[LASS Soaring] "Sonic Landings? Whisper In My Ear and I'll Land Anywhere"

[GordySoar at aol.com]

I used to use the sound of my servos to calibrate my landings but found  that 
the my ears are so tone sensitive that the condition of my batteries would  
cause me to be long or short as a the day went on.
 
I switched from Nicads to Nihms but that really screwed things up because  
some Nihms tend to oscillate so the warbling sound of my servos would cause me  
to fluctuate my flaps as the model approached.
 
Once I got a set of cells that were more stable then I ran into a problem  
with 'sound reflection density' (I think that was mentioned in the Ol' Bussards  
book)...the sound just wasn't reliable because the hardness of the soil, the  
length or type of grass, or the moisture content would vary as the model  
approached.  Certain kinds of weeds would really through off the pitch of  the 
sound.
 
Then I had a linkage snag on an aileron and since at this point I was soooo  
attuned to the servos sounds, that the whine created by the digital servo, was 
 like scratching your finger nails in wax!  I almost flew right thru the  
safety line!
 
I think I can attribute my recent three LSF5 wins to a new landing  cue!  
Since I got my distance optimized sunglasses, I watch for a non  polarized glare 
off the Volz Powered Decals as the model approaches, and it has  really been 
very consistent and reliable in helping judge the 100 spot.

Any of you tried that?
Gordy
Home at last....Packing planes for the SWC and FSS2 (Orlando) and some  
shorts for work in Cancun tomorrow.  You?
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