District IV - 2015/01

The inaugural Scale Helicopter Fun-Fly was held at the Fredericksburg Area RC field in Thornburg, Virginia, June 27-29, 2014. It attracted some of the country’s best Scale helicopter pilots and builders. It was organized by Bob Harris and CDed by Salvatore Vezzi.
The weather was great with clear skies and temperatures in the mid-to-high 80s. Winds were light. The Thornburg field is a first-class facility with an air-conditioned club house, electric power to the flight area, and ample shelter to accommodate all but the largest crowds. A well-equipped kitchen kept participants well fed.
If you were to gather the best Scale helicopters into one area, this was the place to be. All would have been Top Gun competitive. There were some that have already won national events. I have covered many events and have not seen such an amazing collection of great models in one place.
Sandy Jaffe brought his red Vario MD 900 Notar that was converted from nitro to electric power. It now flies on 12S 8,000 mAh for about 5minutes and sounds so realistic you would think it has a turbine in it. He also brought an R-22.
Darrell Sprayberry, who has been featured in Joe Nall articles, came with his impressive H-34 in Marine colors. This electric-powered helicopter was entirely scratch-built (he makes the molds) except for the rotor head. It has the authentic sound of the full-scale R2000 starting up and the sounds of the Viet Nam era when the real thing flew. This was one of the two full-scale helicopters I flew. The model flew and reacted just like the full-scale H-34s I remembered.
An interesting helicopter was the scratch-built Comanche by Butch Wellmaker. It was also electric powered and had two motors and two ESCs. It had scale retracts and a scaled out cockpit for the pilot and gunner. He, like Darrell, made his own molds and the aircraft had to be seen up close to be appreciated.
Butch also brought an S-76 with retracts and electric power that flew in a scalelike manner. Interestingly enough, Butch also works on the full-scale S-76 that he patterned the model after. You can’t get any better scale detail than that.
Bob Harris, one of the organizers, brought his scratch-built Hiller H-23 that was one of the few that was gasoline powered. The model was patterned after the H-23 that flew during the Korean War. It was decorated as Yobo the clown as a morale booster. Having flown the full-scale H-23, I can say that he did a great job in making it look and fly like the original.
Sandy Jaff brought a turbine-powered SA 315B Lama that was a pleasure to see flying. I was surprised at how long it flew. He even had telemetry on his radio that kept him informed about everything going on in his helicopter.
One of the most interesting setups I saw was from the only entrant from Canada. Donald Irvine had a Jet Ranger set up so that he could lower a fire bucket into a small portable pond and then when it was airborne release the water like the real firefighter. On one pass I actually got wet along with several other people.
There were many other fine examples of craftsmanship such as the Nightingale rescue helicopter, a Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) and others. Every entrant deserves credit for the beautiful workmanship and supurb flying that I witnessed this weekend. I look forward to next year and recommend that you try to attend if you are in the Fredericksburg, Virginia.[dingbat]