Wright Stuff C

[coachchuckaahs]

I was at an AMA Indoor event up in Colorado Springs Sunday. There were SO glider people flying when I arrived (gliders got the first few hours of flight time). Then when the rubber planes came out, there was a team flying Wright Stuff. They had two different kits, and were working a little at a time to improve. We could CLEARLY see dramatic improvement during the 5-hour session! Not only did they get plenty of gym time, but they had leading indoor flyers coming over, talking with them, and giving advice! Not only that, they got to see a large variety of planes including scale, mid-weight (LPP), and lightweight AMA planes.

Most AMA contests are free or very reduced rates for SO participants. The advice you will receive is free and priceless at the same time!

I wish this team well, they worked hard, listened well, and put in the effort it takes to go win State (they had already advanced from Regionals).

Find an indoor freeflight contest within driving distance, and go check it out. Bring your planes with you. It will be worth the drive! Many contests can be found on the National Free Flight Society website, https://freeflight.org/competition/master-calendar/. I drove 6 hours to attend, and brought along two of my midschoolers.

Coach Chuck

[coachchuckaahs]

So another year of these awful airplanes! Fun!

At November's coaches conference I will bring some Sky Streak balsa planes. They will fly better than most did at State. I do remember 7th place was about 3 seconds, out of 25 teams!

The World Championships for F1D were also cancelled, to be rescheduled around December.

Coach Chuck

[OpticsNerd]

Looks like our season has abruptly come to an end.

I really hope they change the Wright Stuff rules for next year if they are "replaying" events. If they stay the same it would be incredibly boring to spend the next year trimming the same planes.

[CrayolaCrayon]

Either the stab limit or the prop limit needs to go. A combination of both is absolutely horrible.

[klastyioer]

Either the stab limit or the prop limit needs to go. A combination of both is absolutely horrible.

agreed, please make this event more enjoyable :/ i get that time blocks are an issue as flights can/rather often overlap, but science olympiad is supposed to be fun, exciting, and memorable... not frustrating and unappealing. next year (if the rules remain the same) will be my 5th year straight for wright stuff. my senior year will be my 6th. i don't want to speak for everyone, but many of my junior and senior class friends are already so let down by what has happened these past few weeks. free flight is a community as much as it's a hobby. people who love this continue to study aviation through the rest of their lives whether thats through organizations like the AMA or in jobs involving rocketry, aircrafts, or drones. so much can be learned from these next couple of years that wright stuff is still around, and i want others to learn what we learned already. without the "enjoyable" aspect of this event, many will be driven away from what this can offer.

let me know what you all think

katie

[bjt4888]

Either the stab limit or the prop limit needs to go. A combination of both is absolutely horrible.

agreed, please make this event more enjoyable :/ i get that time blocks are an issue as flights can/rather often overlap, but science olympiad is supposed to be fun, exciting, and memorable... not frustrating and unappealing. next year (if the rules remain the same) will be my 5th year straight for wright stuff. my senior year will be my 6th. i don't want to speak for everyone, but many of my junior and senior class friends are already so let down by what has happened these past few weeks. free flight is a community as much as it's a hobby. people who love this continue to study aviation through the rest of their lives whether thats through organizations like the AMA or in jobs involving rocketry, aircrafts, or drones. so much can be learned from these next couple of years that wright stuff is still around, and i want others to learn what we learned already. without the "enjoyable" aspect of this event, many will be driven away from what this can offer.

let me know what you all think

katie

Agree. I saw a lot of discouraged and frustrated looking students at the Invitational I supervised.

The change to the rules that I would recommend would be (at a minimum) to increase stab size to around 35% - 40% of wing area. This one change would make the airplane a difficult but enjoyable project.

Brian T

[coachchuckaahs]

I agree as well. I am seeing reports from many ES's that very few, if any, tried the reversing, and very few even made a complete circle. That was also my experience as a helper at Regions and ES at State. Students had very nicely built planes, but were at a complete loss as to how to trim these temperamental beasts.

I know that it was possible, and have seen multiple teams tackle the challenge in different States. But, those that were successful sought help from experienced indoor flyers.

Despite high quality kits, it was hard to overcome the inherent sensitivity of this design.

Coach Chuck

[paschw30]

I completely agree. Regardless of the bad planes this year, there should be a new design challenge. The whole point of science olympiad is to learn new things each year. I'm afraid that the scores will start to cluster near the top, making even a small draft detrimental. And not only with this event; across the board this will become an issue. Another problem with keeping the same rules is that teams with more resources and access to gym space over the summer will have a clear advantage over those that don't.

I wish that the head of science olympiad had not made this decision now, there was no reason to make that call this early. I sincerely hope that they consider changing their decision.

[jander14indoor]

Warning, soapbox comments follow:

Quick comment on tournament cancellations. This is not entirely under control of the SO leadership.
We hold many tournaments on college campuses. If the campus is closed or all remote learning, we lose many of the volunteers that make the tournament possible. If the campus is limiting events larger than X, an SO tournament will most likely be larger than X and force cancellation.

This thing (and by thing, not just the disease, but the momentum behind the world's reaction) is far larger than SO, and as a people we will ALL be affected in many ways over the coming months and likely years if some of the worst case possibilities come true. And we won't know for some time how all of this will turn out.

So keep that in mind. We've all been given a GIANT lemon in our lives. Time to start figuring out how to make lemonade (and maybe some lemon oil, its a pretty good cleaner!).

Now climbing off soapbox.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[coachchuckaahs]

Sequestered at home with nothing to do? Tired of rules that change every year? Tired of planes that are designed to minimize flight time?

Build a P18 or an LPP over the next 2-3 weeks. Then use late May to go to the AMA Nationals instead of SO Nationals, and compete in a 95' ceiling dome! Youth entry, if I recall correctly, is only $10. Gliders welcome too. Hotels are not plentiful, but they are cheap.

Coach Chuck