Scioly.org

What raw times have people been getting at tournaments? Would be nice to include ceiling heights, bonuses attempted, and other details about your plane. I'm competitively done with this event, but I'll still be flying for fun so I'm curious about how it is for everyone else.

Top times at the Washington State Tournament were about 3:52, 3:12, and 2:52. Ceiling height was about 33 feet. I think all these attempted the colored panel and wing bonuses. I had the 2:52 time, and here's a video of it.

Top times at Colorado state were 2:21 (by me), 1:32 and something like 1:25. You can see my post on the "what are your guys times right now" thread for my full gripe about the flying site, but the gist is that it was under a 20' ceiling with a massive net hanging down that was constantly snagging props. There were also lots - and I mean LOTS - of obstructions: basketball hoops, pole vault standards, and those two-and-a-half-foot-thick high jump pit mats all over the floor. I was only able to pull the 2:21 because I took a couple of pieces of scrap balsa and built up a pylon in the center of my wing so that I could scrub the net safely without hanging my prop. Could've been better, as my plane hit a backboard on the way down and lost about 5 feet of altitude, but still enough to get the win. My best time would otherwise have been around 2:00, if I got lucky.

EDIT: I went for the colored panel bonus but not the wing chord bonus. No one that I saw at the tournament went for the wing bonus either - I was one of three competitive teams not using a stock Freedom Flight kit.

The biggest problem there had to be the net of death...

Winning flight at the Southern California State Tournament had a raw time of 3:45 in a 8 meter high ceiling (approximately 26 feet). Here's a video.

The winning times for Norcal were 2:53 followed by 2:49. Not sure what the ceiling height was since room dimensions were not posted but I would guess it was about 25 feet, maybe a little lower since the steel girders hung a few feet below the ceiling.

There was no usable practice hour however since the AC was on the entire time, and we were told the AC would be left on all day so I think many teams just increased the lift on the wing as much as possible to attempt to fly in the AC. But then we were told that the AC would get turned off so we had to wait about 30 minutes before the official flights actually started, and since we were so behind with the schedule no practice flights were allowed to go on, so teams didn't get time to retrim their planes. I think if the whole air conditioning thing wasn't going on the times could have been higher. I don't think I saw any planes with the wing bonus however.

Anyways bernard, beautiful flight, and the 3:45 flight you posted was amazing as well. Do you know if the 3:45 flight had the wing bonus?

I attended the 2015 Southern California State finals at Canyon High School. I observed the gold medal flight in Wright Stuff, and confirmed with the coach of that team that his team's airplane did NOT qualify for the 7 cm wing chord bonus.

That team will not be going to Nationals this year.

Troy High School of Fullerton, California, will represent Southern California at the 2015 National Science Olympiad competition. I believe this will make 20 such appearances in a row for Troy. That high school has won 1st place overall at Nationals 9 times and finished in the top 3 or 4 overall at Nationals on a number of other occasions.

This one is my tournament time for SoCal. (5th). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ9cVCrD8dI

Very nice flight. I'm surprised the climb wasn't more aggressive toward the beginning - would I be right in guessing you have very little (if any) washin on the left wing?

EDIT: Also, was anyone trying a rafter-bashing strategy at that socal site? I could see a plane with a very rearward CG and low-pitch prop working well there with multiple ceiling hits.

Also, was anyone trying a rafter-bashing strategy at that socal site? I could see a plane with a very rearward CG and low-pitch prop working well there with multiple ceiling hits.

hmmm...no one that I know of tried that strategy.
And hmmm the left wing looking from back to front had a good amount of warp to it, pretty close to 1/32", where the trailing edge was 1/32" lower than the leading edge.

Chris L -

Thanks for posting the video of your flight at the SoCal WS finals in April, 2015.

Am I correct in understanding that your airplane did NOT qualify for the 7 cm wing chord bonus?

What was your actual (highest) flight time at the competition?

That was a brutally tough WS competition. You flew approximately 3 minutes in a 24 foot site and that was only good for fifth place. Regardless, congratulations on a fine effort and a very good flight. You obviously spent a lot of time preparing and practicing for the competition.

Was it your intention to use a bending motor stick to suppress the initial climb?