The Road to Ulm
This has been one helluva year!
This is a sequel to Iain’s very popular The Road to Gruibingen, which you may want to read before proceeding with this article. As usual, click on any image for a higher resolution and also check out Resources, at the end, for relevant links.. — Ed.
The story so far? The essence of it boils down to I found GPS Triangle Racing (GPSTR) tried it, liked it and entered the first Sport Class World Championships. They were cancelled because of the pandemic and as soon as the entry for the new event in Erbach, Ulm opened I pestered the organising committee in a particularly persistent manner until the entry list showed my name.
Having a significant flying goal for 2022, this is what happened and some of the learning that was achieved along the way. In many ways the attraction of GPS racing is the learning and challenge, and in some cases one of the things that makes starting out a bit daunting.
Onwards
After a very satisfying October at the Model Flying Ranch in Tortosa I even managed to fly some triangles on the 2nd November 2021 in the UK. Everything felt very positive as the calendar slid towards Christmas. I even managed to get some work done on the electric fuselage for my original Elvira that was to become my number two model until such time as my new GPS rocket ship turned up.
Suddenly the date on my phone was telling me it was the 14th March 2022, and I’d only flown on the slope during what had been frankly a less than wonderful run of weather through the early part of the year. Okay the testing of the Aeroic Composites’ Alpenbrise had been a fun distraction and trying to rag the wings off it was very enjoyable, but it wasn’t flying triangles. The 14th March was the first triangle of the year and was less than a month to departure date for Tortosa to fly the Model Flying Ranch Easter Challenge Cup.
My first big issue was the number two plane for the World Masters was still not ready. Second on my list of issues was the lack of flying I’d had. GPSTR does not forgive low flying hours, your skill level can drop off very quickly. Third on my list of concerns was the week cycling in Mallorca booked in the gap between the 14th March and setting off for Tortosa — for which my fitness was woeful and I was feeling really run down. So run down, in fact, that I spent the first four days in Mallorca recovering from a massive cold.
Arriving in Tortosa on the 15th March with two Sport Class planes was a good start and probably the first success of the year! The rest of the event was, from a flying point of view, not great. My light class plane succumbed to an invitation to become a cloud of airborne confetti on the 17th. Whilst I was fulfilling the intention to fly the new B model and get it set up I was also flying really badly. My key goals in Tortosa were:
- Fully set up and match B plane to A plane
- Practice flying a representative set of scenarios for the World Masters
- Ensure all the actions and events around each flight were fit for purpose to minimise risks and performance impacts on World Masters competition flights
- Shake down all the hardware
Overall, on reflection, all of this was achieved. Both planes motor mounts de-bonded in use and needed repair. Luckily neither event resulted in a fire, but it was close. The cause was storing the planes on their noses in the hanger. Re-bonding and carbon pegs through the fuselage and motor mount has resolved the issues.
In addition some of the wiring on the charger for my receiver batteries was found to be not as robust as it needed to be. Again — long term use showed up a weakness and that has been resolved.
In terms of the flying challenge I spent all week grinding out scores — flying for half an hour whatever the conditions were. Because of the nature of a full-on competition I had taken the view that you have to fly when you have to fly and that may not be in the greatest conditions. Likewise, you may have started a flight and the start window has expired. Then the lift dies and you are faced with 25 minutes flying time to fill with triangles from 300m or land after three laps. You have to find lift and stay airborne at all costs. As Tortosa was a challenge event all the other competitors were restarting if they had poor air and of course getting some decent scores. I wasn’t and two things improved — my F*%&$@g swearing, and my soaring at low level with a fully ballasted glider.
Frankly, on my return from Tortosa I was disheartened. Low scores, my flying was not at the level of 2021, the planes were set up but they felt like they had been fighting back. Then we had a spate of scrappy weather in the UK that coincided with a load of commitments that got in the way of flying.
