Earl's excellent observations

[Rcmaster199 at aol.com]

I saw three such landing examples at the F3A Finals, when the pilots turned 
into the runway (rather than away from it) to go downwind. Two exited the 
aerobatic zone to enter the downwind leg, which BTW required re-entry into the 
zone. I assumed that the term "Aerobatic Zone" was defined as the show stage 
between the +/- 60 degree lines. I tend to look at the rule this way: once the F3A 
pilot committed to enter the box, he should not exit it until his turn to 
final. 

Interestingly, the third pilot who made a turn toward the runway to enter his 
downwind leg,  did not exit the zone. The turn direction is at pilot's 
discretion. Pilot is allowed to make the turn to downwind leg in either direction; 
it's just easier to do it away. BUT, turning away he should not make it so wide 
that he violates the distance out rule. 

These two landing sequences also had the issue of the downwind turn being 
greater than 180 degrees. The verbiage of the rule is somewhat unfortunate 
because 180 degrees is a specified value. I believe the writer of the rule intended 
for the turn to be a simple directional reversal in the horizontal plane, but 
it isn't up to me to make that intrepretation. However, as a judgement call, I 
allowed it

Note that the verbiage in regard to the upwind turn to go to final approach, 
is less clear and I allowed the guys to exit the box to turn to final without 
assessing a downgrade. Also note that any downgrade observed in the landing 
sequence must be a 10 point downgrade (Don uses that terminology and I like it). 

I was told that I may have nitpicked a bit here, but, in my opinion, there is 
no room for "grey" in the landing (and take-off) sequence. It's either black 
or white and not both

Matt K
Zero

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Brian Young 
To: discussion at nsrca.org 
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 3:06 PM
Subject: Re: Earl's excellent observations


What if its not?

Don Ramsey <donramsey at cox-internet.com> wrote: 
The landing sequence also requires that the 180 degree turn to downwind be
in the aerobatic zone.

Don

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Ferrell" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: Earl's excellent observations


> I can post your drawings in my personal web space, just send me a copy.
>
> Bill Glaze pointed out to me that the FAI landing sequence requires that
> once you begin your descent to landing, you can never gain any altitude
> according to the book. There would have been a lot of unhappy finalists if
> this was enforced at Muncie. The only available penalty is a zero...
>
> John Ferrell
> http://DixieNC.US
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dean Pappas" 
! > To: 
> Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 1:25 PM
> Subject: Earl's excellent observations
>
>
> Hello All,
> wifferdil ... I just call 'em twinkle-rolls!
> What I would like to see is for our team members to have two new arrows in
> their quiver at the next Worlds.
> One is a real snap that comes out on heading or is quickly corrected.
(hint:
> the more deeply the airplane is stalled in the initial break, the less
lift
> is available for heading loss.) 
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