

2013-04-30T23:05:00.001+02:00

This meeting in the south of France was 3 weeks ago. Here is the picasa slide show I received from Pascal Tournache:

Shark XL, the 4.5m electro-F3B/F

2013-04-30T22:48:00.003+02:00

The Shark XL is not really a new item, but remains a reference of the 4-5m fully moulded category. It has been designed few years ago by the Logo Team (Switzerland) who was very active in F3B in years 2000.
Last week-end, I had the opportunity to see the Shark XL belonging to Philippe Lanes. The flight is very impressive. It can climb almost vertical, dive deeply and reach very high speed, always with elegance and class. The perfect plane to fly on large mountain slopes and do thermal hunting, then aerobatic, then speed, all in the smae flight. This is a 4.5 m F3B with amazing perfomances. Its characteristics are the following.

Wingspan: 4500 mm
Area: 97 dm2
Ratio: 21
Section: WO-8D bis G
Lenght: 2050 mm
Weight: 5,3 - 7 kg

Here are some pictures taken at Laurac slope last Thursday. I have some material to prepare a short video about it. So Stay tuned !

Video: Solius at the slope with very light wind

2013-04-30T22:35:00.004+02:00

This short video is taken while flying the Solius at the slope with a very light wind, about 2m/s.

Towing season is ON

2013-04-23T08:12:00.003+02:00

With the spring season starting, towing events take place almost every week-end from South of France to Switzerland, , Alps, etc ... My clubmate & reporter Pascal Tournache participated to 2 of them already (Reyrieux, and Baillargues) and came back with the following nice picasweb albums. An opportunity to see nice to exceptional large gliders, and just dream ...

My article about the 2012 F3F worlds in a paper specialized magazine

2013-04-23T08:06:00.001+02:00

My report about the F3F world championship in Rügen has been published in the paper magazine "Modèle Magazine" (May issue). This may issue of Modèle Magazine includes lots other articles about sailplanes, with both very technical (aerodynamics), reviews (Supra competition, MPX solius) and reports (F3J Eurotour in France, F3F worlds).

TANGENT Modelltechnik is back !

2013-04-22T17:56:00.001+02:00

Following the bankrupcy of Graupner, its liquidation and the creation of a new company named Graupner/SJ, everybody was worried about the futur of Tangent which became part of Graupner few years ago. The good news is that Tangent will survive as an independant entities. The Tangent Modelltechnik crew is composed of some old graupner employees, and also the previous owner of the company. This will allow to restart the production soon, which is critical as stock is now zero everywhere as some of you has noticed, and continue with innovations and new models. Tangent is also planning to open a piloting school. In brief, Tangent is back, which is a good news for everyone !

RC Soaring Digest, May issue has been released

2013-04-19T21:54:00.002+02:00

The May issue of RC Soaring Digest has been released. You can download it at the following address: http://www.rcsoaringdigest.com

Pike Precision onboard video

2013-04-18T17:33:00.003+02:00

Last sunday afternoon, by a beautiful afternoon, I fixed a Keycam #16 V2 Lens D on my Pike Precision to filmed the following video. It was lot of crosswind so I did only sport flying with some light aerobatics, not more. Overall, I'm very happy with this keycam. It is for sure not comparable to the fantastic GoPro 3 black edition, but the Keycam delivers nice videos, and is so light that it can be mount easily almost everywhere.

Aerial pictures: The Plateau Matheysin

2013-04-17T13:52:00.001+02:00

Below are some aerial pictures of the plateau Matheysin. The Plateau Matheysin is located in the Isère département, 30 km south of Grenoble when heading to Gap. Its average elevation is 1,000 m. These mountains overlook a succession of four lakes of glacier origin called the Laffrey lakes.
I used my Easystar 2, equiped with the GoPro3.