After a month of not flying the first opportunity to fly was at a new field. Bam! Fourteen laps in less than perfect conditions. A strong breeze and the first two laps took 10 minutes with 200m of height loss on the first lap. The thermal climb to nearly 600m downwind saved the flight. Twelve laps at between 1min 22seconds and 1min 55seconds were a proper blast.
Investment in Success — You Need to Spend Time
Setting up your plane for GPS racing — this is a topic that you will hear many views on. Ultimately you need to have a plane that suits your flying style — or you need to spend a long time adapting to a plane that is great at the task but needs a different style. Once you have a plane you then need it to support you with maximum performance, whilst also being as easy to get round the course as possible. Maximum performance in simple terms for this type of racing is:
- Really good glide at a speed allowing 1min 20second laps
- Easy thermal climbs at a good rate
- Don’t loose height at the turn points because it needs fighting around the corners
Achieving these set up goals requires you to set the Centre of Gravity for the task, apply the right exponential curves and balance the control movements in all your flight modes. Time spent doing this is not wasted.
Three days later Greg Lewis — my team mate for the World Championships and the pilot who had flown the best ever Sport Class score of 24 laps at a speed of 90kph — came down to try my new field. Yet again some good flying and some reasonable scores before the sea breeze came through.
A fortnight later another good session, including a personal best. The middle of June yielded yet more high quality flying, another personal best (PB), and things started to feel good with less than a couple of weeks to go until Germany. Even better our new PIKE Paradigms had arrived in the UK! All sparkly and fecund with servos. Only needing us to chuck the drivetrain and some avionics into the fuselages before setting them up then.
So, lets talk about distractions. Trying to build a new plane that isn’t quite as simple as it looks is a good start. A few days turned into nearly two weeks in the workshop and cost me three flying opportunities. The weekend before departure my wife develops appendicitis whilst guiding on a mountain bike ride. Another family member in hospital needs visits. No flying for nearly two weeks. All of a sudden the zenith of preparation turned into a nadir.
The good lady Doctor of Chiropractic, her indoors and I were originally departing the UK for the World Championships on Thursday 29th June. On the Tuesday before, I had collected the aforementioned good lady from the surgical ward and was faced with one option. She needed time to convalesce at home, so I emailed the GPS Sport Class World Championship Contest Director and withdrew from the event at about 1430hrs UK time.
Unbeknownst to me there were plans afoot.
Later that afternoon friends insisted that they would take on convalescent care. Moments later another friend knocked on the door and said: “I hear you need a team helper. I don’t know anything about GPS glider racing but I’ll come to Germany and be the EPH” (extra pair of hands). Thanks to these incredibly supportive friends by 1800hrs UK time my entry was reinstated and Greg Lewis and I were a team again.
Fast forward a few days and we are on an airfield in Germany. The Sportfliegerclub Ulm is a fantastic airfield that’s perfect for GPS Racing. Let the games commence!
A Word about the Event Organisation
This airfield is 450m above sea level near the River Danube on the southern edge of the Swabian Jura, about 220km south east of Stuttgart. Unusual to UK residents was the shared nature of the airfield. Two flying clubs, both with gliders and powered planes. The hangers had a diversity of types — including autogyros — and storage options. Gliders winched into the rafters, planes on a turntable in one hanger and in the hanger cleared for the competition organisation there was a Fournier RF 4. Between a railway line and the river Danube way off in the distance the venue boasts a huge flat expanse, a great runway and some incredible facilities. Ample space for the camper van and camping competitors and good facilities for feeding, washing and filling people with beer finished off the basic ingredients for a classic event.
Organisation had seemed quite laid back and in some places lacking in detail from the correspondence. However Michael Knoblauch and the team involved in setting up this event did a superb job. All the items to run the event came into place in time. The facilities were good and the running of the event excellent. Well done and thank you.
Obviously the first thing you need to do when flying somewhere new in a competition is to spend as much time before the event getting acclimatised. The organisers provided a session on the Sunday afternoon for pilots to fly and it was incredibly useful. However it was also too short and didn’t provide all the information we needed for the event. In the future we will have to build in acclimatisation into our preparation. More on how this affected our performance later.
