This weekend i visit competition called UK Electric Indoor Masters. This was my first trip to Great Britain. And i must say it was really well organized interesting event. EIM was held second time by Mr. Andrew Whitehead and his team. This year competition was held in bigger hall with two days instead of one, i think this is real important when you travel long distances, just to have allot of competition flights.
This time to competition i flew not alone, i travel with my dad, we flew from Vilnius to London, where Ian Amazing Watson and Ilja Krug waited for us. Affter two hour drive we reach Leeds and went to hotel. First thig we did is inspect box with planes, thanks god this time there was no damage at all, planes were in perfect condition.
The Hall.
Early saturday morning we came to competition hall (thanks to Bango retarded navigation ;), most of participants already practice beffore competition, only Dutch team was missing at the moment. I flew my pattern plane several times, everything was working well.
Huge hall.
Judges at work
Some planes.
Raffle prizes.
Competition organizer and great guy Andrew Whitehead at work, calculating points and making everything run smoth.
Planes;
This was first competition where i saw other pilots flying my design, Sultimate and Deluxe are quite new planes released just few month ago, so it was pleasure to see our planes are so popular in UK. Without Sultimates and Deluxes there was some other Donuts planes like Elipsia and Elipsia FT, also Top model team flew new Kosmos, + had chance to see already old Jason Noll design Vrolet V3. Without regular F3P and AM models we had few lets say interesting indoor planes. First one you can see is micro Progress with really small modern electronics, RTF weight of this plane is only 25g!
Nice airbrushed planes.
Results:
Top 3 in F3P-A from L to R Carl Olson, Donatas Pauzuolis, Nicolas Pietu.
TOP 3 in AM from L to R, Donatas Pauzuolis, Derk Van Der Vecht, Carl Olson.
Videos:
My Pattern flight (Round Nr2).
My Pattern flight from center view.
My Aeromusical flight (Round Nr3).
My freestyle flight (Round Nr1).
Most important from time to time look random directions for Premier Nazubaziev;)))
Competition homepage with Mr. Andy review: http://www.f3p-uk.org.uk/wp/
Discussions on RCgroups; http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1119250
Small Review by Nicolas Pietu; http://www.topmodel.fr/topics-497
Hello dear visitors. Few months ago my new friend Duarte Folgado from Portugal ask me, could i help him create freestyle routine. It was quite interesting to help someone to develop flying skills by creating challenging freestyle routine, so i said yes. I meet Duarte in EXFC, after several weeks practice new routine he told he improve his flying skills dramatically. I could see this is true when we went to fly online on RealFlight simulator. Duarte flew different combinations of fast slow rolls to both directions almost without problem, and as we know this is hardest thing to do for any pilot! Of course to reach Duarte level you have to be really motivated and love your hobby and be prepared spend some serious time on simulator. Even some top pilots make only one way/direction rolling circles.... so as we all know nothing good come easy without work.
Here is Duarte with his planes, and here is what he told me, affter receiving his routine;
"I thought that I had seen everything about freestyle, but when Donatas created my routine I realized how very wrong I was! The manoeuvres, the music and the choreography were everything that I always want to see in a freestyle routine, no other routine of no other pilot "turn me on" ever since. And what is truly amazing is that my flying skills rise to an unbelievable level after hard practice to perform this routine, all I have to say is thank you very much Donatas!"
Ok back to article title , i was watching freestyle videos since famous and unfortunately last TOC 2002, since then i watch probably few hundreds of different flights to music. And i notice most pilots that have several 3m planes (that cost about 4000-6000 eur each) don't have good routines and in most cases fly basic 3D with random strange music in background. You even can see this in such top competitions as TAS and XFC. There is several reasons for this, some pilots don't have time , and more often they don't have skills to do it, specially with original never used music. Most people that saw my routines like them allot, and told positive opinion about them. So my dear friends i decide to offer new product in RC , hi level Freestyle/Artistic Aerobatic routines that include 4 minutes music file with simulator video showing stick movement and plane in same picture. I think its a great deal for both parts good pilots get chalenging routine and i get extra cash for this expencive hobby. Creating good routine takes about 2 weeks for me, so it will not be cheap, for price and order details please contact me using my mail;
After EXFC i see different planes require different routines so i start experimenting with softer style for bigger planes and same fast and aggressive for Artistic Aerobatic planes up to 2meter and indoor routines. So from you i will need to know exactly where you want to use this routine, what level pilot you are and best of all look at your flying videos.
