Thank you guys!
Also, big thank you to the organizing club Wind Wings Club and Ma Yong. Thanks Thomas Wang for picking me up at the airport! And thank you Gao Laoshi for doing the scores.
Arrived Friday noon and checked in to my hotel across from the field. After arriving at the field we went to grab a late lunch before going back to the field to practice.
When we got back to the field it was slightly windy, perfect for my planes, and proceeded to trim them and observe the field conditions. My caller Tang Zhigao arrived later, and we practiced some all-up-last-downs in the calm evening air. It was very lucky that we practiced in those conditions Friday evening and trimmed our planes to those conditions too, the whole prelim contest the next day was very calm.
Prelim conditions were dead calm with very little wind and very little thermal activity. The main requirement was to work light lift (which was good for my 250g plane) and to launch high. Thomas Wang and Pangzi were both very consistent with very high launches and made good times. I was in trouble during the 4th prelim round and only got a 639, luckily I was able to drop that. Throughout the prelims I found myself not able to get any reliable thermal reads because of how still the air was (perhaps the thermals simply weren't there!). There were a couple high large thermals during the prelims, but for the most part it was very weak and more often than not I was simply not coming down as fast when I circled.
Prelim scores for the top 8:
Thomas Wang: 4000
Pangzi: 4000
Thomas Lee: 3882
Youlan: 3752
Mr. Wang: 3747
Mr. Xu: 3636
Kelly Cai: 3587
Adnan: 3418
After lunch the flyoffs started, and by then the wind has started to pick up, and stayed somewhat windy for the entire 4 rounds. It was a favourable change in conditions for me, and I was able to fly the entire 4 rounds with my 250gram Neos without any ballast as well.
First round was Task B, 10 minute window, last 2 flights count, 4 minutes max.
My first flight was 3:5X if I remember correctly, dropping a few seconds. I had a good read and flew straight to it off launch and climbed well, but dropped out of the thermal early and came down too fast in the sink. I do not remember what my 2nd flight time was, but I believe it was lower. Had a great read before launch as well, and flew right to the thermal, but dropped out of the edge. This is something I need to work on. While making my way back I encountered a few patches of light air and circled a bit to slow the descent, before coming back to the field. While coming back I had a midair with another plane which spent us spinning, and I was dangerously close to the ground before I recovered the plane. It was very nerve-wracking, I saw Thomas Wang's Stobel V3 coming in behind and above me, but proceeded to land out, I knew it would be 50/50 on getting back myself being lower than the Stobel. Managed to squeeze the last bit of ground effect out of the plane and crossed the boundary with maybe a foot to spare at best, phew!!!!! Upon inspection there was no damage to my plane.
2nd round was Task C, All up last down, 3 minutes max.
This round was fairly uneventful, had good reads throughout the round and flew ok. 2nd flight was not the best and left a bit on the table.
3rd round was Task J, 10 minute window, last 3 flights count, 3 minutes max.
Again, not a very eventful round, wind was picking up and I still had good reads on the air. I ended up putting a lot of hurt on the others in this round, I think the 2nd highest score in this round was 780. If I remember correctly after this 3rd round I was leading the flyoffs by a couple hundred points out of the max of 3000 (think I was around 29XX).
4th round was Task H, 10 minute window, 1-2-3-4 minute maxes.
I knew before the round that I was leading by a fair bit, and all I had to do was fly consistently and should be able to keep my top place. Got very good reads downwind every flight and got the 1, 3, and 4 minute flights. I did screw up though, and dropped my 2 minute flight with a landout, was indecisive in the air whether to turn around and come back, or to fly to the left a bit more to look for a low level patch of air, and those few seconds in sink left me with very very little height and I missed the boundary by a good 10+ meters.
I have not seen the final score sheet yet, and only the top 3 scores were announced (the rest of the flyoff was only announced with standings), so I do not remember the exact scores:
1. Thomas Lee (Hong Kong): 3912
2. Kelly Cai (Shanghai): 3496
3. Adnan (Singapore): 3270
4. Mr. Xu (Beijing) 3119
5. Thomas Wang (Beijing) 2943
6. Pangzi (Beijing) 2816
7. Youlan (Ningbo)2665
8. Denver (Beijing) 2389
Random thoughts: I need a much higher launch to gain an advantage during the calm air conditions. Windy in Beijing is calm in Shenzhen. Need higher launc height. Thermals are much stronger in Beijing as well. Need higher launch height. Beijing is very dusty but the weather feels GREAT. Flying shoeless feels so good. Need to continue to further improve my air reading skills. Improve launch height. Be more decisive. And launch higher.
I hope we can send a couple more pilots to Beijing next year from Hong Kong (and South China). Airfare, hotel, food, and entry fee together is about 3000 HKD, not a bad way to spend a weekend with friends
Thomas
Aug 27, 2012