Another distraction for me was that I had my brand new Samba PIKE Paradigm to test fly. Greg had finished his more quickly than I and had some air time already. He chose it as his A model after the Sunday session. So, with that in mind I was very keen to test mine and make that risky decision — stick with my trusty Elvira as both A and B planes or risk an unknown plane in the World Championships. From the first few metres it was obvious that the design has great handling. Up to a reasonable height, quick CG dive test, a few turns, loop, roll and stall turn — then a bit of stooging and trying out the trim and thermal turns. All felt really good and scratching at low level felt easy. So, no vices, another climb and let’s have a go at the course.
Hmmm, is that a smoke trail? Oh yes it is! Full crow flap and down on the ground from 300 plus metres followed by a very hurried peeling out of the totally melted ESC. Luckily the wires had been desoldered due to the heat and the battery disconnected from doing any harm. Unfortunately, decision made. Despite offers of components it was not the right decision to do a powertrain installation the night before the event. Ultimately this was a disappointment.
So, lets talk about the World Championships — the first Sport Class World Championships. Not a blow-by-blow account, but rather a look at the key lessons that we (GTRUK) learnt and some of the trends in technique and technology. We’ll look at the highs too.
So first high — in a big competition the thing you really want to do is fly in the first round. Not! Actually, as a newbie to GPSTR it was not a problem. There is a psychology to flying competitively that is discussed somewhere else in this article. In fact there is chance that this was one of my best flights of the event — second place in the round was a good opener and I suspect a surprise to some. The key thing about this flight was the training that I had done, with the objective of grinding out the best score I can by keeping my plane in the sky for as long as I possibly can. All that time bumping and grinding out scores in the run up to the event payed off.
One of the things GTRUK were starting to see was that the lift was different to what we were used to. At this point we were not yet able to determine how to respond. Greg flew well but his first round saw him bottom of the heat. Not something we see in the UK, he is usually miles in front of everyone else.
Second round and Greg was close to the top. But one of the things we were having to adjust to was the distance off course that people were flying to stay airborne. For both pilot and spotter this was an issue and tracking down all the possible lift sources was something we were getting a very hard lesson in. We still hadn’t really spotted what was different for us.
The third round saw Greg get a 1000, and I took a right stuffing. Our post day debriefing was an interesting one! Overall it had not been a bad day, definitely a challenge though. Looking back at the data the bulk of the field were also having good and bad flights. The conditions were challenging and punished even the smallest error.
The second day started well and both of us got okay scores in the first two rounds of the day. By the third round of the day things took a bit of a dip. The wind on the flight line was often light but out on the course at over 200m it was quite strong. A couple of times there were thermals that could be seen as active and strong but by the time the plane had been flown around the next turn and directed towards the obvious thermal — the lift was either too far downwind or had risen out of reach. By the time the glider was anywhere near it those who had been 30 seconds in front were enjoying the lift with their planes as my vario sounded the dropping tones of sink and despair.
Once again we retired to the debriefing room at the end of the day, celebrating the good results and examining our mistakes to see if we could avoid repeating them. One thing we did discuss was how strong the sink was. Some of the thermals were very powerful but dropping over 200m in a lap was something we only experience rarely in the UK.
The third day was not too bad overall — after an object lesson from Philip Kolb in the first round of the day most things then went well. If, that is, you ignore the failure of my Albatross application to start the task for the speed round! Greg did well and got 960 points. I just got to practice my swearing — a lot — again. One lesson we learnt from this is to keep flying the course. For this event the organisers had software that allowed the SD card in the Swift or Sparrow to be interrogated and if the course had been fully completed they could take the data and yield a score. This was a valuable piece of learning that we relied on later in the week.