Here are some of my Artistic Aerobatic / Freestyle routines i create;
When i visit 2009 year French F3P championship this spring, Mr. Jerome show me new Aito wooden prototype they were testing, from first time i saw this plane i knew i need to have it! Covering sheme and shape of wing just looks so gorgeous, but the best part is plane super light weight. Donuts models grow and get stronger and now make own wooden ARF's with same idea how they build indoor F3P planes, best and lightest materials are used for these planes! Aito was well known F3P biplane few year ago, when biplanes were still popular. Depron Aito won many international F3P competitions in Belgium and France. And now Donuts bring this plane back for outdoor flying. Here i present you Aito flying in last sunny autumn days in Vilnius.
Special thanks for video shooting to Aleksey and www.myresearch.lt !!!
Aito is good designed ARF, installation of servos and motor is real easy. All surfaces are connected together using CA glues and flexible hinges. Top wing is attached using two SFG'S and small fin on fuselage, total you will need ten 3 mm bolt, each aileron is controlled by one HD 2216MG servo, this small but powerful (3.9kg) and fast (0,09) servo can control two ailerons on each side with no problem. When all ten screws tighten you can fell plane have very solid construction, there is no need for X wires to reinforce wings. Two ailerons can be connected with each other using 2mm carbon rod ore tube.
Top wing is from one piece, and is very solid, bottom wing is from two pieces and is connected between on carbon tube.
Servos: Elevator and rudder Airtronic 94751, ailerons HD2216MG
Propeller: APC 14x7
Receiver: Jeti, Duplex R6.
RX powered from main 4s battery with Castle Creation 10 A Bec.
AXI 2826/12 have solid trust with 4s, and with 2450mah capacity i have about 8 minutes of hard 3 flight.
Standart size rudder servo is located in middle of fuselage and connected with pull pull cables to surface. Battery and RX location can reach by opening small covering plate on bottom of fuselage. Cockpit is glued in factory and there is no need to remove it during flying at field.
Instead of using separate battery for RX with linear BEC i decide to use switching BEC that was connected to main 4S battery. Using castle creation USB link you can program CC bec to give your RX from 4,8 to 9 volts. I set it for 6v, so all servos are used with best spec's they have. For ESC my selection was obvious, i select 45amp ESC from CC Phoenix series, i already use same ESC for 2,5 years is my Vanquish from Extreme Flight RC and had no problems a all.
Aito is designed as biplane, but as you see i flew it as monoplane as well, wings are not only super light 9 thanks to selected balsa and light film) but they are also build with good quality and with wise construction, so this mean they are also very strong. If you like faster rolls and more agile plane, then you can try your Aito as monoplane without much modifications, simply remove top wing and enjoy;)
New generation lypo battery from Flight Power, EONX show very solid trust and no bad signs after 46 flights, power is same from beginning, we will see how it will work in future. However i must say im really happy with flight power packs, i still have some 2500mah 4s packs from 2007 season that is still fly, not good for competition flying, but still enough for fooling around. And i notice some friends that buy cheap packs from China with famous "R" animal sign have good power in first flights but lypo "balloons" after 20 flights..;) So my understanding is better to invest and buy serious brand products.
Light weight tail, controlled by standart servo, however i still plan to make some changes and put this servo in middle of fuselage to reduce tail inertia, such size plane must have lighter tail in my opinion. Plane fly very fun and easy, of course don't expect pattern plane characteristics, its a 3D trainer. Each pilot have own style so i suggest everyone to spend some time and setup plane like he wan't. For knife edge flight you will need some mixes to make it fly perfect, also CH and battery location here is important. This plane make some usual 3d maneuver like harrier, knife edge spin, hovering very easy, and what even better some more advanced maneuvers plane make really impressive, for example popular snap to hover by Schulmann/Bruckmann (ore Snap-a-saurus how people say). Normally in this maneuver most difficult part is to keep same height after snap, because when plane climb up its not so impressive to watch, with Aito you can always exit to hover in same altitude where you start snap, and with some practice with throttle you can exit from this maneuver even lower!!!
Quite nice number on wing, as far as i know this is first prototype that reach France. Right now Donuts launch production and should have Aito in stock, so if you looking for different looking and flying plane, consider getting new Aito for Christmas!
In a middle of October me and my friend Ignas Matulevicius visited 2009 German open F3P championship organized by DMFV. Since 2009 year German Aeroclub and DMFV don't organize championships together. So instead having two qualifications and one final competition like it was usual since 2001, this year Germany had two separate F3P championships;) Such split obviously have some effect for competition, compared to previous years both competitions had less participants. Also mid of October is little to early for such serious competition, in most countries indoor season don't start so early because weather outside is still good for flying. However German championship had top pilots from 5 countries, Germany, Czech, Switzerland, Netherlands and Lithuania.
Championship we visit prove rule not quantity but quality. Level of participants was really hi, specially top German pilots like Denis Horn, Markus Zolitch , Christoph Lausberg, was in really good shape in pattern. Also it was really nice news that legendary Martin Muller will participate in competition, he made this decision few days before competition, and in pattern competition flew slightly modified aeromusical Extra...;)
Julia Biermann airbrushed radio case.
