Depois de tardiamente conseguir os dias para poder participar e já com uma lista de concorrentes no limite dos quarenta, mandei um e-mail ao Ángel Cristóbal, o organizador da prova e fiquei inscrito juntamente com outros 4 portugueses, o Nelson Gaspar, Manuel Cruz e João Mestre da APSIA e o Carlos Bastos da LAC.

 

Como não consegui convencer os meus companheiros de clube teria de ir sozinho, excepto que a minha cara-metade não arrisca com “tentações espanholas” (deve estar a pensar em caramelos ou chocolates…) e felizmente fez-me companhia, nos quilómetros de estrada que separam a “Invicta” de Madrid e volta e também na prova propriamente dita, estreando-se como “spotter” ao fim destes anos todos de planadores!

 

Chegámos na sexta-feira ao final da tarde e no sábado pela manhã encontrámos o campo de voo, ajudado pelo Nelson Gaspar que me enviou as coordenadas correctas porque eu tinha programado o GPS com o acesso do lado errado da linha férrea! Montei os meus modelos, o Supra Ultralight e o Pulsar 3600 e comecei a voar o Supra por céus madrilenos. O tempo estava magnífico, céu azul e uma ligeira brisa, a actividade térmica era escassa mas depois de tantos dias sem voar era realmente um prazer voar em clima estival.

 

 

 

Domingo bem cedo lá fomos para o campo de voo, o dia estava magnífico, muito Sol e sem vento, a temperatura sempre a subir até aos 28⁰C.

 

Montados os modelos e verificados os altímetros pude apreciar o “parque aeronáutico”: como por cá ou no Reino Unido, a espécie dominante é o Pulsar 3200/3600, a única diferença é que em Espanha as versões com cauda em V igualam as de cauda em cruz. Só me lembro duma situação semelhante, em termos de um modelo gozar de tanta popularidade, nos meados dos anos noventa em que o Ellipse 2 dominava as competições F3B. A posteriori verifica-se que dos 4 primeiros classificados, 3 utilizaram o Pulsar.

 

Um aspecto técnico interessante é que é alguns dos modelos usam packs LiPo 4s, tem a pequena vantagem de o hélice ser mais pequeno e como tal a resistência aerodinâmica ser inferior e a vantagem notória de que como a potência é superior, conseguem “bater” muito terreno em busca de ascendentes antes de atingirem os 200 metros ou os 30 segundos. Pessoalmente estou um pouco “viciado” pela prática dos “200W/kg” em que se “trepa” para cima o mais que se pode nos 30 segundos e em “200m” isto é um mau hábito.

 

Feito um pequeno briefing com lembrete das regras principais e dos deveres dos cronometristas, ou seja dos concorrentes em “folga”, começaram as lides com boa regularidade. As mangas estavam divididas em três grupos de 10 concorrentes e é sempre um espectáculo uma largada de modelos com estes números. As térmicas umas vezes estavam lá, com cegonhas e tudo, outras vezes estar estavam mas era preciso procurar bem e outras vezes não estavam em lado nenhum, enfim o jogo do voo térmico que faz de cada voo um voo diferente e sempre com os seus momentos de tensão, nem que seja por que o modelo está tão alto e é preciso aterrar no segundo final e no alvo.

 

Com uma pequena pausa cerca do meio-dia para se comerem umas sandes e bebidas, oferta do clube organizador, com três “reflights” e quatro mangas realizadas, às duas e meia da tarde a organização decidiu terminar a prova.

 

Estou convicto que todos os participantes ficaram satisfeitos com a rapidez e facilidade da verificação dos altímetros e com o ritmo da prova, bastava uma hora para fazer uma manga e se não fossem os referidos três “reflights”, causados por percalços alheios à organização, as desejadas cinco mangas teriam sido feitas.

 

A organização e direcção de prova precisam de afinar certos aspectos, apenas destaco dois porque se prendem com o factor segurança: é preciso um controle de frequências efectivo (i.e. controle de emissores e frequências com scanner) e é também preciso que os concorrentes saibam qual a direcção para lançar os modelos, neste caso o vento estava calmo e houve situações de potencial perigo porque cada um lançava para onde lhe parecia melhor, neste caso o Director de Prova tem que estabelecer uma direcção para o lançamento, um ponto omisso no regulamento de prova.

 

O vencedor, Pedro Perez, ganhou com uns expressivos 3000 pontos e um descarte de… 1000 pontos! Em segundo lugar ficou o organizador, Ángel Cristóbal e o melhor português, de longe, foi o Manuel Cruz com o 4º lugar. Note-se que a diferença de pontos entre os 11 primeiros classificados foi de 98 pontos, a competição foi muito renhida e não perdoou erros. A qualidade geral dos pilotos espanhóis é muito boa, creio também que devido aos anos que tem de experiência nas fórmulas locais de motoplanadores eléctricos.

 

Gostei e sempre que puder voltarei.

