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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Humbled.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That says it all of my first experience with this GPS Triangle Racing.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.
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<p class="MsoNormal">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!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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! <span style="font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif">😉</span> Okay, I cheated with a blurp of power to get the second lap in. Read on.
<span style="font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif">😉</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.
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<p class="MsoNormal">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!
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s the Plan and Profile view of the flight.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, this system from the equipment to the app is well thought out. Brilliant!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Curtis<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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