How Many Degrees in a (GPS) Triangle?
Part I: Yes, Iain, it is all your fault.
There I was, just flying along, and I got the tell tale wing bump of a nice thermal. I let the plane continue around to see if I can find her again. Sure enough the plane starts climbing as I try to core it. Pretty standard right? The difference here is I was flying an E-flite Apprentice electric trainer. After a few years away from RC, I thought I would give powered planes a try since that is what my local club flies. My personality is such that when I decide to do something I go all in and so I did with four electric planes including a EDF soon inhabiting my basement. Sadly, it was not to be, when I found myself thermal hunting with my Apprentice, I had to accept the fact that I am a diehard glider guider.
So, what I am hoping to share with you is my path to GPS Triangle Racing. Most of the articles I have read are from the lucky folks that have completed the journey. I have not, so this will be a learning experience for both of us. If you do not know what GPS Triangle Racing is, I have links to a couple of excellent New RCSD articles and a very informative YouTube video in the Resources section below. Basically, the point of this task is to fly your glider — which is equipped with a GPS sending telemetry to the ground — around a predefined triangle course as many times as possible in the allotted time. There are multiple classes and a well-defined but still evolving set of rules. This event has been popular in Europe for a while and is rising in popularity here in the US with events across the country. There’s a national event held in what looks like an awesome place to fly, Montague, California.
This is shaping up to be a longish journey, so you might as well get to know me a bit. My path to modelling is normal for a flyer my age (59). I started with the Guillows rubber models that never flew well, then many years of flying 1/2A control line. Around 1976 I saw planes plying in a field right across from my house in Reston, Virginia and immediately investigated. Guys were flying the most beautiful planes I have ever seen. I remember Windfrees and a Hobie Hawk along with the other gliders of the era. My failing memory seems to remember Skip Schow letting me fly his plane, but I may just be putting a local legend in my memory bank. Anyway, since I loved flying so much I went into the Navy and volunteered for submarines. Go figure. My super understanding wife put up with me spending what little disposable income we had crashing planes all over the country for the next 14 years. I got out and ended up in New Mexico where I flew with the Albuquerque Soaring guys. Super group. I got into Thermal Duration competition and participated in the famous Hiss & Boink events run by the late great Buzz Averill. Since 1999 I have lived in Southern Maryland where I flown off and on and have settled on electric sailplanes as my destiny.
I have an urge to compete in just about everything I do. I don’t need to do especially well, I just like testing myself against others. So when I decided to jump back into sailplanes with both feet I knew that I would like to work my way into competitions. My first thought was F5J, since to me they are the thoroughbreds of the sailplane world, but after watching some videos I realized that even though I am a pretty good flyer, I do not have the mad skills that the good F5J pilots have. So, I pivoted to ALES, which though requiring awesome skills seems a bit less stressful. I did my research and ended up with a beautiful Yellow Jacket 3.5M RES kit from Sonoran Laser Art that was a joy to build and set-up. I also ended up with a Medina 2M ARF RES ship from ArmSoar. Again, see Resources for links to both.
Well, while I was working towards this ALES thing I discovered GPS Triangle Racing in the previously mentioned New RCSD article. It sounded cool, so I started poking around and just fell in love with the whole concept. I have had a ham radio license since 1985 — I got it so I could fly RC using the 6m band. Remember those days? — and love tinkering with electronics. The big planes with lots of data coming into the ground station made me drool. I am still having fun getting the ALES planes flying and currently there are many more ALES competitions than chances to fly GPS Triangle against others, but GPS Triangle is where I am headed.
Next time, I’ll let you know what GPS Triangle plane I ended up with and most importantly, the surprises I have encountered.
©2022 Raymond Wright
Resources
- Three Is the Magic Number by Iain Medley-Rose — This the article I’m ‘blaming’ from my current interest in GPS Triangle Racing. Yes, Iain, it is all your fault.
- A GPS Triangle Primer by Stéphane Ruelle — “A basic introduction to this increasingly popular competition.”
- Triangle Thursday: Intro to GPS Triangle Racing and Flight at Sky High Scale Soaring Aerotow (video) — “An introduction to GPS Triangle racing and my best flight of the weekend at Muncy. This was a fun video to make and I hope it will get other people excited about flying triangles.”
- Yellow Jacket 3.5M RES by Sonoran Laser Art — “The Yellow Jacket 3M is designed for electric or bungee launching.”
- Medina 2M ARF by ArmSoar — “A lot of us want to fly high-performance F3L/F3-RES gliders for competition or sport flying, but who really has time to spend two weeks’ worth of evenings putting together a balsa kit nowadays?”
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