 

 

   April the 25th, Grupo Hálcon de Veleros, Madrid, Spain, by R. Silva:

 

 

 

Somewhat belatedly I submitted my entry, the 40 contestant maximum limit was reached, including, with myself, 5 Portuguese pilots. Unfortunately I couldn’t persuade any of my fellow club pilots to come with me but my dear wife wouldn’t allow me to travel alone and meet the señoritas and so, together we travelled the hundreds of kilometres that go from Oporto to Madrid and back. As the contestant had to provide its own timekeeper this was also my wife’s debut as a spotter, after all these years of r\c soaring.

 

We arrived Friday evening and the next morning we managed to find the flying field, with Nelson’s help as I had wrongly programmed my GPS for the dirt road on the opposite side of the railway. I assembled my models, the Supra Ultralight and the Pulsar 3600 and I started flying the Supra in Madrid’s skies. The weather was as fine as can be, blue skies with a light breeze, after so many days without having a chance to fly due to weather it was a real pleasure to enjoy the sunny skies.

 

As the flyers left for lunch, we stood in the company of the event organizer, Ángel Cristóbal, and in-between sandwiches and bocadillos we talked about our differences in “200m” rules and the possibility of an Iberian “200m” League. Stomach filled, Ángel proposed to fly “mano-a-mano”, Supra versus Pulsar 3200, after two flights I realized I was in trouble… A little later Pedro Perez arrived from Andalucia and after assembling his V-tailed Pulsar 3200 and my change to the Pulsar 3600, we flew three “rounds” together. Only in the last “round” I managed to get higher and even so they flew the full ten minutes with very good spot landings. As things turned out, I was flying against the pilots that won the first two places in the competition!

 

More contestants kept arriving during the evening, at six arrived the fellow Portuguese pilots from APSIA, Manuel Cruz had the bad luck of his Astra folding its wings during the climb and disappearing for good somewhere near the brick factory.

 

The Silva’s left for dinner and we had an excellent meal at the hotel suggested by the organizers, the restaurant specialty is rice and we had a meat and seafood paella (fried rice made in a very large and shallow saucepan) and the only regret was the rice we had to leave in the paellera as we could eat no more…

 

After dinner I went to the meeting that the organizers scheduled at the hotel’s bar, we debated with our hosts and the APSIA pilots about the future of “200m” in our two countries and at FAI level, differences between our two set of rules, etc. The most important issue is that the different regional Spanish aeromodelling associations agree on this “FXJ Altimeter” class and abandon their previous “K4” and “K6” classes based on power/weight ratio with a variable motor runtime defined according with this ratio.

 

Competition day:

 

Sunday, very early in the morning we went to the flying field, it was really a magnificent “sunday”, the wind was completely calm and the temperature kept rising up to 28⁰C.

 

With the models assembled and the altimeters checked I had the time to study the models: as in Portugal or in the UK, the predominant species is the Pulsar 3200/3600, the only difference is that in Spain the V-tail versions are as common as the cross-tailed ones. The only instance I recall a similar situation of a model being so popular was in the mid-nineties with the Ellipse 2 in F3B competitions. Checking with the results one can realize that for the 4 top placing pilots 3 were flying the Pulsar.

 

An interesting technical aspect is that some of the models had 4s LiPo packs, this has the minor advantage of a smaller propeller that has less aerodynamic drag in gliding flight and the considerable advantage that, with its greater power, the model is able to “sniff” more air for upcurrents (horizontally) before it reaches the 200m or the 30 seconds. Personally, I keep the habit of trying to climb the model too much, as in “200W/kg” practice, and this is a mistake in “200m”.

 

After a small briefing to remember the main rules and the duties of the timekeepers, that is the pilots that were not actually flying the group, the competition flights started at a good pace. The rounds were divided in three groups of ten competitors and, with such number of models, the launch is always a fine sight. The thermals sometimes were there, obvious to all with storks circling to mark them, sometimes they were there but where was the problem and sometimes they simply weren’t there at all, alas this is the thermal “game” and this is what makes each competition flight different and challenging, even if we have found a strong thermal and now our model is so high and one needs to land at the last second and on the spot.

 

With a small pause at noon for sandwiches and drinks, provided by the organizing club, at half past two the CD decided to end the competition after 4 rounds and three reflights were flown.

 

I am convinced that the competitors were pleasantly surprised by the easiness and speed that the altimeters were processed and with the quick pace of the competition flights, one hour was more than enough for one round to be flown and if we hadn’t those three reflights, due to circumstances beyond the organizers control, I am sure that the intended 5 rounds would be flown.

 

The competition organization and the contest direction need some fine tuning, I only bring two issues up because they relate to flight safety: a frequency control must be made (i.e. transmitter and frequency check with scanner) and kept and the contestants must know in what direction they must launch their models, in this case the wind was calm and there were some potentially dangerous situations as each pilot was launching where he pleased, in this situation the CD must establish a launching direction, a point that is lacking in the present set of rules.

 

The winner, Pedro Perez, won with a solid score of 3000 points and a discard score of… 1000 points! Second place went to the organizer, Ángel Cristóbal and the best Portuguese pilot was by far Manuel Cruz with a 4^th place. Remarkably, the difference in score of the first 11 placings was 98 points, the competition was fiercely flown and there was no margin for error. The average skill of the Spanish pilots is very good, I believe that this is also due to the many years that they have flown their electric motorgliders to local rules.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and I whenever I can I will be back.