Radio Control Helicopters - 2007/10
Mark Fadely [[email protected]]
Jim Stark reports on the 2007 Al Fuchsen Memorial Fun Fly
HELLO, EVERYBODY. Now that the outdoor flying season is winding down, it’s time for a little reflection.
Remember when I started writing this column? I asked you to make a few notes and track your progress with your helicopters. How has it been going? Did you have any goals this year and did you achieve them?
I am not referring to being on the fast track to becoming the ultimate pilot. As I have pointed out, there are many aspects of the hobby and not everyone will get a "fix" focusing on the same element.
That reminds me of the great story about the junior high teacher from Idaho: Dave Hagelganz. He is passionate about helping youngsters who are passionate about learning to fly helicopters. You do not have to get that serious about it. I keep bringing these things up because they are what helicopter fliers are always asking me about. There is a great deal of interest out there in our hobby right now. It makes sense to do your best at whatever facet of the hobby you are into.
Pardon my switching gears, but I’m going to turn things over to our field representative, Jim Stark. I could not attend this year’s Al Fuchsen Memorial Fun Fly in Chicago, Illinois, as I have in the past, so I asked my good friend Jim (Jrock) to do a write-up for me. He came back with many good things to report about the event, as follows.
Jim Stark — 2007 Al Fuchsen Memorial Fun Fly (report)
If you've ever visited Chicago, then chances are you've probably heard of or stopped by Al's Hobby Shop, owned and operated by the Fuchsen family for years.
For the past six years the hobby shop has held an annual fun fly to raise funds for the Al Fuchsen Memorial Scholarship Fund. Scholarships are awarded each year to students attending Driscoll High School. But this year's fun fly was even more special as it marked the shop's 60th year of serving the Chicagoland modeling community.
It was a real pleasure to attend this year's event as the dates in past years have sometimes conflicted with other events like the XFC. This year the Fox Valley Aero Modelers were gracious enough to host the Fun Fly at their private field in St. Charles, IL.
It is a superb flying site with all the amenities, including:
- A full paved runway
- Power hookups
- A pilot's pavilion (which really came in handy during the Saturday morning showers)
Thanks, guys!
Luckily the rain cleared out early on Saturday and it was time to get to business. You could tell everyone was itching to fly — I know I was. Motors were running great with the cool air and the flight line was full for the rest of the day. Just what I like to see.
Over the past years we've all seen this hobby progress with up-and-coming talent, and this fun fly definitely illustrated that, especially from the youth. Two pilots that really put on a show were:
- Mitch Marosis (age 8, Chicago, IL) with his Stratus 90
- Tyler Bonta (age 13, Elgin, IL) with his Synergy N9
Both caused such a stir with their flying that it was decided there would be a Saturday evening flyoff between the two, judged by crowd appeal of course. It was a real treat to watch both of these up-and-coming pilots give it all they had, showing the crowd what they were capable of.
After all the musical choreography, rolling tail slides, pirouetting flips 5 feet above the ground, and precision asphalt scraping, it was decided by the applause judges that it was a tie! Great job, guys!
Some better-known pilots also attended and put on a great show:
- Malorie Zastrow (Paw Paw, MI) — flew spectacular demo flights with her Bergen Intrepid. Mal is a world-class pilot and continues to push the limit.
- Eric Anderson (Lafayette, IN) — did great flying with his Vibe 90.
- Chris Gini — delivered an impressive giant-scale acrobatic demonstration.
Food, food, and more food! I'd like to personally thank Cindy Baurle for feeding us on Saturday. What a feast!
Despite a few rain showers early Saturday, this year was a real hit. If you missed it, you missed out. Hopefully we'll see you next year.
— Jim Stark
Back to Mark
Thanks for the report, Jim. It seems like you all had a great weekend, even with some bad weather. Cindy always has that big smile on her face. I'll bet it is because her food is so darn good. I remember having that same smile the last time I ate the Saturday-night barbecue there. Those are some good people up there.
It is impressive that Al's Hobby Shop has been in business for 60 years. Every time I have dealt with them they have been great. It is exciting to hear about those young pilots up there too. That is the future of our hobby.
Since it is almost the end of the season, you all need something to work for on the simulator. I get many requests for information about the infamous pirouetting loop.
This is one of the more difficult maneuvers to execute well. I have noticed that many of you are manhandling your way through pirouetting flips. If you do that, you will be unable to do a nice, round pirouetting loop. It is quite the finesse move.
Pirouetting loop practice will make your pirouetting flips much smoother and vice versa. I wrote about pirouetting-flip execution a couple columns ago; I'll assume you have it mastered before starting this.
A major obstacle in beginning pirouetting loops is that you need to orient them parallel to the flightline. When we learn pirouetting flips, we usually key off the nose or tail and they are oriented toward the pilot. That works okay for the flip, but the loop needs to be viewed side-on so you can see the shape — not at a 45° angle to the flightline, as I see at so many fun-flys.
There is only one problem with this side-orientation issue: you have to relearn the entire maneuver. Darn!
As I have warned you, when you start practicing a maneuver in a new orientation you are really learning a completely new move. It is frustrating because you might be really good at something to the right and you cannot do it to the left without crashing.
To do the pirouetting loop:
- Learn a pirouetting flip with a left- or right-side orientation starting position.
- Make the imaginary loop figure off the helicopter's nose or tail and align it with the flightline (side-on view).
- Practice this side-on orientation until spring 2008, focusing on smooth, elegant collective control.
- Continue until you can make a nice, round loop on demand.
If you think this is too hard, wait until 2009. Then we are going to do a Cuban 8 pirouetting to the left and then follow the same line for another Cuban 8, but with the tail pirouetting in the opposite direction.
I don't mean to scare you, but if you want to keep up with the trend, that is the future. It never ends! I think I am going to need a memory upgrade for my brain soon.
Until next time, keep up the good work.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
