Freestyle Stunt

So as not to hijack outside triangle (point down!!!) thread. We tried freestyle stunt several times at St. Louis contests. It was regarded as a fun thing to do. Five judges were recruited from people standing around: contestants, wives, spectators, etc., with the aim of diversity. The judges instructions were to give each flight a score from 0 to 100. Total the judges scores, highest total wins. The one time I judged, the flight which won had obviously been choreographed and practiced. Each maneuver was distinct, and there was a flow between maneuvers. The second place was the most impressive BiSlob flight I have seen, but it lacked the planning and cohesion of the winning flight.

Freestyle is like, you know, an art form. One scores it according to how well the artistic intent is conveyed.

Jim,
That is one way to judge a Freestyle event. Another is to provide your pre-planned flight to the judges. Then the judges score it by giving each manuever one to ten, based on how closely each manuever was flown to the provided list and description.

I wasn't really talking about the St. Louis style contests when I remarked in the other thread. I think of those as a fun fly, or what is called a "four minute" flight in IAC acro. These are scored solely on the basis of artistic content. For sure some are practiced, and have become stuff of legend in some cases. I still try to copy a Bob Herendeen 4 Minute. (I wish!)

Free's are what IAC contestants work up on the their own to exploit the best of what airplane/pilot combination can show the judges. It is the flight you most often practice because the only reason to change it is to tweak it for a better presentation. It is ones own "pattern".

The "known" in IAC is what we would call our AMA pattern. It comes out before the year end and everyone must fly it as a compulsory sequence in the contests for the upcoming year. We get a new known every year.

The "unknown" is a sequence that is presented to the pilots at the pilot meeting of the first day, and is flown without practice. Kind of evens the field.

A stunt contest like this would be an interesting exercise. Three flights, free, known and unknown. At least it would be different.

Take care Jim,
Chris...

Chris,
When I was in St Louis, I had a contest in which we had an "unknown", unpracticed pattern, but no one had the guts to try it. This was about 1969 or 1970 before I moved back to NJ.

Jim,

Sounds like fun! However, it seems it would work best at the local level, where people pretty much agree on the fun factor.

It may not sound as sweet to someone who has traveled far, and expensively, expecting the basic event he practiced for...

To semi-standardize the random factor (er, whut??) a set of supplemental maneuevers could be defined -- we've already talked point-down Outside Triangles and Square-Leaf Clovers -- and Keith T mentioned the old NY Mirror Meet tormenters...

IF --- BIG word, there -- there's a groundswell of interest, four or five such maneuvers can be defined and pretty well understood by fliers and judges alike. Meet organizers could announce a stunt event with either:

a)'CD's Choice supplement maneuver'(which of course would not be named before the meet.) or

b) as all carry a max possible 40 pts, a flier's choice supplemental maneuver (named to the judges before flight, of course.)

Need I add that such supplementals would FOLLOW the basic pattern??

The 1950 pattern had a "special maneuver" scheduled before the landing. This was an aerodynamic or mechanical maneuver described in detail to the judges before the flight. Each contestant's special maneuver was scored in comparison to all other contestant's special maneuver (and this without computers!) What goes around comes around.

Personally I have no interest in flying freestyle or in modifying the present patterns. However, nothing wrong with freestyle as a local fun event for those who wish to participate.

Not sure if it carried on into 1950 but in 1948 they added the special maneuver. I watched Jack Gilroy fly his Orwick 64 ship through a wall of 1/16 sheet balsa which was soaked with gasoline and lit afire upon his signal. He nailed it the on the first try! An excellant flyer, wish I could get a 3 view of the model he used, a Madman style but with larger wing and elevators. Can you help on this Floyd?

I kinda like the free style idea myself. Especially since I can't do the required things yet..However I do have some pretty exciting moves. Only problem is I can't repeat (or am to skert to try) them. It does sound like a fun event for local contests.
Lee

I would like to see it similar to how rc freestyle is done. With smoke and music...

---

On another aspect tho.. How can we imagine a freestyle event when we cant even get the f2b pattern balanced?

>I would like to see it similar to how rc freestyle is done.
>With smoke and music...
>
>---
>
>On another aspect tho.. How can we imagine a freestyle event
>when we cant even get the f2b pattern balanced?

Smoke and music? On the plane or on the ground? If on the plane, how much will that weigh and decrease the performance of the ship? And as far as the pattern not being or being balanced. Please explain or define exactly what you mean quantitatively, not subjectively.

I would suppose the smoke would be on the plane and the music on the ground...

I wonder, though, how the reverse would work. Hmmm...

smoke on the plane
music infront of the judges, corograph the fligth to the music.

Outside triangles would balance the pattern!

>smoke on the plane
>music infront of the judges, corograph the fligth to the
>music.
>
>Outside triangles would balance the pattern!

How is the pattern unbalanced now? I fail to see it. If you can provide quantitative evidence to support your assertion, I am interested. Presently, the pattern as designed by GMA in 1957 appears to be balanced very well. One only has to unwind your lines two times at the most after flying. But, that is not a measure of balance. True, two outside triangles would make that unnecessary, but I don't think that is the definition of unbalanced.

I think the idea of "balanced" here, Tom, is that we do inside loops, we do outside loops. We do inside squares, we do outside squares. We do inside triangles, we do NOT do outside triangles.

The Eights and hourglass are, in themselves, balanced, as is the clover as it is flown (equal number of inside and outside portions of each maneuver.) Even the wingover is balanced (outside, then inside). It is not just the twisting of the lines. It is the equal number of maneuvers or portions of maneuvers in each direction with the same shapes or angles.

When the pattern was originally proposed as we now have it, only one hourglass figure was added since this was considered difficult to do with the equipment of the day. I suspect the same was thought of the outside triangle--too difficult for most of the equipment of the day. Just a couple of years later would have made a great difference in the equipment being flown by the majority of flyers, but at the time it was conceived, it was a radical presentation as-is.

(And then, of course, there is the story of how the clover got changed from its original conception and described with the present exit overhead into the wind. Now THAT is exciting on a windy day. I can imagine what it was like back then when the equipment was...come to think of it, I WAS flying back then with the equipment that was... Not fun!)

I am still flying that old style of equipment (Classic planes and Fox 35 stunt engines) and you are right-=-- on a windy day the exit of the four leaf can get a bit harry.

Bigiron

For Freestyle, one would dispense with formal maneuvers. One would string elements of maneuvers together to form a complete flowing presentation, and perform the entire thing downwind with no inbetween laps (which, to me, disrupts continuity).

It might be advantageous to fly fast, even, and do combat-like moves close to the ground.

I liked doing it too.

The 1999 Freestyle winner in the big wind! Sorry about the landing - nothing I could do except watch it flip over. I kind of liked doing those four consecutive hourglasses in that big wind though!

We also did free style few times. But for change - we do not have judges. Winner is always coming from spntaneose election. And I tell you well flying stunter have absolutely no chance - all without any instructions. It is friendly, it is funny, it makes good feeling, it is attracting other flyers.