Race To 2000

by Gretchen Watson & Steven Doll

 A Race to 2,000 Feet - "I'm Not Competitive" by Steven Doll 

It all started innocently enough.  It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in February.  I was just flying around the patch having fun with my friends.  You don't get many good flying days in February and this one was close to perfect.  It was sunny, the temperature was near 50, there was virtually no wind, and a thin veil of high clouds was just thick enough to keep the thermals from building. 

Bret, Curtis, Gretchen, Mickey, their families and a whole host of other folks were out at Henry's field enjoying the day.  During the afternoon of flying I just played around, doing side by side take offs with Bret (in his trike) from Curtis's field and some "follow the leader" patterns with Gretchen (in her T-Bird) over Coyote Hill.  All of this was great sport and I was having a seriously good time. 

During the "follow the leader" flight with Gretchen, I was the leader and she was doing the following.  We were swooping low over the hill top, following the contours of the ridge, flying over the grass between the trees and making the grazing deer nervous.  At the end of the grass we would climb out, up over the tree line, over the valley, make a hairpin turn and repeat the pattern from the other direction.  She was sticking with me like white on rice.  Pretty impressive I thought because I was doing some hard banking and this was definitely NOT straight and level flight. 

Well, after a few minutes of playing tag with Gretchen IT HAPPENED. I said to myself "OK girl lets see if you can hang with this".  I stomped on the gas and pointed the trike towards the sky.  "Let's just see what that new T-Bird will do" I thought.  I wasn't sure she would follow, if she did I figured there was good chance I would get smoked, but what the hell. 

Back at the airfield, when the hangar talk ensued, it became apparent that my RedBack Trike might be a better climber than I thought.  Bret, with his "ultra light trike" said the climb outs from Curtis's field were close to even.  Gretchen, who did follow me by the way, said she wasn't really able to gain on me all that fast when we both aimed for the sky near Coyote Hill. 

Well, I was just having a grand time talking about all this plane stuff when Curtis pipes up and asks "Do You Wanta Race?"  I looked at him in disbelief and thought "Who Me?" 

A Race to 2,000 Feet - "Ultralight Flight Recorder" by Steven Doll 

The race was over and it was time to put away the planes.  I looked at my trike and noticed the GPS which is always there.  I use it on every flight to give me ground speed and I always turn the "Track Log" on so I can see where I've been and also have a record of my flights.  "Hum" I though.  I'll bet I can some good race data out of that thing and see what the performance statistics really were. 

This particular GPS has a barometric sensor in it so it can provide better altitude information than you would otherwise get from a standard GPS.  The GPS Track Log takes position measurements and records them along with the current altitude reading at up to one second intervals.  From this data you (and the GPS) can calculate things like speed, direction, and distance traveled.  The log data can be downloaded onto a computer and displayed on a map. 

Being an engineer AND an airplane nut I was interested in things from the race like climb rate, climb angle, climb speed, take-off distance and so forth.  One of the harder things to determine, surprisingly, is when you actually take off.  I have noticed that the apparent altitude drops sharply just before you leave the ground.  This seems to be caused by the air being trapped between the wing and the ground (ground effect) which makes the pressure around the GPS higher (in a trike at least) and the apparent altitude lower.  Since I know the runway is (relatively) flat I have concluded that I must be off the ground at, or before, the point where the apparent altitude returns to the level I had when I was not moving.  I am certain that the runway doesn't have a hole in it like it appears. 

The following are the race results for the two runs.  In the second race I climbed at a higher air speed and consequently went further.  The climb rate was slightly better but of course the climb angle wasn't nearly as high.  I might be able to fine tune my run and actually beat Gretchen and that T-Bird (no I'm not competitive) but she will undoubtedly get better as well.  Anyway, until the next race, this is where we stand. 

 A Race to 2,000 Feet - "Ultralight Flight Recorder" by Steven Doll 

Technical Notes 

The GPS altitude seems to lag the plane's altimeter or just simply reads lower at 2,000 feet.  I can't tell which.  I will fly level some time and see how the two compare.  On the ground the plane's altimeter was set at 0 for the race.  The GPS altimeter was calibrated to the field elevation of 563 feet when I turned it on.  For the race calculations I used the indicated GPS altitude just before the take off roll began. 

The time for the race "Start" was marked when the GPS first indicated movement on the take off roll. 

The time for "Liftoff" was marked at the point where the GPS climb slope intersects the ground elevation.  The GPS ground elevation was marked just before the take-off roll began. 

The time for the race "Finish" was marked when the GPS first indicated a turn.  See "The Competition" by Curtis Pack. 

All times are only good to within one second since the GPS only records data every second.  The distances are, of course, only good to within one second as well plus any GPS distance measurement errors there might be. 

All in all, even with the errors indicated above, the GPS data is considerably more accurate than the standard stuff hangar talk is made of.  Have fun and fly safely. 

A Race to 2,000 Feet - “Definitely Competitive” by Gretchen Watson 

It all started on that bright sunny day when I was out trying to hang with a parachute but kept stalling out around 28 mph.  I broke off and found another plane who flew 15 to 20 miles an hour faster, Steve Doll, in his Red Back Trike and began following him.  Next thing you know, he dove down and entered the twisting turns of Coyote Hill.  Of course, I wasn’t about to be lost by that little old trike so down I went cranking and banking – ok, just little over dramatic maybe.  We navigated the fields then Steve turned and went back in going in the opposite direction.  I followed, staying a couple hundred feet behind and just a few feet above him to avoid his prop wash.  After navigating the turns Steve begins to climb, which caught me by surprise.  “He’s trying to lose me!  We’ll just see about that.”  I went full throttle and pulled the nose up.  To my further surprise, I was not gaining rapidly – if at all.   

Later on in the day as Steve, Mickey, Curtis and I were standing around talking about our “Follow the Leader” activities, Curtis suggested that we have a race - first one to 2000 feet wins.  At first I hesitated but my competitiveness grabbed hold of my senses and before you know it, I’m sitting on the end of the runway waiting for the start.   

          Steve and I both made the same mistake on our first race to 2000 foot.  Our (and I’m saying “Our”) competitiveness drove us both to confusing “Best Rate of Climb” with “Best Angle of Ascent.”  We both climbed too steeply which was neither of our best rates of climb.  Because I also was confused by the starter when taking off, I was several seconds behind Steve.  At 2000 foot Steve broke hard right and I broke hard left.  Mickey and Curtis attempted to count the start difference but it was too close of a race to judge.  We were easily convinced to do it again and this time I got the start right.  Steve and I both powered up and held the brakes for the start signal.  We got off of the ground almost identical.  This time I made sure that my airspeed stayed around 50 which seemed to be a much better ascent rate – one to two hundred feet per minute better according to my rate of climb indicator.  I, of course ended up further down river because of my greater speed, but we both broke over at the same time again.   

          Now for a lesson learned.  Don’t let competitiveness rob you of your good senses.  To be honest, I may not have been as attentive to other important details as I should have or would have if I had not been caught up in the midst of trying to win a race.  Did I scan for traffic like normal?  Did I keep an eye on my instruments, egt’s, cht’s like normal?  Probably not.  Will I next time? Yes.  Spur of the moment decisions to do something like that sometimes leaves part of the brain about three steps behind.  This was loads of fun and was a learning experience in more than one way.  In everything that you do especially when flying, think it through and consider all of the possibilities.  Keep a clear head so that you and everyone else in the sky are safe – while you are dusting the competition.  TBird I Rules.