Competition was held in Bleicherode , same place where first qualification competition was organized in 2008.
Berliner Hof, hotel where all participants stay.
TV shooting Bert Van Der Vecht flight.
Briefing.
Pattern
Most interesting thing in this competition was unknown sequence prepared by Jurgen Heilig for Expert class finals. It was very interesting touch to competition. With today participant level its very hard to select winner, since all top pilots fly known sequence almost perfect, so unknown is real help here for judges. And i must say this was really interesting experience for all pilots. Naturally unknown sequences require very good judges (and i think judges in Bleicherode did job very well). Only thing i did not like that same unknown sequence was flown two times, so second time it was already known and everyone saw mistakes they made in first round and so they had chance to improve. I think unknown have to be real unknown and flown only one time.
Sequence prepared by Jurgen was not to difficult but also not to easy, most pilots agree it was perfect for unknown. In Lithuania championship, i plan make Expert class pattern competition in this way; 3 rounds of known, lets say top 10-15 pilots go to finals and fly two different unknown sequences. Each sequence will be flown only once, this way its really unknown. Starting order for first unknown will be from 1 to 10, and for second unknown it will be from 10 to 1. This way everyone get equal chances to look at sequence flown by opponent and avoid making mistakes in first (ore in bad luck) second unknown round.
Airplanes;
My and Ignas flew new Deluxe V3 from Donuts models, both planes were build with standart equipment and only small milling in wings and tail. Min had AXI2203/52 that was swinging 9x4.7 GWS prop. On ailerons i use one JR 188 digital servo, and tail was controled by good old D47 connected to 2S lypo.
My Deluxe was heaviest and biggest plane in competition. I was happy with plane performance, but i have to admit to compete with top German pilots, i need to build lighter Deluxe. Of course its hard to do you when you have sponsors and have to use equipment they offer;) In any case Deluxe was build around AXI 2203/52 motor that can swing big 9inch propeller, so im happy about motor work. But still i need to save weight and one way i save allot weight is to make honest milling job;) That's what im doing right now;)
Milling save almost 16g!!!
Deluxe on diet;)
Most participants flew Helix from Christoph Lausberg, also new Manta V3 was presented, both planes were super light, for example Christoph flew with Helix that RTF weight was only 97 grams.
Markus and Denis Manta's V3
Very interesting plane in competition was MR. Glavak Sergej plane Glaser, it was made from thin approx 2mm depron that he cut with hot wire from 6mm sheets. To build such model you need good building skills and allot of patience, but result is worth doing this.
Aeromusical;
Both Ignas and me flew Sultimate V2 from Donuts models. Plane flew very good for me, unfortunately i can not say this about myself... I spend one week in China without any chance to practice before German championship. Also i made mistake in preparation, i change radio stick ends, because old one was not sharp anymore. Unfortunately new sticks were to sharp so it was quite painful to practice;) I sand stick ends to make them softer. I think i made them to soft again... so during first practice flight and last AM round i lost sticks (left thunb flip off) and crash plane quite hard...Now i order couple sets of original sticks so lets hope such mistakes will note happen anymore...
German championship was debut for my new Aeromusical, looks like judges and crowd like it, but one thing i did not expect that Martin Muller will participate, and to compete against Martin you need little different routine with VPP and best if that VPP can swing to sides as well;) As i prize for 4th place in pattern i receive MM Extra 300 manufactured by Silkhoutte Art, im thinking to build it same as Martin with upsidedown prop that can swing to sides!
Very nice piece of Eurpean F3P history, Bert Van Der Vecht plane deserve aplause, he saw much more competitions than any other AM plane.
Ranking lists:
F3P-Sport
1. Julia Biermann 2. Ignas Matulevicius LT 3. Max Als 4. Jiri Sotolas CZ 5. Sebastian Gehl
I would say this was very nice debut for Ignas and Deluxe, first international competition and already first international cup won.
F3P-Expert
1. Dennis Horn 2. Markus Zolitsch 3. Christoph Lausberg 4. Donatas Pauzuolis LT 5. Martin Müller 6. Marek Plichta CZ 7. Nico Strebel CH 8. Bert van der Vecht NL 9. Sergej Glavak 10. Kai Heuzeroth 11. Gernot Kuhr 12. Jan Schenker CH
F3P-AM
1. Martin Müller 2. Donatas Pauzuolis LT 3. Markus Zolitsch 4. Christoph Lausberg 5. Dennis Horn 6. Marek Plichta CZ 7. Bert van der Vecht NL 8. Ignas Matulevicius LT 9. Nico Strebel CH 10. Kai Heuzeroth
