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Sunday, April 27, 2014

A very simple portable CoG ruler

This is the ideal light weight tool you need when you are at the slope or at the field and want to set properly the CoG of your sailplane. I made it using a paper ruler from Ikea , a 0.5mm epoxy plate a plastic control rod sleeve and 2 small piece of 1mm plywood. The paper ruler is bouble taped on the epoxy plate, the red plastic control rod sleeve and the pywood are glued with some. Using it is quite simple. Just tape the ruler on the uderside of the wing at the rigth position. Then position your fingers on the red control rod sleeve and check the balance, then add or supress lead accordingly. I used it yesterday on my Needle V115 and it worked perfectly ! I estimated the precision around 0.5 mm.

Next time I will teach you how to make a 4K TV set using a paper-fastener and a chewing gum  !!!!!




Saturday, April 26, 2014

Soutenez votre équipe nationale de F3F / Support the French F3F National Team

Bonjour à tous,

Support the french national F3F team by ordering this high quality T-shirt !

Description: Gildan G2400 long sleeve t-shirts are made of 100% preshrunk 6.1 oz (205g/m2) Ultra Cotton and have double-needle stitching throughout. 100% preshrunk cotton, Double-needle stitching throughout, Taped shoulder-to-shoulder, Ribbed cuffs. Color carolina bue (detailed information here ).  The price is 17 euros (shipping cost NOT included). You can preorder it at the following URL:

PRE-ORDER

Thanks in advance for your interest and precious support !



Après une médaille de bronze par équipe au championnat du monde 2012 en Allemagne, un superbe titre de champion d'Europe 2013 et une médaille d'or par équipe à ce même championnat d’Europe, l'équipe de France de F3F se remet au travail pour se rendre au prochain championnat du monde de F3F qui se tiendra début septembre en Slovaquie (Donovaly).

En 2014, les couleurs de la France seront représentés par l'équipe suivante

  • Frédéric Hours, Pilote (Champion d'Europe 2013, médaillé d'or par équipe au championnat d'Europe 2013)
  • Philippe Lanes, Pilote (détenteur du record de France de F3F en 28.94s)
  • Pierre Rondel, Pilote (Champion de France 2013, médaillé de bronze par équipe au championnat du monde 2012)
  • Lucas Kugler, Pilote Junior
  • Laurent Lombardo, Team Manager (médaillé d'or par équipe au championnat d’Europe 2013)
  • Jacky Kugler, Aide

C'est donc une équipe affûtée, solide et déterminée qui se prépare actuellement, avec un planning chargé de plusieurs week-ends d'entrainement pour construire un esprit d'équipe fort et un objectif commun. En plus des ces entraînements préparatoires, le déplacement lui même est de 1500 km (3000 km aller-retour), avec 2 semaines de présence sur place, vous imaginez donc aisément que les frais de transport, de logement et nourriture sont  conséquents. Pour compléter l'aide précieuse que nous recevons de la FFAM et afin de couvrir la plus grande partie de nos frais, nous organisons comme en 2012 une vente de T-Shirt .

Cette année, pour changer, nous vous proposons un T-shirt à manches longues de qualité (modèle Giltan 2400, couleur Carolina Blue, col rond, jersey 205 g/m2,100% coton,bande de propreté d'épaule à épaule, manches longues, surpiqûres aux manches et à la base, structure tubulaire). L'impression est faite par sérigraphie, 3 couleurs, poche/cœur et dans le dos.

Le prix de vente hors frais de port est de 17 euros soit environ 20 euros avec le port pour la métropole (les frais de port seront calculés au plus juste). Le bénéfice sera de 4 ou 5 euros par unité, nous espérons dégager environ 500 euros avec cette opération.

Alors si vous souhaitez soutenir votre équipe nationale, c'est l'occasion de vous manifester en remplissant le formulaire de précommande que vous trouverez ici:



Nous ne manquerons pas de vous tenir au courant au fur à mesure de l'avancement des précommandes, de la fabrication et la livraison. Le paiement se fera à la livraison.