The 4 last pictures are taken from my TBS discovery quadcopter. These are picture of the statue of Napoleon, on the road Napoleon: Route Napoléon is the road taken by Napoléon in 1815 on his return from Elba. It is now a 325 km section of the national road N° 85, starting from the french riviera to Grenoble. This statue is just before the road goes down to Grenoble valley

Solius: another onboard video

2013-04-15T13:08:00.001+02:00

Another video filmed last saturday.It has been filmed in 2 locations. First at the slope, but with the wrong wind direction as the wind was somewhere in my back :( . We don't see it really on the video, but conditions were very bumpy, Then I went to a flat field to continue my afternoon.As you will see I lost the canopy during the flight. It seems that the canopy lock is too weak. I will add some magnet to improve this.

Flying the Solius, the video

2013-04-11T07:50:00.002+02:00

Here is a video shooted yesterday at lunch break, using my GoPro3 on the helmet and the keycam #16V2 Lens D onboard.

Schulze is out of business

2013-04-09T13:01:00.001+02:00

After Graupner liquidation, and the creation of a new company Graupner/SJ, this is now Schulze which is out of business :(
Schulze was very popular for their great FM receivers, and also their chargers. I guess they missed the 2.4Ghz turn, or simply couldn't fight with competition from Asia.

La Muela, a short video

2013-04-06T19:12:00.000+02:00

Here is the video I edited using the few video sequences I did over the competition and jsut before. It is a bit shaky sometimes, sorry about that. The GoPro3 doen't like to be held in hands. It is much better on an helmet which acts like a stabilizer. Lesson learned !

La Muela F3F- Eurotour 2013

2013-04-04T10:59:00.001+02:00

Every year, easter is the time to drive to Spain for 3 to 4 days in order to participate to the F3F open of La Muela. This year the major novelty was that the contest was on 3 days instead of 2 days the previous year. What a good idea !

On the weather side, with the early date (end of march) combined with a cold and snowy winter, we were a bit worried. Center od spain can be very cold in winter (continental weather) with lots of rain.

Competition started on Thurday around midday, to allow some of the competitors to drive in the morning. It was a good opportunity to test the slope in slowly growing conditions. After a briefing at 1:30, we started the competition at 2pm on the south slope. 30 pilots allows to have quick rotation, so mmore rounds. We managed 5 rounds in the afternoon before the sunset. Round 1 was suspended during 20 minutes because of a rain shower. Wind was relatively stable between 7m/s to 12 m/s. At the end of the Day, Inaki was leading the competition followed by Matthieu and myself.

Friday forecasts were bad, but we still could hope dry weather window in the afternoon, which didn't happen unfortunately. We spent the day at the bar La Muela, with games, wifi, cafe, beers and good sandwitches. Around 3:30pm the organiser decided to declare the day OFF, as no improvement was expected. Low clouds and fog was straying on the slope, with some frequent showers.

Saturday was planned to be shiny and windy. When we arrived on the slope around 9 am, the wind was blowing from west, very strong, that is to say around 22 to 23 m/s average with spikes over 25 m/s. Competiton resumed at 10 am. from 10am to 5pm we did 10 rounds. At the beginning the wind was strong and stable, but as soon as the sun arived on the slope face, the wind decreased constantly and even dropped time to time around 5m, with some crosswind from the left. It made the flight very challenging, forcing competitors to change all the time the ballast to adapt to conditions of the instant. Times were oscillating between the very very fast to the very very slow (for exemple 33s to 57s for me...). My team mate Philippe Lanes beated the slope record with a superb 28.94 flying his Freestyler 4.3 (FS4 wings on a FS3 fuselage). Top position were swapping round after round between Matthieu, Inaki and I, until Inaki get a zero + penalty flight after doing a cut and stalling during the recovery.

On the organisation side, everything was smooth and perfectly ran. The round result and updated general ranking was displayed few minutes after the end of the round. The timing system worked perfectly, with automatic reporting into the calculation computer. For the lunch, the organiser proposed typical spanish sandwishes (Lomo, chorizo, Pancetta) prepared on order at the bas La Muela on the road down from the slope.

