rc helicopters - 2012/06

Night flying at e-Fest
was electrifying
by Mark Fadely
[email protected]
Forrest Pilkenton shows off the custom canopy
he printed on paper from an Internet file. The
canopies are available in many colors and
styles for a wide variety of helicopters.
Matt Botos flew this Thunder
Tiger Mini Titan V2 in the Heli
Smackdown. Matt is a veteran of
many Smackdown competitions
and is also a test pilot for Futaba.
Welcome, everyone. I only discuss serious helicopter stuff here! Just
kidding; it is not all that serious. However, I will be reviewing a pretty
serious event this month.
I know it is spring now, but an E-Fest report is slated to run this month in
conjunction with the full write-up that is in the front of this month’s issue—you
know, up there where all the important things get published. I am just kidding
about that one, too.
Helicopters are getting plenty of “airtime” everywhere today. The 2012 E-Fest
indoor fly-in took place the weekend of February 11-12 and it was a great one. I
have been to all six previous E-Fests, and the event is always top-notch.
If you have never been to E-Fest, make plans for February 2013 to attend the
biggest indoor RC event in the world. Yes, it is crowded when you are flying, but
flying is not the primary reason to be there. The camaraderie and new friendships
you may gain top the list of things most pilots look forward to when they make
this wintertime trek to the University of Illinois Track and Field Armory in
Champaign.
Most people agree that the Heli Smackdown is the most exciting contest held
at E-Fest. Some of the world’s top pilots show up to throw down their best 3-D
heli flights for bragging rights and $500 in cash. A few years ago, Horizon Hobby
helicopter designer, James Haley, had a great idea to put lights on his heli to make
it stand out in the dimly lit armory at night.
The building has some skylights at the ends and across the peak to bring natural
light in during the day, but at night the visibility drops off because just the sportsfield
lighting is doing the illumination.
If you have ever flown there, you know
what I mean.
Two of the Smackdown competitors
used elaborate night-flying light setups
on their helis. Andy Panoncillo was a
crowd favorite with his MS-Composite
night blades. Andy’s night blades were
programmable so words could be
displayed within the rotor disk during
flight. It is amazing to see how this
works!
Below: Kyle Stacy won the 3-D
Smackdown, which includes a
$500 prize. Bobby Watts helped
choreograph the lights and music.
Right: Kyle is one of the
world’s top pilots and he’s
only a teenager. Bobby
Watts also designed the
illumination setup for Kyle’s
winning 450-size helicopter.
There is a small control box to enter
the text into and then, when the blades
spin, the electronic box sends all the
sequencing to the LED lights so that
clear words are visible in the rotor
disk. The blades are called Tag, and the
control box is a JETI J-999. Andy was
able to turn the text lighting effect on
and off from his transmitter.
The other competitor using a night-
 y lighting setup was Kyle Stacy. He
won the event utilizing a sophisticated
computer-controlled lighting system
designed by night- y world champion,
Bobby Watts.
The night-lighting setup is incredible
and it allows the lights to be precisely
choreographed to the music. The
crowd was enthralled during the three
mesmerizing minutes of his  ight.
Kyle’s entire helicopter lit up in various
patterns as it  ew. His lights were
synchronized to music as well, which
enhanced the artistic presentation.
Kyle is the king of park  yer-size
helis, and he may have won even
without Bobby’s light package. The
collaboration between Kyle and Bobby
was over the top. During the  ight
performance, the spectators didn’t
know whether to dance, clap, cheer, or
cry out of creative appreciation. Kudos
to Kyle and Bobby for making the 2012
E-Fest Heli Smackdown a special and
memorable experience.
The entire arena is closed down
during the Heli Smackdown contest.
During the regular  ying hours, the
helicopter pilots get a small corner
at the end of the building in which
to  y—making it dif cult to do full
3-D  ights. Any fast  ight segments
have to be terminated as soon as they
begin, to prevent hitting a wall or
This Blade mCP X is down on the
deck in-between a pirouetting
flip session. Patrick Hruswicky
says he loves this heli and enjoys
practicing 3-D maneuvers with it.
Patrick lives in the Chicago area and loves
training for 3-D with his Blade mCP X. He
is flying helicopters for the second time
around, a er taking a 5-year break to fly RC
airplanes.
ceiling or  ying into restricted airspace.
Everything at E-Fest is laid out with
safety in mind.
Two years ago, special netting was
installed around the 3-D helicopter
area. In previous years, a couple of
out-of-control helis entered the pit
area but, fortunately, no one was
injured. The organizers should be
complimented on their attention to the
new safety measures.
Several new helicopter pilots showed
their 3-D skills in the helicopter
airspace. Patrick Hruswicky, from the
Chicagoland area, was really ripping it
up with his Blade mCP X.
Patrick has been  ying for eight
years, starting with helicopters. He
switched to  ying airplanes, but went
back to helis a year ago. He apparently
has been brushing up on his helicopter
skills, because he was doing nearly
every possible 3-D heli move at E-Fest.
Forrest Pilkenton is another pilot
who was hanging out in the helicopter
pit at E-Fest. He has been a heli pilot
for two years and is already  ipping
his mCP X all over the place. He had a
cool, custom canopy made from paper.
That’s right—paper. It was downloaded
from www.helifreak.com.
Forrest explained that there are
several of these printable canopies
available on that site. The canopy
design needs to be downloaded and
printed on some  rm paper. Forrest
said he  ew airplanes for 14 years and
was looking for a change when he tried
helicopters. Now he’s hooked and  ies
helis all the time. The rotor blades
on his aircraft were upgraded to the
KBDD 3-D blades, which track better
and transfer more power to the rotor
system.
E-Fest is a great place to meet people
and make plans for other events in the
upcoming outdoor season. Many of
the techniques and the knowledge that
a pilot needs to be successful can be
learned on small, safer, electric models
such as the ones  own at E-Fest,
before moving to larger, outdoor nitro
machines.
It is great for a helicopter pilot to
have an upgrade path of electric helis;
from a beginner coaxial platform, all
the way up to a monster, 700-size
outdoor model. At E-Fest, a beginner
can see and learn about all park-size
electric helicopter models in one place.
It is almost like being at a Heli 101
class with master professors mingling
around you.
Mark E-Fest 2013 on your calendar.
You will be happy you did. I will see
you back here next month.
SOURCES:
E-Fest
www.hobbico-efest.com/index.html
International Radio-Controlled Helicopter
Association
www.ircha.org