Vous pourrez bien entendu suivre les préparatifs et le championnat du monde sur le blog de l'équipe.

En vous remerciant par avance pour votre précieux soutien,

F3Fment votre !

L'équipe de France  

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

RC Soaring Digest, May 2014

One more front cover picutre from Planet-Soaring on the latest issue of RC Soaring digest, you can download here.


Cover caption: Jerome Bobin's Multiplex K6E, 4.2m wingspan, flying in front of the Obiou summit (2,789 m) at Corps in the French Alps.

Libelle review in Modèle Magazine (May issue)

My review of the Libelle from Dream Flight has been published in the May issue of Modèle Magazine:


Tuesday, April 22, 2014

La Muela (Spain), Eurotour F3F

Easter means for me "La Muela" since 1995 ! As the date is alternatively beginning of April or end of April, we can have differences in term of weather and flying conditions. In 2014, it was very late so we could expect sunny weather and cool temperatures. But we got also 2 calm days with no to very few wind. Hopefully the contest is now on 3 days so it is easier to manage some rounds.

On Thursday, the program was "Fare niente", sun cream but also sun burns. the thermal wind played with us, turning around the hill all day long. We could however enjoyed some thermal flight, HLG session, and plenty of discussion here and there.

Friday started the same, so people started to be a bit worried about the possibility ro fly over the week-end. End of afternoon, we started a first round on the south slope that has been interrupted then cancelled after 5 or 6 pilots, as the wind shifted to the west slope. So we moved and started again round 1. finally we could complete 2 rounds there, finishing around 7:45 pm.

Saturday has been much better. The wind started to blow end of the morning, so we could start news rounds around midday. We have been able to achieve 7 additional rounds with a best time at 33s (Aubry Gabanon). Matthieu Mervelet won the competition for the second time in a row, followed by Sebastien Lanes and Andreas Fricke.

On my side, after 2 very bad rounds on friday (one is my fault, the second is because of the start order, flying at the very end of the day with crossed wind and decreasing wind speed), I couldn't pretend to be on the podium. However, I did a good climb on the last day, with no major mistakes.

Organisation did a real good job over the week-end: efficient logistics, quick decision, extreme reactivity and adpatability to ensure we could do the best from the weather conditions. They ran the competition very smoothly and have been warmly thanked and applauded at the price giving. Again a big thanks to the organising team (Torra Miguel Jr, Roberto Polo, Charli Sanz, Carlos Ruano G, Alvaro Sampe, Miguel Medina, Inigo Herrera, Miguel Torra, Gerardo Plazza). I will come back for sure !


Below is an excellent video from Aubry Gabanon about La Muela Eurotour F3F. It summarizes very well the week-end and gives a new perspective of the slope.


Full results can be found here



Monday, April 21, 2014

Panat, F3F french league

Panat, near Rodez was the first competition of the season 2014 of the french league. Sunny weather and some light wind made the week-end very enjoyable. The hosting by the local guys has been just incredible, and I will never forget the excellent banquet on saturday evening. I flew my Needle 115 with the new light fuselage and tail at 2.2kg, empty (no ballast).


Here is a video filmed by Aubry Gabanon with his TBS discovery quadricopter giving a different point of view of the place:



Friday, April 11, 2014

F3F Practice

Excellent F3F practice session last week-end with my national team mate Frederic Hours. I flew my pike precision after a technical problem on my Needle 115. Fred flew his Stinger and FS3. We had between 8 and 10 m/s of wind straight into the cliff, so very good lift, with time to time some thermals.

 
F3F Practice from Pierre Rondel on Vimeo.

Jehnedi (CZ) F3G Eurotour final contest report

Text and photos:  Sebastian Haase (German version below) In my last and first report on the new, young and upcoming FAI class F3G, Pierre an...