Day four was probably our worst day. It was an emotional one, we both took turn points and went back for the thermal we’d just flown through prior to the turn point. Both of us got punished for this, as a tactic in this event and the prevailing conditions it was not working. What was really hurting was the inconsistency of our outcomes. Although not alone, most people other than the top four or five were having good and bad rounds, this was difficult to reconcile. Our afternoon cup of tea was a tense one. We’d both been dumped out early at least once, and we’d both had to grind out a climb in weak lift whilst watching others going away in what looked like 4–5m/s lift. In the run up to the event one of the things that I certainly hadn’t adopted was a conservative attitude to my flying, and Greg has always been a very aggressive flyer. So being on the back foot was a challenge.
Our day four debriefing gave us four tactical changes to work with: work the lift in a different way; only go on to a turn from lift if there is thermal to go to or the thermal that’s been left will be able to be picked up again; modify our approach to the start window; and spotting/calling needed a different approach.
Hitting The Start
Here’s what you need to think about: the declared start window is based on the number of pilots in each flying group. Most slots had a 9 minute 59 second start window. So 0950:01 to 1000hrs would be the start window for a round commencing at 1000hrs. Getting airborne before the start window is allowed — so that you can enter the course and start an attempt at the beginning of the window. As it is possible to fly a lap in well under two minutes you can get easily three laps a sniff of lift off the course and a climb back to 400 plus metres in 10 minutes. So starting well is a key element to success in GPS and using that time before the start window closes is key.
One lesson we were learning was that when we entered the course in the start window was having a huge effect on the outcome. Over the course of the competition we started to manage our starts much more actively. Launching before the start window and having a good look around the course is really important. We were already doing this but changed our tactics and methodology after the first two-and-a-half days. With volatile conditions there was a possibility of luck affecting the outcome. Flying the start window effectively reduces the luck element. We’ve certainly improved our performance in this area. It does open up a new set of decisions and one thing that you really need to practice is your entry into the course in a variety of conditions. Broadly into wind and down wind starts need to be repeatable and if you are pushing against the back of the start window you need to be able to guarantee your start is going to be under the maximum height and speed limits to avoid a penalty.
In simple terms you need to know what height to be at when heading towards the start line to manage your entry onto the course. As you can see this means that in strong lift with a 15m/s tail wind the challenge is to stay below 400m and 120kph GPS speed. In sink with a 15m/s headwind if your entry pattern is too low and too far out you can easily have a plane limping over the start at 320m at 25kph.
Our second speed rounds were an interesting swap of fortune. I flew an okay round but after the issues with the earlier speed round it was not my best. Greg started and his Albatross application crashed as his plane was crossing the line to start. With speed task there are no second chances and once you have gone above 400m in a climb you can’t use your motor again. So using the lessons learnt from earlier in the event when my Albatross failed to start Greg flew the course. Now, because we have both got secondary ground stations slaved off of the primary and the kit in the planes also records data to a MicroSD card we had most options covered. As it turned out the slave device recorded the score.
The Psychology of Competition
(If I Knew Then What I Know Now)
On this journey I’ve developed an understanding of how crucial your mind can be when competing. I personally don’t think you can ‘up’ your game in a competition – and once you get your head around that it becomes simple. The first two points below are easy to achieve but may require time to step up another level. The third point is the most difficult – but can lead to a huge drop in internal distractions when competing leading to a huge performance gain.
- Always do your best flight, every flight
- Examine what could have gone better and add something to your training to strengthen your performance — or effect the change in your next flight
- Understand the things that affect your mental approach that hold you back from delivering your best flight. Manage those mental states so that they are not affecting your performance. This may mean practicing something you find difficult until it is easy for you. It might mean that you need to address your inner chimp and learn to control the ‘demons’.
For me this approach has made a huge difference to my competitive flying and I wish I’d worked out a simple system 30 years ago.
Reflecting on the event it was successful in some ways and disappointing in others. The chance to fly in a large competition with a number of very accomplished GPS pilots certainly provided some very valuable lessons. Flying at a site which has a very different airmass gave some powerful insights into setting up the planes; some different flying techniques; a new range of strategies; a different perspective on the tactics for GPSTR.
