Hind sight

[RC Storick]

My first flight I was close to last on the first day and it was a wind flight and I scored a 553 at Brodaks. The next day I was up third and it was stunt heaven. However I elected not to fly as it was cool and I was not sure I would have enough fuel to make the pattern. Thinking back to Memphis and loosing the TBolt I didn't want to loose another one. Looking at how the scores jumped on the second day I am second guessing myself. I fly the XL much better in calm weather. Oh well this is not the first time I have made these choices and regretted it. I would regret more running out of fuel on the four leaf again. Just babbling.

The best trophy is that I still have a airplane.

[john e. holliday]

Good thinking Sparky.  That is where the practice and experience has come into play.   Now to concentrate on the NATS.

[Doug Moon]

That's a tough call for sure. Making that decision really depends on ones objective.

Last year getting ready for 2012 Nats I was running a PA 65 that was several years on a rebuild and drinking the fuel under 85 degrees.  8oz, full tank, was beeping and sometimes shutting off prior to the clover.  I used the old 1 cap full of Colemans lantern fuel per 1 gallon of model airplane fuel trick, I only use the Coleman's brand, and it would add about 6 laps after the clover.  I kept this gallon with me in case the temps dropped.  I didn't need as we got further into the summer but I had it with me in case I ran into run time issues. Eventually I borrowed a new motor on Wednesday of the Nats and it didn't matter anymore.  8oz would get me through with laps to spare. Being prepared for such situations is more than half the battle.

[Eric Viglione]

I guess it depends on how bad you want it and what the stakes are.

Funny story from the 2010 Nat's... I was ready for my second official flight of the day and the judges were coming back from lunch. I was first up. The judges were all lined up. I like to prime my engine before I signal the judges and give it a quick spinner flip and go. Don't want to let the atomized prime go away. So, I signal the judges but I really didn't look to see if they responded. I asked my launcher perfunctorily if they saw my signal, and I'm not even sure if I listened to his answer, I just went ahead and started it. I was really engrossed in what I was going to do in my flight, unfortunately, a little TOO much in the "zone" this time.

Well, it turned out the judges were distracted for a group photo, and hadn't acknowledged my signal, much to my panicked helpers dismay. I killed the engine, and rather than take an attempt, I told the judges I would fly right then and they were ok with it. Problem is, I was tight on fuel to begin with... and I didn't want to take the time to top off.

I got to the overheads and it was leaning out a little more than usual, then when I did the clover there was a dead silent burp in the vertical exit with the rudder about 15ft off the ground that would have made any Fox 35 owner proud! Trouble is, this was a PA 65 and they don't normally do that!! Fortunately, after what seemed like an impossible amount of time, the engine re-started and I flew out a normal exit over the top.

When I landed, I think my helper was more upset than I was about the whole thing and told me he nearly had a stroke when the engine cut out and restarted, and tried to blame himself for a near tragedy... NO WAY! I woudln't have it! It's the PILOTS ultimate responsibility to make the tough choices. I made mine, dumb as it was, and somehow lived to tell the story. I do not reccomend copying my stupid choice, I should have topped off the tank or taken an attempt, even though I got away with it.

OK, now the really dumb-arse part - It turned out I was already pretty much a lock to qualify and this could have been a throw away flight. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!  
Hind sight is 20/20, and being first up after lunch, I really didn't have the confidence that some wild ballooning wouldn't knock me out somehow, so I resigned myself to fly.

As one of my mentors Bill Rich always said, if you can fly in front of Nat's Judges, you always take the opportunity to fly!!

To add a little color to the story, this is the Nat's I won Advanced. I sure wouldn't have won with a crashed plane on that qualifying flight.

So like Paul Harvey used to say, "and now you know, the rest of the story"!

EricV

[FLOYD CARTER]

OK.  I'll not bore you with stories.  However, contests don't happen that often, and we often take chances at a contest that we would not consider on a normal flying session.

Overly cautious, and you will look back with regret that you didn't put out maximum effort, regardless of perhaps poor flying conditions.

Floyd

[Brett Buck]

My first flight I was close to last on the first day and it was a wind flight and I scored a 553 at Brodaks. The next day I was up third and it was stunt heaven. However I elected not to fly as it was cool and I was not sure I would have enough fuel to make the pattern. Thinking back to Memphis and loosing the TBolt I didn't want to loose another one. Looking at how the scores jumped on the second day I am second guessing myself. I fly the XL much better in calm weather. Oh well this is not the first time I have made these choices and regretted it. I would regret more running out of fuel on the four leaf again. Just babbling.

    I have never once regretted flying a flight, I have often regretted not flying them. When in doubt, go ahead and fly.

   Brett

[Randy Ryan]

    I have never once regretted flying a flight, I have often regretted not flying them. When in doubt, go ahead and fly.

   Brett

I agree with that Brett, in FF we've always said FLY ALL YOUR FLIGHTS, if nothing else you learn. In adverse weather you learn, when you're way down on point (seconds) you just add so they're not as low and maybe figure out why you're not flying well for the next time, and then there's the tightwads reason, I paid my money, I'm flying my flights!! I do have never regretted a flight tho I have sweated through a few!

