Reno Air Races Challenge - off we go!

[Guest Steffen]

Gentlemen, you have a race!I proudly present the ultimate surrounding for our FU3 racing planes - take your racing bird on the original Reno Air Race courses! You'll be met by 8 different computer planes with growing strength (depending on your race class best speed). Race around the 10 pylons - no more hoops challenges, this is the real thing...At the end of the 6-lap race, your race speed is automatically calculated in mph. That way, you can compare your results with the real Reno speeds. And we can boast/compare on this Forum...The challenge puts you either in a random or a preselected racing plane. The racing class (Sport, Unlimited, or Jet) is set according to the active plane. Additional functions check for near-misses with computer planes, for forbidden "cutting" of pylons and overtaking on the inside, and for racing altitude violations.Much more eye and ear candy, superb 3D-models by Ansgar and Jon Point, and race statitics written to file await you! Manual included. Enjoy!Blue Skies, SteffenP.S.: And I'll throw you the first gauntlet (though it is an easy one): Here is my statistic_last_race.txt of the last race (DLM's Mustang Racer, Unlimited class), try to do better:Mustang Racer Unlimited class, lap length 8.355 miles. Lap1:334mph. Lap2:338mph. Lap3:338mph. Lap4:352mph. Lap5:349mph. Lap6:349mph. Pylons missed:0. Race speed:343mph.

[Lars Peter 0]

Steffen.This is the thing!First priority downloads.Off we go for air-racing!!!!!Thank you again for your wonderful scripts.Take care.Lars Peter.:-wave

[Guest Rich Wren]

Hi Steffen,Wow that's fun :-)My first two laps were a little on the flaky side, my altitude was anywhere between 50 and 500ft and I almost missed a couple of pylons on the downwind leg. As soon as I sorted that out though I started to really get somewhere. The marshalls called me twice for undertaking aircraft I didn't even notice, I was more interested in not clipping the pylons with my wingtips though :-)Results for the 'Classic' Mustang:FU3 Mustang Unlimited class, lap length 8.355 miles.Lap1:291mph.Lap2:334mph.Lap3:338mph.Lap4:327mph.Lap5:338mph.Lap6:338mph.Pylons missed:0.Race speed:329mph.I went for a photoshoot flight too, but ended up with the racing Mustang instead. Oh well.http://www.wheresthefish.co.uk/fu3/flt3racing1.jpg(note: Don't select a low sun for the race, it may look nice but it just gets in the way.)Fantastic stuff though, I think I've caught the air racing bug. Can I possibly interest you in a Schneider Trophy package ;-)Cheers,Rich.

[Guest Quaxo]

My second attempt, with the Mustamg Racer... (on the first attempt, I was so excited from the race itself, that I forgot retracting the gear! I made all the race with the gear down... :-eek )Mustang Racer Unlimited class, lap length 8.355 miles.Lap1:410mph.Lap2:417mph.Lap3:410mph.Lap4:417mph.Lap5:399mph.Lap6:410mph.Pylons missed:0.Race speed:410mph.Cristian

[Guest glidernut]

Thank you Steffen,Anuther masterpeace. You are without dout the kink of skripting.This is a chalange I will retern to time and time agen, cus the atmosfear is so brethtakeing and all embraceing and , well so muthch fun.And thanks to Ansgar, Jon, Erik, and Daniel, this is a chalange that cums withthe added bones of 3D-models that we can use in Fled.Thanks guys. I carnt keep up with the other guys in my Stemme, so I go in the oposit direction,doing it this way I meet the other guys mor often.Im not shower the other guys know what thay are doing?Im the one going in the right directtion, I think?glidernut.:-wave

[Guest Steffen]

Hi Guys,glad to see you like the challenge - I find myself sitting with a huge smile and nervous fingers in front of FU3 quite often, now...Rich: I assume you have the line "record_challenges" in your flt3.cfg file, when you tried to do the picture run?A weird thing with the blackbox recordings in challenges is that the blackbox ONLY records position, orientation, and speed of the player plane (and views selected). On playback, this data is pasted into the running challenge. So for playback, you'll need to have the challenge installed - and the challenge will still run: That's way you suddenly had a different plane because of the random plane assignement of the running challenge on playback. So in order to review our flights in the racing challenge using the automatic blackbox recording, we need to preselect all the variables of the challenge BEFORE playing back the blackbox. That means writing the number of the plane into file randomracer.txt and (if you did a new best speed) sometimes even writing the old record speed into the [racingclass]best.txt before playing back the recording. Once we do that, we can follow exactly the same flight that was recorded - otherwise our plane or the behaviour of the computer planes will be different...Quaxo: Nice speeds - you would have made 6th in Reno 2002! But the incredible "Dago Red" is still faster... (and I will also try to beat that speed)Glidernut: Oh boy, isn't that always a problem when the Brits travel to other countries (maybe not Australia)? All those other guys drive on the wrong side... :)And what did you do to all those nice mustangs lying there on their bellies and without props on the Arlington airport? :)I wonder there aren't any Gee-Bee speeds posted yet - that thing just rips around the pylons...Blue Skies, Steffen

[Hans_Petter 1]

Nice challenge but this will take some getting used to :-) I flew the GeeBee and made my usual strong torque, wing scraping take-off. So, where are the pylons? I found one and circled it at a whopping 95 mph :-eek Then I spotted the other pylons. I got the general idea--it's a wide counter-clockwise circle around all of them. A problem in flight simulators is that one can't look left or right real fast--at least not without a proper hat switch. (My next yoke will have one). I gave up on navigating from inside the cockpit and popped outside. The other aircraft started flying. They passed me on the outside, flying dangerously low :-hmmm I completed a lap. Another high--110 mph average speed! I was more careful on my second lap, throttling back and making careful coordinated turns :-shy Then I was disqualified for flying too high. OK, game over--I made a quite nice landing and parked the GeeBee. I ain't built for speed and snappy performance--at least not just a few hundred feet above ground level. But I'll keep practicing :-)best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest glidernut]

Can sumone tel me why sum of the challenge cheat markers around the distent race cours are a bright green and others are brouwn ? In the meen time, Im explouting a loop hole in the rools !.If no one can over take on the inside without being disquolified, then all I hav to do to win the raceis to do a biger cercel round the cours than every one els,and I win ? No mater how slow I am.glidernut.:-wave

[Guest Steffen]

Hi Christian,after lots of "Dago Red beta testing" I finally had some time for my Mustang racer as well (and yes, Ansgar: I also had two rounds with 518mph).So even though my round 1 was very bad, here we go:Mustang Racer Unlimited class, lap length 8.355 miles. Lap1:403mph. Lap2:410mph. Lap3:417mph. Lap4:417mph. Lap5:410mph. Lap6:417mph. Pylons missed:0. Race speed:412mph.Right now I re-discovered the option of automatic challenge blackbox recordings (record_challenges). So I could also provide a blackbox recording of that flight - funny thing: On pulling up after the race and doing a 180 into downwind, I almost had a head to head with Ignited Flight XXX - don't those guys read the NOTAM's???!!!Blue Skies, Steffen

[Hans_Petter 1]

I'm finally getting the hang of it :-) It's really scary to fly this fast right above ground level. I trim the aircraft way down and control it by a small amount of stick back-pressure. We have a terrific zoom reserve at 200 mph + so the aircraft will ascend instantly if I yank it up. My main concern now is to spot all of the pylons in due time.Screenshots are hard to make since my hands are too busy for cntrl-alt-P but here's one I captured while using my chin to control the stick.Thanks for a challenging race Steffen!best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest Ansgar]

Hi Steffen, huuuuhuuuu .... it