Price giving happened around 6 pm, to declare the podium, and the fastest time of the slope, before everybody returns home (14 hours drive for us). Matthieu wins the competition. I follow very closely with 50 pts less over 14000 ! Philippe finishes 3rd, followed by Inaki, Gerardo, Frederic, and Alvaro. On the plane side, lots of Freestyler 4, 4.3 or 3, few Pikes Precision, Vampires, Alliajs HM. Personnaly, I'm pretty satisfied with my Pike Precision which demonstrated to be at the level of the FS4. Then this is the pilot who is sometimes under (with 2 cuts for exemple).

I want to say an HUGE "thank you !" to the organisers, and especially the bases judges who stayed during all week-end to beep us. La Muela is definitively a great competition: 15 rounds in 1.5 days (if we remove friday) is a great achievement which demonstrate the efficiency of Miguel and his great team. The slope showed that it can be very fast, the scenery remains very beautiful, and the people very friendly. Everything we are looking for to make a competition a sucess and return with plenty of souvenirs.

See you there in 2014.

Below is my Picasa photo album. More to come with a video. Stay tuned !

Pike Precision electro fuselage

2013-03-26T09:30:00.000+01:00

I recently received from Samba Mmodel my Pike Precision electro fuselage. Below are some pictures of it. the fuselage arrives with the servos tray ready to mount, servos being upside down in this configuration. elevator snakes are in place. A small pocket with accessories such as the wing connector (green MPX connectors) and wires, ball clevises. the fuselage is shorter thant the glider version, present the same inner section, that is to say it is very tight. The motor must be as inrunner, with gear train. Several combination of motor/propeller/ESC are possible. On my side, I will reused my Kontronik Kira 480-43.

For further information you can contact Samba Model. I will start the assembly soon and will post the progress here.

MPX Solius review

2013-03-25T16:15:00.001+01:00

I finally purchased the Solius RR to fly sometimes at lunch break closed to my office, and also do some aerial pictures with the GoPro3. I like the look of the Solius that reminds me the Blanik L-33 Solo.

The review starts very badly with an uncomplete RR kit. the tailplane was missing, and also the user manual and the ESC user manual. This is very unusual for MPX, but shows that nobody is perfect, despite the "made in germany" writen on the box. A mail to the french representatives Bruno Blin and Claudette Hoydem remained without answer which is, from my point of view, a bit annoying (is customer care not important ?). The missing parts couldn't have been removed after leaving the manufacturer, because the cardbox was perfectly new, untouched, still sealed with the original tape, and because I choosed myself the box among 15 kits at the reseller stock. Hopefully my reseller, very reactive, fixed the problem quickly by providing me the missing parts.

What do you get: 2 wings, hopefully, 1 fuselage, 1 tailplane, user manuals, and a small pocket with accessories.

Fuselage is beautifully assembled: Elevator and rudder Servos are in place in the fin and hide with some white vinyl. the elevator control command is very simple and without slop. I just needed to adjust the length and lock with some cyano on the metal clevis on servos side. The positionning and lock of the tail on top of the fin is perfect.

In the front of the fuselage, motor and ESC are in place. I found the fuselage compartiment not very convenient but usable. The ESC takes lots of place, in front of the battery compartiment. Another bad surprise what the the motor was cabled inverted, so I had to remove the glue fixing the cables, the swap to wires to get the right rotation direction. I moved the ferrite ring that was too close to the ESC so I could place it more conveniently. As received I used the full range DMSS JR RG631B 6ch Receiver which is tiny and placed on the floor of the compartiment with 2 sides tape. Antennas are located at 90°, one in the direction of the fuselage, and the second one across, using cotton buds that I cut at the needed length to host them. The satellite antenna is across the fuselage. Once the receiver and the antennas installed, I cut a small piece of EPP at the exact shape to cover, protect, immobilize everything, as you can see on the pictures. As battery, I use an hyperion 1900 mAh G3 EX. the battery compartiment, is very deep. I think that the received could be moved at the rear of the compartiment if you don't need access to it.

Wings are also beautifully made and assembled. No more carbon tube as spar and joiner, each half wing receives a aluminium tube around a fiberglass rod as spar and joiner. The root of the wing is a big plastic part that allow to connect the wing together and provide the integrity and stiffness as the half wing joiner are secured. Stiffness obtained is good.

