DLG is actually a brutally complicated 'soaring' event. I'm still getting my head around the rules. I saw some guys practicing at a contest I attended in Montana & got me curious. I doubt I will compete, or at least for a few years. But its really good for teaching thermal & duration discipline. Anyways there are 13 tasks & a contest is made up up of some combination. They vary by flight duration, number of flights, maximum attepts... all kinds of variables. So what wasn't evident on the video is as the planes 'land' its rarely on the strip. They attempt to seamlessly grab the wing peg as its going by with flaps deployed & immediately launch again (minimizing ground time & thus improving score).
What I fly (F5J = bigger models like 4m span) is more straightforward but very much a strategy game. 15 models launch same time, small electric motor, folding prop, maximum 30 secs duration then it cuts off. An internal electronic device records the altitude of motor shut off. So if pilot A shuts off at 50m & pilot B shuts off at 100m & both fly the exact same 10 minute thermal duration & land on a dime, pilot B scores more points because he took a risk (= better thermal pilot). Or worded differently, launch height is penalized. If you land before 10 minutes, points subtracted per second off 10 minutes. If you land after 10 minutes, goose egg. Points awarded per meter of landing on a spot. And yes some guys can hit it every friggen time LOL. Then in flyoffs they bump the thermal time to 15 minutes. For perspective a state of art model at 200m altitude would be down in say 4 minutes in dead air, so you HAVE to thermal to survive.
Don yes I have my standby TX but it is a heavy tank. Perfect for normal flying but if I spun DLG with that one I'd probably blow a shoulder socket from gyroscopic forces LOL. So I shelled out for a lightweight model, same brand so same programming familiarity. Eventually I'll flip the older one. I've been doing RC a long time but the technology just keeps advancing. Mostly I've done power stuff, aerobatics & racing. Soaring is slower but actually very challenging, man vs nature kind of thing. And of course other competitors in the same sky. Nothing more humbling than landing after 5 minutes & a gaggle are somehow still up there, HTF did they do that? That's what keeps it interesting. 20 years from now I probably wont have the eyesight or mental processing capacity so I keep at it during summer.
I must need a project......................
