On Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:48:38 -0400, Brian Lawson wrote:


Good luck. Let us know how you fare at the "contest"?


Well, that's almost entirely a done deal. It's control line (model
airplane) precision aerobatics. Last year I was in the beginner class
which is for, well, beginners. It features an abbreviated pattern with
all the really hard maneuvers taken out.

This year I'm moving myself up to intermediate*. All this winter I've
been struggling with trying to get my planes to work right with bigger
tanks that can hold enough fuel to make it through a complete pattern,
but when it hasn't been windy it's been raining buckets -- so I haven't
gotten a whole lot of practice in.

So, "how will you place?" is pretty much predestined to be "at the
bottom". "Did your plane(s) survive?" is more of a mystery -- I'll
report on that one on Sunday. Or, given bad flying, maybe Saturday.

* It has been pointed out on numerous occasions that judging for beginner
and intermediate is way harder than judging for expert. In expert the
rounds are round and the squares are square, and you can pretty much
count bobbles and subtract 1/2 a point each. In beginner and
intermediate you often have to start by asking yourself "what maneuver is
that supposed to be?" and go from there.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com