Not being in a better position in the rankings and suffering from some inconsistency was personally very disappointing. However, the post competition pumping in the debriefing room showed that both Greg and I had flown some incredible flights and had pushed our capabilities on massively. Before the event I think it was, for instance, unlikely that either of us would have followed thermals so far off course. Our default approach would have been to take some lift and then press on to do another triangle, and trust to picking up another thermal on our way around the course. The speed of departure from the ground of the thermals at nearly 500m and the high wind speed at height made that a very high risk strategy — so we adopted a more thermal regatta style of flying.
In still air I get four-to-five laps out of my PCM Elvira gliders from a good start (400m entry at 100kph). The newer gliders specially designed for Sport Class are now easily getting five laps. However the air at its least active in this event would typically yield three lap flights if no lift was encountered. In the run up to this event the practice I had done actually proved to be invaluable. Flying GPS in all conditions is something you need to consider, it is tempting to only fly on the good days, and it will really benefit your competitive flying to fly all conditions.
Make Sure the Dilithium Crystals Can Take It!
(Ballasting For Success)
Ballasting was also an interesting issue. Generally, I now fly my Sport Class gliders at 7kg whatever the weather. Undoubtedly the general view of flying at 7kg all the time is a good starting place: best glide, at the highest speed, at all times. However, there were a few occasions where I flew at less than that in Ulm. At 6.4kg I was able to work weak lift and stay airborne. Unfortunately, once the lift had been exploited the lack of 600g was an issue in getting the best glide out of the plane. Undoubtedly staying up was the better result because the plane was airborne for 30 minutes and not 13 minutes! Eight laps not three! My personal conclusion around ballast is to spend as much of my flying time at 7kg and the maximum wing loading for the class. On a few occasions I might pull the weight back to 6.4kg. Bottom line is this is a gliding competition that requires the maximum distance in the fastest time, so fly full and practice your soaring until you can get your plane into any lift that exists.
Having returned to the UK my first few weeks were spent looking after the good lady Doctor of Chiropractic and visiting her very poorly mother. In the gaps I did, however manage to stick the new motor from Leomotion GmbH into my new, but slightly pungent Samba PIKE Paradigm along with the brand new ESC that had been waiting for its moment.
A very blustery, cloudy day was the first available opportunity to test fly the Paradigm. Eleven laps and a flight time of 29mins showed two things. One, the Paradigm is pretty good; and, Two, I probably should have spent the Sunday evening before the World Championships in Ulm fitting a new motor and speed controller.
So with two proper flights and a flame out flight I arrived at the UK National Championships at the end of August. Two GPS flights since the 9th July felt like a little less practice than would be ideal. As usual with GPS events at the BMFA National Centre, Buckminster the weather was rubbish. Third place for me was okay, but the combination of not enough flying and a bit of fine tuning left to do meant that I performed very averagely in the face of some increasingly good competition. In context though the best flight of the day was five laps and several rounds were won with three laps! As is the way of things, the weather clear up as we were packing up.
Another session on the 10th September was excellent. Four of us met up for an informal competition and it was interesting in the less than amazing conditions that Greg and I made the full flight times in the first round. Even though it was only four of us and the flying was very informal it was very useful for all involved. Whilst the PIKE Paradigm was going well I was still waiting for the final two bits of ballast weight to turn up and was therefore flying at 6.4kg. At the end of this session I had now racked up 15 flights with the plane. The first two were trimming flights and the rest in some form of competition. In reality I was feeling that I really needed some quality time to actually set the plane up. There were some issues with the coupled aileron rudder mixing and some of the flap settings needed tweaking.
My next flying opportunity was an event at an excellent site in Lincolnshire at the end of September. Sandhays is a private field owned, run and maintained to a very high standard by some dedicated glider fliers. The surface on the flying field and the airspace around it are beyond perfect for GPSTR. Over this weekend the plan was to provide a low key competition and some coaching. Day one went well despite some less than ideal weather. Close of flying on day one was good news for me — I was ahead of the field and that meant I was ahead of Greg. Unfortunately my wife had tested positive for COVID so I had to chuck everything in the car and get home — 230 miles in just under four hours — leaving me unable to complete the second day of the event.
