Short E-Fest report
Mark Fadely <[email protected]>
Welcome back to rotary central. Thanks for stopping by this month. If you follow this column, you know that much of my babbling is about the surprising developments in small, electric-powered helicopters. These little machines keep getting better.
I just returned from the mother of all electric RC events: E-Fest. There were enough mini and micro electric helicopters to power a small city. It was incredible!
In all, 308 pilots attended the gathering, and more than half of them flew helicopters of some kind. E-Fest 2009 marked the fourth anniversary of an incredible event that is held in a fantastic venue. Each year it has become bigger and better.
Frank Noll and his orange-clad crew (people from Futaba, Great Planes, and Hobbico) handle the logistics to make E-Fest happen. It takes place in the warm interior of the University of Illinois Track and Field Armory in Champaign, Illinois.
The Armory offers 100-foot-high ceilings and a floor area that is 200 feet wide by 400 feet long. That is a big space; however, it fills up fast when 308 pilots want to fly. When it was built in 1914, the Armory was the largest free-span structure in the world. It is nice to be able to fly with no posts or obstacles in your way. It is hard enough to avoid midairs with other airplanes when it is crowded.
Many people pitch in to make this a fun happening for pilots and spectators alike. This year the organizers did some local advertising that drew more than 3,600 spectators! It was a great job promoting the event and our hobby!
One nice change for this year was not inside the Armory; it was outside. The weather in Champaign was much warmer than in past years.
A favorite E-Fest tradition is the 3-D Smackdown contest. The crowd loves this contest because casualties are heavy. A small group of brave pilots step up each year to compete in the most radical indoor 3-D event of its kind. Five hundred dollars was up for grabs for the pilot who could cheat death and the rubberized flooring of the Armory. There is an unwritten expectation that machine and floor will meet at some time, even during successful flights.
The competition began with a few thuds, followed by a steady rain of helicopter bits. The experience is even more nerve-racking for the pilots who have to follow flights that end in crashes. The 3-D Smackdown is judged by applause from the audience. It came down to a couple of young pilots who are separated only by two years in age: Kyle Stacy, 13, and Jamie Robertson, 15. The crowd chose Kyle during its second round of applause voting. His Miniature Aircraft Furion barely edged out Jamie’s Next-D Rave in some of the most high-energy indoor flying I have ever seen. Great job, guys! That was fun to watch.
I thank everyone who helped make the 2009 E-Fest possible. It was the most enjoyable edition of the fly-in that I have attended. If you get a chance to go to this event in 2010, by all means do.
First Look at the Futaba GY520 Gyro
I was one of the lucky few to be able to test the new Futaba GY520 at E-Fest. This thing is tiny! It is a great size and weight for smaller electric machines. I removed the GY401 that was on my Furion and installed the GY520.
You can program this new-generation gyro to work with tail servos of different types and speeds. This great feature doesn’t limit you to using one dedicated servo. It will work well with a cheaper analog servo you may already own, but a digital servo is recommended to get the optimal performance.
Key specs and features:
- Weight: 10 grams.
- Sensor technology: Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS).
- Rotational speed handling: up to 800° per second.
- Improved processing speed and overall performance versus older models.
Programming and modes:
- You can program the GY520 from a compatible Futaba transmitter (10C, 12Z, 12FG, or 14MZ).
- It can also be programmed via the push button on the gyro.
- Optional programming via the CIU-2 USB interface and your PC.
After you decide how to change the settings, you can choose F3C or 3D mode. Other common parameters can be set via the menu:
- Normal/Reverse Rotation
- Limit Setting
- Analog/Digital Servo
- Response Selection
- Data Reset
Flight impressions: When I lifted off for the first time with the GY520 in my Furion 450, it had no bad tendencies. Everything felt good, so I decided to do some left and right pirouettes at various speeds. This was a good test, because I could feel the GY520's more consistent handling versus my old GY401.
The machine's tail felt more locked in and responsive, with no whipping or over- or under-speeding. I did a couple of hurricanes and tick-tocs, and it felt excellent.
My friend Eric Brandenburg was there, so I let him try it to see what he would think. Eric took off with the Furion and flew it for a couple minutes while throwing everything he could think of at the GY520. Although it was not his machine, he did backward hurricanes, tailslides, pirouetting flips, and some hard-core stuff. Eric liked it and didn't notice any bad effects.
Futaba has a real winner with this diminutive piece of hardware. I can't wait to get out and fly it some more.
That is all I have time for this month, so enjoy the flying weather and drop me a note telling me what is going on in your helicopter world.
—Mark Fadely
Sources
- Great Planes E-Fest — www.gpe-fest.com
- Futaba — (217) 398-8970, www.futaba-rc.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
