Flight B/C

[danxmemes]

Ceiling heights, it was 27 ft to the red where the curtains hung from, and 34 feet to the yellow girders. 38 feet to the top but no one was able to fly to up there. There was a significant amount of drift so we had to be careful about that.

[bjt4888]

Ceiling heights, it was 27 ft to the red where the curtains hung from, and 34 feet to the yellow girders. 38 feet to the top but no one was able to fly to up there. There was a significant amount of drift so we had to be careful about that.

Danx,

Thanks very much for the details. Were the longest Div C and Div B flights above the 27 ft red girders?

Brian T

[danxmemes]

I didn’t watch division C but for sure for div B. 1st had two touches on the 34 feet ceiling beams

[bjt4888]

I didn’t watch division C but for sure for div B. 1st had two touches on the 34 feet ceiling beams

Thanks for the info. That makes sense.

Brian T

[jander14indoor]

You can just barely see the net in that photo. The lowest portion of the net is the white line across the room JUST above the basket ball net that was pulled up in that picture.
We had the basketball nets down because that gave more unobstructed high ceiling space. But while it looked like you could pull the nets higher, there was a safety stop about halfway between the bottom of the red beams, and the bottom of the yellow girders. And particularly risky to fly near as they were near horizontal and stretched across the whole space. BIG net to get caught in. And while we could use poles to get planes out of the rafters, since the planes were generally flying with high torque, the props quickly wrapped in the net so we COULD NOT get the planes out without lowering the net.

As to height of the planes, unfortunately I didn't get to watch many flights as we were short volunteers, but a fair number flew up close to the yellow girders. I don't remember any being caught except in the morning practice. But like I said, being so busy checking planes, I may have missed one or two.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Hartman]

Danx,

Thanks very much for the details. Were the longest Div C and Div B flights above the 27 ft red girders?

Brian T

Definitely around there or higher. Don’t remember all the details but every team that had a good flight was above the nets and a few got up to between the upper rafters.

Some other observations I had watching throughout the day:
Agree with danx on the drift. As the day went on, there was a very slight draft pushing planes from the spectator stands towards the nets, which gradually strengthened up until around the end of the final block. So teams in later blocks would have their circles ever-so-slightly drift to the volleyball nets and even the far basketball hoop.

This caused many flights to fall early due to that. It seems the better teams, Grand Haven, Stevenson, and Troy all fell prey to this. Otherwise top scores would be around 3:15-3:30 by my estimates.

Curtains were very unforgiving and a touch on any obstacle risked messing up the plane’s pathing and hitting the curtains, ending flights early.

It also seems like most teams were unexperienced flying under high ceilings and didn’t know how much to increase torque to reach the correct altitude as several teams on both B and C simply launched straight into the rafters

[bjt4888]

Danx,

Thanks very much for the details. Were the longest Div C and Div B flights above the 27 ft red girders?

Brian T

Definitely around there or higher. Don’t remember all the details but every team that had a good flight was above the nets and a few got up to between the upper rafters.

Some other observations I had watching throughout the day:
Agree with danx on the drift. As the day went on, there was a very slight draft pushing planes from the spectator stands towards the nets, which gradually strengthened up until around the end of the final block. So teams in later blocks would have their circles ever-so-slightly drift to the volleyball nets and even the far basketball hoop.

This caused many flights to fall early due to that. It seems the better teams, Grand Haven, Stevenson, and Troy all fell prey to this. Otherwise top scores would be around 3:15-3:30 by my estimates.

Curtains were very unforgiving and a touch on any obstacle risked messing up the plane’s pathing and hitting the curtains, ending flights early.

It also seems like most teams were unexperienced flying under high ceilings and didn’t know how much to increase torque to reach the correct altitude as several teams on both B and C simply launched straight into the rafters

Hartman,

Thanks for the report on conditions.

Brian T

[JonB]

The challenges the venue provided were not because of the AC (which we were really thankful it was off) but more related to the height and obstacles at different heights. Mr. Anderson and others ran the Div C event very well.

I will also provide the following advice to all teams- make sure when you have your flight times in your log that you specify "minutes" and "seconds" as the units of time. Not doing this cost our students a medal with the 10% time deduction (well, I am not exactly sure of the 6th place cutoff but we flew 2:38 on my non-official timer). The rule was properly applied by Mr. Anderson, but it doesn't mean it didn't "sting" very, very badly for our students in the event. It was completely an oversight by our team and we "owned" the error.

Overall, the event was still run very well and we are thankful that Mr. Anderson supervises this event!

[pumptato-cat]

From what I've heard, the 6th-place cutoff was 2:36.

[JonB]

From what I've heard, the 6th-place cutoff was 2:36.

Ouch... I knew it was right around that. The official time might be different from my hand timing so I can't know for sure.