Radio Control Helicopters
Mark Fadely [[email protected]]
Indoor flying is great for aeromodeling-club morale
Hello, heli people. I hope you are staying warm. Maybe you even get to do some indoor flying during these winter months. This is the coldest time of year for most of the country. Many RC clubs are able to rent spaces for indoor flying.
We are lucky here in Indianapolis, Indiana, because we have a large soccer arena to fly in this year for the first time. The attendance has been great. If you need a place to fly inside during the cold of winter, I suggest checking out the soccer clubs. These facilities are generally in warehouse or industrial-park areas.
Our club arranged for us to use the building from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturdays and some Friday evenings. Working out a later time is easier than trying to find something available during the daytime. The soccer centers are usually large, with high ceilings.
Indoor flying is great for building club morale. It keeps pilots in communication with each other and allows new people to get acclimated to the club scene, even when no outdoor flying is going on.
If you live where it gets cold in the winter, get involved in some indoor flying if you can. It also keeps your skills sharp for the transition to outdoor flying come spring.
The Great Planes E-Fest fly-in will take place February 7–8. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Track and Field Armory will be opened up for this huge RC event. It is a fantastic get-together for airplane and helicopter pilots alike. I hope to see you there.
I want to introduce you to my friend Bert Kammerer, who is very involved in RC helicopters. He is a great pilot and is also involved in the business side of the hobby. Bert is the team manager for V-Blades and a test pilot for Align RC. I thought you would like to hear his take on the world of RC helicopters.
Interview with Bert Kammerer
MF: First off, Bert, tell us a little bit about yourself.
BK: I live in Orlando, Florida, but I’m originally from Germany; my father is German and my mother is Venezuelan. I lived in Venezuela most of my life until I graduated from high school and then moved to the U.S. to attend college. I’m part owner of a company that specializes in managed Internet hosting solutions for small- and medium-size businesses. I’m 37 years old.
MF: Tell us about your career in the hobby. How did it start and evolve? Where do you want to be in two years and in five years?
BK: My RC experience started back in 1982, when I was 11 years old. My mom bought me a high-wing trainer airplane at the time and I learned to fly it very quickly. I flew airplanes, gliders, and even control line for several years. I then stopped all RC activities to attend college and didn’t get back into RC until about four years ago, when I started flying helicopters.
I started flying RC helicopters around October or November of 2004, after visiting a local hobby shop and buying a small fixed-pitch micro heli. Over the past four years I have been fortunate enough to become a sponsored pilot for various manufacturers. I currently attend over 20 events per year around the world, thanks to my sponsors. This hobby has been very rewarding in many aspects: teaching others, making new friends, and traveling around the world attending events and meeting new people. I don’t have any specific plans for the future; I just want to continue to learn as well as give back to the heli community.
MF: Who were your main influences?
BK: I have always been very disciplined when it comes to learning new things. My main influence when I was getting into helicopters was my friend Craig Martin from Orlando, Florida. He was also getting into helicopters at the time, and we both came up with a daily routine for practice. We used to meet at the flying field every day after work and fly together. We not only motivated each other, but we also learned from each other. It was good times! Craig is now a team pilot for Outrage RC.
There were other influences; one of them was a guy at our club called Marvin Dericho. He taught me a lot about setups and engine management.
MF: What advice do you have for new pilots?
BK: I always insist that the most important part of learning to fly a helicopter is to master all the basics. Some people laugh at me when I say that, because most don't want to spend much time learning the boring stuff, but learning to fly in all orientations—forward, backward, inverted, and inverted backward—in all directions, while holding altitude and speed, is the key to learning smooth and precise 3-D.
This also opens the door to learning new transitions. A lot of people learn Tic-Tocs and even pirouetting maneuvers before they can fly their basics. Even though there is nothing wrong with that, they'll sooner or later have to practice their basics again if they want to take their flying to the next level.
Something else I recommend for beginners is to stick to the same helicopter. Flying the same helicopter not only makes you more comfortable with its flying characteristics, but it also allows you to fix it quicker when it crashes, and you can concentrate your budget on a single set of parts.
MF: What are the main things you see pilots doing that hold them back in their flying?
BK: Something I see all the time is that most new pilots want to learn 3-D before mastering their basics, and so they tend to break the natural flow of progression.
I know people who can perform a 3-D routine but who would get in trouble if the helicopter changed orientation due to a malfunction, such as a drastic tail change, because they have only learned certain moves in specific orientations and never worked on their basics.
MF: You fly for Align. It seems to be an innovative company that is always upgrading its existing machines while constantly bringing new ones to the market. What have been your experiences working with them?
BK: I am very happy to be part of Align. I'm a close friend of Jason Krause and the rest of the crew. We have a great team of pilots and work in a laid-back environment. We get to fly new products constantly and travel around doing demos and assisting other pilots with their Align products.
Alex, the owner of Align, is constantly coming up with new ideas, and Jason turns those ideas into drawings. Before you know it, a new product is designed, produced, marketed, and launched!
MF: Thanks, Bert. I appreciate hearing a little inside information from a man who knows, and I look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks again. I'll be back next month. MF
Sources
- Great Planes E-Fest
- Align RC
www.align.com.tw/html/en/c_rindexe.htm
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