My final GPS session in 2022 was in October at the Model Flying Ranch back in Tortosa, Spain. One of the things about this event is that is a challenge event and missing the first day left me at a disadvantage. However the main goal of this trip was to get plenty of quality flying with the Paradigm and also up my ‘endurance’. One of the things that you really need to be able to do with GPSTR is to make good decisions after long periods of intense concentration. Flying long flights and lots of them every day was the main training goal. Flying on the penultimate day was educational: 27ºC (80ºF) in the shade is fatiguing if you are not used to it, and because the sun was behind us I found the maximum temperature threshold for my GPS phone — when it crashed with a really good score about to be hoovered in!
Because of the relaxed nature of the Flying Ranch we had an informal race with slots on the final day, which was fantastic. Third in the challenge cup and a lucky second in the one day contest were a reasonable finish to the year.
So How Did It Go and What Have I Learnt This Year?
Reflections on the GPS year are positive overall. Some good outcomes, but some issues that must not happen again.
Having clear training goals is vital — I chose a couple of key things to train and they were perfect for the competitions that mattered.
Assess the events for the year and maximise training to those — As above I picked some good areas to train and have identified goals for next year based on this years experience.
Learn (and don’t repeat) mistakes — You can avoid mistakes by having assessed the task. You can also apply certain clear actions and processes to events that ensure you always default to a safe, reliable outcome when you are tired.
Use the tools available to understand what went well — The equipment and recordings from it allow a very detailed analysis of your flights. You can review the outcome against your decisions and use that to grow your understanding.
Understand your plane — if it isn’t an extension of your flying style change it — Unfortunately you need something that is really low workload to fly and you don’t want to be tinkering with the sticks all the time. Invest time in trimming your plane, setting the CG and making sure it is right. Fighting your plane will only lead to poor performance and frustation.
Localise! — If you are going to fly a ‘proper’ competition abroad, study the local environment and determine what you need to practice before you arrive. Even if you do that, get there early and fly in the prevailing conditions.
Next year — well let’s say 2023 — has four big events for me:
- First one is my second Samba PIKE Paradigm arrives. I have found a plane that I think flies really well so am going to stick with it.
- In April 2023 I should take delivery of my self launch system (SLS) scale glider for GPSTR.
- In August 2023, assuming I can get a place in the events, I will be flying in both the SLS GPS World Championships and the Scale GPS World Championships. Both these events will be in Neresheim, Germany.
This whole experience would not have been possible without the amazing support of friends and family, thank you Jos, Greg, Giles, Olga, Sean, Dave, Markus, Bernie and Neil.
©2023 Iain Medley-Rose
Resources
- Tortosa Model Flying Ranch — “a hotspot for all kinds of model flying. But especially the friends of gliding will find a thermally strong area here, which invites to hours of flights in the mild air of the Mediterranean climate…”
- World Masters 2022 Results — From the GPS Triangle website.
- PCM Elvira — “Elvira is the logical continuation in our series of gliders. Thanks to it’s great wing span, the high aspect ratio and the weight the model performs considerably better and retains more momentum than its smaller predecessor…”
- PIKE Paradigm — “Our new project, which we are currently working on intensively, is PIKE Paradigm. This model is designed by Philip Kolb and Benjamin Rodax…”
- GPS Triangle Regulations for Sport Class Gliders (PDF) — “GPS Triangle competitions are meant to build a bridge between model soaring and full-size soaring competitions…”
- Sportfliegerclub Ulm — “You will find here…current information, pictures and reports…”
- Albatross — “Android App…for perfect [GPSTR] navigation…”
- GPS Triangle Eurotour Facebook group. — “All about GPS Triangle flying…”
All images by the author unless otherwise credited. Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
