More of the blind leading the blind, me in both cases. I just had a contest in considerably more wind than I have much experience in. Practice day on Friday had wind, in the timeframe that I flew, of 9 mph and gusts to 17, or 12 with gusts to 18.5. Those numbers bracket my practice time slot, care of WeatherUnderground readings at the airport. The wind seemed more like the higher gust value with some drops to the lower. Saturday had a bit less wind and gusts, though there were a few moments.
The timer values started where I flew the first event noted above. I practiced some since the first event some with 4(tilt) and 6(high limit of centripetal acceleration) each one number higher, but elected to use the previous settings. After practice on Friday, 4 went back up one number and one flash of RPM added. That all proved still a bit slow with some softness of lines at times during the contest.
One observer commented that while he heard the timer function, that it didn’t seem to be doing much. It was still helping control windup reasonable well, though that, deceleration, was not so well heard.
Yesterday the wind at home was fairly comparable, wind of 9 starting and 11 – 12 mph, 5 flights later. Gusts much higher, 15 to start and 19 noted at the end, though those gust numbers were from a calibrated phone app, so may be suspect. It felt similar to what I had just been in.
First flight was a repeat of contest numbers and felt about the same, a little soft. Flights 2 and 3 were with a number up on high limit, a number that I wish I had stayed with from before. Flight 4 and 5 were yet a number higher on 6 limit, and better, and I didn’t press my luck further with the wind. The plane had better line tension the whole flight, and no slack overhead. I didn’t want to change number during a contest and without practice and evaluation. During my first flights learning the timer, I had not liked the higher limits and felt that the corners could get almost too fast, and a bit less smooth. It will now be interesting to see how those settings feel on a fairly calm day. It becomes apparent that flying an accelerometer has a different feel, and there is a learning curve even when all is working well.
No variation in the number of laps left at the end of the flights, so no variation of overall lap times, other than the change I made from practice by adding rpm, and perhaps a bit more lap with raising of the limit 6. Of course raising 6 would let the timer add more rpm when needed. It is quite easy to field adjust without tach or instructions once familiar. Again, blind me leading blind me, but I think that using the most aggressive settings that one can adapt to with consistency may prove to be better than using what first feels easy and helpful. Stress on the consistency part, but let the timer work.