[Scott Richlen]

Sparky:

It was fun meeting you at Brodaks.  Your plane is beautiful so don't be too hard on yourself on this one.  You have a lot of mileage to put on it before its old.  The worse thing is to wreck one while the paint is still off-gassing and there isn't much hanger rash on it.  And this wasn't the Nats, maybe a warm-up for the Nats; but still, not the Nats.  So, good decision.

On the other hand, I think that maybe in the long run you'd make a different call: remember that all of these planes deserve to die in glory rather than hanging in an attic (or basement) someplace while they slowly rot.

And thanks for the painting tips!

Scott

[RC Storick]

I flew in the rough air so it was not that it was a temperature and fuel shortage. My 75 burns 8 oz in a flight and that the size tank I have. When its cold or cool it need s 1/2 oz more or it will run out on 4 leaf. I had no 5% only 10. No excuses only regret.

[RC Storick]

Sparky:

It was fun meeting you at Brodaks.  Your plane is beautiful so don't be too hard on yourself on this one.  You have a lot of mileage to put on it before its old.  The worse thing is to wreck one while the paint is still off-gassing and there isn't much hanger rash on it.  And this wasn't the Nats, maybe a warm-up for the Nats; but still, not the Nats.  So, good decision.

On the other hand, I think that maybe in the long run you'd make a different call: remember that all of these planes deserve to die in glory rather than hanging in an attic (or basement) someplace while they slowly rot.

And thanks for the painting tips!

Scott

The plane I flew was seven years old. I wanted to fly my new one but I didn't want to chance the gear on that grass just before the NATS.

[Steve Fitton]

My biggest regret was in a flight to warm up the judges and the wind was near 90 mph. OK,. it sure seemed that fast. Well I crashed doing the vertical eight. I didn't feel too bad as the next flight crashed in the square eights and that was Derek. We were NOT happy campers that day. Typical cold windy King Orange. 

Wait a minute, I thought you crashed on the third inside round?  Wherever it was in the pattern, that was the hardest hit I have ever seen.  Parts of the engine went about 300 feet from the point of impact.  Weather channel reported gusts to 35 mph at Gainsville that day, it must have been about the same in Starke.

I think myself and William Davis (who won) were the only ones to complete some semblance of the whole pattern that day.  I remember Derek roaring with laughter as his ARF P-40 plunged toward the ground, shedding pieces as it went.  It was the perfect storm of abundant ARFs and horrendous wind to pile up the mangled airplanes!

[Dan McEntee]

I flew in the rough air so it was not that it was a temperature and fuel shortage. My 75 burns 8 oz in a flight and that the size tank I have. When its cold or cool it need s 1/2 oz more or it will run out on 4 leaf. I had no 5% only 10. No excuses only regret.

   If I were you, I would fix that condition. With a .75 up front, I think you could afford to put a .010" smaller venturi in the nose. and see if that stretched your mileage a bit. Or stack some panty hose material up on the venturi until your run times go up 35 to 45 seconds. I don't think you'll loose any appreciable power, but Randy can verify that. Just a little bit of work, some test flights with a stop watch and it's worth it for the piece of mind.
   Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Brett Buck]

   If I were you, I would fix that condition. With a .75 up front, I think you could afford to put a .010" smaller venturi in the nose. and see if that stretched your mileage a bit. Or stack some panty hose material up on the venturi until your run times go up 35 to 45 seconds. I don't think you'll loose any appreciable power, but Randy can verify that.

 
   Actually the thicker air raised the power capability which is why it was going to take more fuel. If you get the thing adjusted to run the original run time, the power will be the same as it was.

    In this case the solution would have been to cut the nitro by mixing up lower-nitro fuel in the syringe. Of course you have to know how much to cut it. We do the inverse at the NATs, jack up the nitro to get the same run time.

    Brett

[RandySmith]

I flew in the rough air so it was not that it was a temperature and fuel shortage. My 75 burns 8 oz in a flight and that the size tank I have. When its cold or cool it need s 1/2 oz more or it will run out on 4 leaf. I had no 5% only 10. No excuses only regret.

All you needed was to have a gal of 5 and a gallon of 10%, that way you can use either 5, 10  or make 7.5%.  I have all my guys do this, once you fly with the different Niitros you will get a good feel what you need, and if you had just dropped to 7.5% , you would have had flight time and the engine would have been close to the exact same power.
This is a simple thing to do, and is much much easier than removing the head and adding shims, or guessing on venturie size.

Randy

[RC Storick]

I flew in the rough air so it was not that it was a temperature and fuel shortage. My 75 burns 8 oz in a flight and that the size tank I have. When its cold or cool it need s 1/2 oz more or it will run out on 4 leaf. I had no 5% only 10. No excuses only regret.

Like I said above all I had was 10%. I knew what to do I just didn't have the fuel.

[wwwarbird]

However I elected not to fly as it was cool and I was not sure I would have enough fuel to make the pattern.

 And many will still argue that running electric power with a timer has no advantage in competition. Bull.

[Brett Buck]

And many will still argue that running electric power with a timer has no advantage in competition. Bull.

  Again, then run an IC motor with a  timer, put in 1/2 ounce more fuel than you might ever need, then, no advantage. It will still weigh less than the battery.

    Brett