Singapore National Aeromodeling Championship 2003,

F3C competition

D-Day : 3D Demo and first two rounds of F3C competition

16th August 2003, cloudy, 2pm, Bukit Batok Flying Club

The first official day of the F3C competition. We were very fortunate to have Mr Yamaguchi, the 3D champion from Japan to give a demostration flight with his Bravo (TT Raptor in Japan is named Bravo) helicopter. Mr Yap Ah Sing from Hong Kong also gave demostration flight with the 3DNT.

Left : Mr Yamaguchi walking to the flight line. He is using a mode 1 JR PCM10X transmitter. Note his big sun glasses.

Right: The two Bravo belonging to Mr Yamaguchi. He is using using a Hatori tune pipe on an OS 91 C-Spec. There are no horizontal fin. Maybe it's because he flies 3D and a straight forward flight behavoir is not important.

Left : A modified Raptor rotorhead. I overheard that he is not using any dampers on the spindle, hence making the heli very sensitive. Those are Zigsaw carbon blades.

Right : I spotted a perry pump on the OS 91 c-spec in Mr Yamaguchi"s Bravo.

Left : The delrin main gear teeth is slated, like those on the JR Sylphide. The original plastic moulded gear from TT has straight teeth.

Right : The tail rotor on the Bravo. Mr Yamaguchi is using non-3D vertical tail fin.

Mr Yamaguchi really entertained the crowd with his exciting 3D moves. I could remember that he started with a tail stand launch followed by inverted backwards flight, inverted backwards loop, roll, piroflip, 4 point tic toc, low level tic toc, rolling tail slide, piro funnel, rolling funnel, piro loop, piro circle, knife edge circle, death spiral and lots of other moves that I do not know the name. Wow.....this demo flight gave me lots of inspiration!

The F3C compeition begun after the two demo flights. Competition was tough, especially when the afternoon sky was not very bright due to the clouds. Then sometimes strong wind would start blow. Overall, very precise flying were performed by the participants in spite of the difficult environmental factors.

Left : Mr Philip Chong from Singapore started the competition by performing a series of precision F3C schedule A moves. His number two Hirobo Freya EX WC in flight.

Right : Mr Walter Lee, the owner of RotorHobby Singapore, also gives superb F3C performance with his Raptor 90.

Left : Yong Chun from Singapore flying his Vigor CS. Note that the yellow bottles on the ground are used as markers. The competitor has to perform the hovering moves using the bottle as reference.

Right : Mr Michael Leong from Hong Kong leaving the flight box after his flight. He is flying a Xcell Pro2K with a Tempest FAI rotorhead and uses the JR PCM10X mode 1 transmitter. Ever wonder what are the use for those umbrellas that are tied to the poles?

Left : Mr Frans D. Sutadji from Indonesia with his Freya EX WC. He is preparing to fly his helicopter from the preparation area into the flight box.

Right : The Xcell Fury Tempest FAI flown by Mr Karisma Kamdani from Indonesia. He is using an OS 91 c-spec with hatori muffler.

The results after 2 rounds of competitive flying, from 1st to 3rd are: Mr Micheal Leong from HongKong, Mr Philip Chong from Singapore and Mr Frans D. Sutadji from Indonesia.

During break time, I sneak into the VIP area and look at the set up of these contest helicopter. My flying buddy Kian and I spoke to Mr Michael from Hong Kong about his contest machine. We were puzzled why he uses a Pro2K frame with a Tempest FAI rotor head. He explained that he prefers standard mix on the Pro2K than the CCPM on the Fury Tempest FAI. He uses a Webra 91 with MC carb. The Pro2K frame has an extra servo mount for the mixture control servo while the Fury Tempest FAI doesn't. By the way, Mr Michael has been flying for about 12 years!

Left : The Pro2K frame of his number two contest heli. He explained that he has crashed his heli a short while ago and he fitted the Pro2K head instead of the Tempest FAI head. In this competition, this is his backup helicopter. I am surprised that this helicopter is very heavy! Mr Michael told me that it's around 5 kg.

Right : The CY MP2 fitted to the Webra 91.Note the mixture control servo. Mr Michael explains that he found that Webra 91 works the best with CY MP2.

Left : The Pro2K tail on Mr Michael's backup helicopter. Note that the tail rotor is on the left side.

Right : The trophy for the champion and the plaques for the participants.

At the end of the day, there was the usual photo shoot.

All the competitors and the judges. Quote " If you think you can fly better than the competitor who came in last, then you will be good enough to participate in the competition next year". So for those who went, are you participating next year?

Haha......for those for stayed until the event was over, we are treated to a F3C schedule B demostration by Mr Michael and an impromptu test flight by Mr Yamaguchi with the 3DNT.

Mr Yamaguchi grinning happily after flying the 3DNT. He comments that the 3DNT is very fast! From what I see, the 3DNT flies 3D very gracefully and surprising for a heli of that speed, the 3DNT is quite forgiving. You can make a mistake and still have some time to correct it before the earth comes up and swallows it.

Of course, I don't stay behind for nothing. This is what I'm waiting for...erm, not eactly, but since I'm mode 2 and Mr Stephan uses mode 1 for his 3DNT, I can't give this exotic heli a go. What a disappointment for me....

3DNT and me. Thank You Mr Stephen for giving me the opportunity to see how well the 3DNT flies. I'm hopelessly in love with it, except that the canopy needs a good paint job to make orientation easier. Can someone who is very lucky give me some 4D or ToTo numbers to buy? 4D and Toto are the names for the state lotteries. For those in Asia who wants to get this exotic bird, you can get it from Cyberheli.

Continue : Day 2