I found the wing servo connectors very hard to impossible to plug, so impossible to exctract without damaging the wires. So I sanded them a bit to ease installation and extraction. Here again, given MPX reputation, this is a bit disappointing. I removed the servos cover to change the control command position at servo side, in order to get more travel on ailerons. I replaced the servos covers using some blenderm.

On the radio, I set 150% of the travel everywhere to adapt the setting to my piloting. Then if needed, I will reduce.

Last saturday with low wind at the slope was a perfect day for the maiden flight. I installed the battery in oder to get the right CoG, indicated at the intrados of the wing with a very convenient mark you cannot miss. After a quick check of the servos direction and travel, and I throwed the Solius in the air. The climbing rate with the motor is very good with an angle around 45° to 60°. I few seconds you reach a confortable altitude, then you can soar and start thermalling. At full throttle, I noticed a vibration creating an ugly noise. This is a shame because at half throttle, the motor is really silent.

The Solius is agile and light at the sticks. It is rather stable in trajectory. The gliding ratio and the cruise speed are pretty good so you can move quickly from one place to another place, without loosing too much height. This is a very good point for thermalling. This feeling is reinforced by its ability to easily circle, sometimes very hard, without any bad habits. When you push the elevator stick the solius accelerates well, but the top speed remains reasonnable, which is better given the foam structure of the plane. During the diving, the smallest change of angle makes the wing tip to move as thers is no spar until the extremity of the wing. I will probably rigidify the wing tip with some carbon flat rod.

Aerobatics is preasant. Vertical manoeuvers are lacking of amplitude, because of the low inertia of the solius. the looping generally ends as a "comma" if you don't use the motor to help. Rolls are well axed, the 4 steps roll is possible if you do the right corrections during the rool, using the rudder. The inverted flight is very easy with or without motor. I was surprised to find myself to gauge the throttle while pepraring a low inverted flyby.

I flew all the afternoon, mainly without motor, using the lift of the slope. The solius penetrates wind pretty well. However, I regret a lot that, because of it design and architecture, it is impossible to ballast it, as it was on the Easyglider (in the joiner).

In conclusion, I would say that the Solius could have a been perfect considering the following flaws/issues:

My RR version kit was not complete
The wing is not flap ready
Motor vibration at full throttle
Motor wired inverted
No place for ballast
Wing servos connectors to sand

Despite all there, I still consider that the Solius is a real step forward in the foamy world. It is a true glider with real capabilities that will allow any pilot (from intermediate to advance) to enjoy, relax, thermal. in the air you really get the feeling that it is not a foamy.

Here are some pictures in flight. Sorry for the light, but the sky was grey with lots of clouds. when coming back from La Muela, I will do other pictures with sun this time, and also some video.

Stay tuned !

Same spot, 5 days later ...

2013-03-22T16:51:00.001+01:00

I just received the following picture from my friend Frederic Hours. He flew the F3F spot near Gap again, but the site looks very different after the snow falls of last sunday, with 40 cm of snow !!!
He had 3 to 6 m/s and the slope was very good.

Testing a new F3F spot

2013-03-17T14:35:00.003+01:00

Before the bad weather and snow come back, Saturday was a good window to drive to Gap (100km south to Grenoble).

Testing a new spot is always a mixing of excitation and stress. Will the slope be good and fast ? Will the landing area not too problematic ?

We (Joel and I) arrived around 1pm at the parking and met Arnaud who found this slope. After a 10 minutes easy walk we arrived on the crest, visited the area, and the landing zone. Then we start to fly on very variable conditions.

But smoothly the wind increased to read around 10m/s in the middle of the afternoon. The lift became consistent with no "holes".

I flew my Needle 100 DSL all the afternoon, and enjoyed it a lot, as it was very fast and was tracking very well. Later in the afternoon, Frederic joined us to enjoy strong lift, while the sky was becoming darker, announcing rain and snow in the coming hours.

Today, there is 5cm of snow on the slope and it is still snowing :( !

What a cold and snowy winter !