[MT-ALES] First Flight Thoughts...

[Ford Rollo]

Huh?

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 20, 2021, at 08:11, CURTIS SUTER via MT-ALES <mt-ales at lists.webworks.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Humbled.
>  
> That says it all of my first experience with this GPS Triangle Racing.
>  
> I ordered a Finch/Sparrow from Rick Shelby and it was shipped and arrived a day earlier than planned with all the updated software and registration numbers already programmed.  Thanks for that!
>  
> The install was simple, and I programmed the transmitter to a three-position switch to move through the screen displays pages.  The data fields change in the Albatross app depending on whether you’re in Start, Thermal or Glide.  Very useful.  I fabricated a piece of wood that is velcroed to the transmitter that holds the Android phone and velcroed the Finch receiver to the back of that.  I never had an RF drop while flying. 
>  
> I launched, climbed to altitude and entered the course.  It was quite windy at altitude, and it immediately became apparent the crab angle required to fly parallel to the course.  Pretty neat!
> On lap 2 I caught a thermal before turn point (TP) 2 and worked it downwind.  Uh, well that sort of worked great but there was a lot of sink getting back to TP2 so I’m not sure it helped as it just seemed to waste a lot of time.  This was the realization that the strategy of this task is much different than any I’ve flown before!  If this were a TD/ALES/F5J task I could have easily made it to the landing area.  I also learned that I thought I was going to pass through the TP but actually ended up inside of it so I had to turn back.  I think the wind blew me inside.  I’ll have to watch the app closer to ensure I go around the point or at least get inside the turn area.  The best flight time I was able to achieve was a 7:35 flight and 2 laps.  It’s a start!  😉  Okay, I cheated with a blurp of power to get the second lap in.  Read on.  😉
>  
> I was surprised that I could fly the course easily, I could understand the audio to stay on course and the Vario seemed pretty accurate too.  All in all, things worked really well other than the winds. 
>  
> Now to lay in bed and ponder all the different strategies.  Oh, I also placed the course so that TP2 was directly in the morning sun!
>  
> Here’s the Plan and Profile view of the flight.
> To start the course you must enter below 200m and 60kph.  That was fairly easy to accomplish although I would have liked to have been a bit faster.
> The black line is launch and the motor may be ran as many times before arming and entering the course.  This line changes to a color upon starting the course and changes colors depending upon altitude. 
> In the profile view you can see where I cheated and blipped the motor to finish the course.  So it was really just a one lap course but I wanted to see the behavior how things worked and finish two laps.
> Oh, Since the time wasn’t up when I crossed the finish line I didn’t know how to finish the task.  When it detects zero airspeed/movement it ends the task.  I think it may have ended with the motor restart but I’m not sure how it would have known that.  Hmm?  I see the profile view shows the motor start but I haven’t figured out how it knows when motor is on or off?  Hmm. 
>  
> Anyway, this system from the equipment to the app is well thought out.  Brilliant!
>  
> Curtis
>  
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