Ricky Jay 0 Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Greetings to all fellow sailplane enthusiasts, My name is Rick, and I hail from Cape Breton Ils. in the Canadian Atlantic Maritimes. I have been a life long aviation nut, thanks in no part to my father, who started taking me to airports and air shows at a very early age. Sailplanes have always held a special interest to me, starting with paper planes at about age 3, then free flight gliders (hand tow of course) at about age 10 (remember the Super Sinbad?), and radio control in the early '70's when I built my first transmitter, receiver and servo's from Heathkit. While living and working in British Columbia, I flew R/C sailplanes competitively in contest's all over the Northwest and was an active member of the Vancouver Kestral Glider Club and of the Northwest Soaring Society. I gave up R/C soaring around 1989 but I have recently purchased two kits through E-bay which I plan to assemble this winter and then start flying again this year. Cape Breton has many fine sites for slope soaring within minutes of my door! I am very passionate about soaring in FSX and after having just recently installed CumulusX and SimProbe, it has become all the more exciting. I would like to extend a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Peter Lurkens and Ian Forster-Lewis for their work and enormous dedication in executing these programs. I have downloaded all the sailplanes and missions for FSX that I could find and have flown most of them. I recently completed the SOAR Nationals Mifflin Day 1 in a time of 3 hours, 38 min., 25 sec. by thermal hopping. I was never low enough to use the weak ridge lift. Is this a competitive time? Lastly, I would like to thank Karen, for helping me to activate my account here and I hope that perhaps my knowledge and experience will be of some help to others. Regards, Rick James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sf4JC 1 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Just a little late, but, WELCOME to SOAR! Sorry no one got here earlier, but I haven't checked the rest of the forum to see if you've been welcomed. Usually a member can get to messages within the same day or two, everybody must have been busy here.Thanks for joining and giving us some background on you. I myself have some R/C experience in the past but actually started about when you left off. I haven't done any flying for many years, but still have 3 and a half models: One almost ready to fly, one that needs an engine and radio gear, one still in the process of being built, and the half one is in busted-up mode. I worked for Ace R/C Inc for about five years, but had to move on after they "closed the doors" in '93 or '94. I believe they reopened, but in a differant capacity.Anyway, WELCOME!Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruin 3 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Welcome aboard Rick,3h38m is a pretty good time, considering you only thermalled. My first attempt was 3h50m, also only thermalling. The track record is 3h00m19sec. Hodge did it in that time, taking full advantage of the ridges.If you are interested in track records of other missions that Ian (B21) made and trail how others flew the soaring missions, sign in on this site (it's free) and check the forum: http://www.flightsimulatorxmissions.com/Bert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodge7 0 Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Welcome Rick - Great to see you, Drop a reply into the forum for the US Nationals Day1 on:http://www.flightsimulatorxmissions.com/and tell us about your flight. I would also be interested to know which other missions you have flown and what you thought of them and how you went.How are you finding the new DG808 ?Hodge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B21 19 Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 well done Rick - completing the Nationals Day 1 using just thermals is quite an achievement in itself, and 3:30 is actually a kick-ass time. Your thermalling must be pretty good. Most FSX soaring pilots have also flown the Mifflin 'regionals' series, day 1 to 5, which are all mostly flyable in ridge and so most pilots are addicted to those Appalacian ridges. It turns out the DG808S full of water has quite a flat polar curve so you can zip along the weak ridges in Nationals Day 1 at 100 knots *but* you have to be very careful if the ridge turns out of the wind *and* the transition back to thermalling altitude is critical - there you can lose a huge amount of time. I think it's fair to say that Hodge's record-setting run maximised the ridge-running and had a couple of excellent climbs back up off the ridges - then the thermalling was a bit iffy but overall it will be a very difficult time to beat.Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodge7 0 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Quote - "then the thermalling was a bit iffy" :confused2: :glider: Yep - I definitely need more practice! I noticed looking at your last igc track b21, all those nice neat circles gradually moving downwind as you gained altitude. Mine look more like crazy paving!Hodge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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