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AMA welcomes you to E-Fest |
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Jeff Nance
from the AMA takes a few minutes to welcome you
to E-Fest 2009, as well as discuss the AMA's
Park Pilot Program. |
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General Flying
As we said earlier, the open flying was
probably the biggest part of E-Fest. Here are pictures
and videos we shot of the open flying that took place
over the two day event. We hope you enjoy seeing what
was in the air at E-Fest.
Pictures
Kyle Stacy flies the new mini heli
from Heli-Max, the Novus |
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Great Planes Sopwith Pup |
Foam speedster based on the
Lanier Shrike |
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Paul Schiflet from Harrison, AR with his
Clancy Aviation Lady Bug. Paul has been flying for 5
years. |
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E-Flite Nieuport 17 250 ARF |
A little humor at work |
No, this isn't a collision between
two
Park Zone Vapors. This pilot built a
Vapor Biplane |
Chris "Lucky" Carnes
luckyrc260.googlepages.com |
Foamy A-10 Warthog from
Dynamic Foamy |
For foam combat planes this was
a unique solution. Using pill bottles for power pods to quickly
swap out between planes |
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A unique Auto Gyro |
No water on the floor, but the floats
still work just fine |
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"UFO". Filled with air, not helium |
Creative designs abounded. Here is a custom built
USS Enterprise |
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E-Flite Nieuport 17 250 ARF |
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Foamy build Snoopy's Doghouse |
Foamy lawn mower |
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Foam build C-5 Galazy. Wingspan was over 6'.
10 EDF's for thrust.
Check out the video |
Take a close look. This was one
unique airplane. What's so special about it? It's a
pusher plane. Look closely. Take a look at the video |
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The plane is owned by a Hobbico
designer. It's actually one of the prototypes for
the GP Sopwith Camel, painted differently |
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These controls rigs have been around
for ages. |
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3D Flying
3D Flying Videos
Jason
Noll & Andrew Jesky Practice
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Jason Noll and
Andrew Jesky practice their aerobatic routine
during the day. The put on quite a show for the
camera as they tried to see how close they could
come to the cameraman! |
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In The Pits
The pits for this event were well laid
out and there was plenty of space for all of the pilots.
We saw everything from planes being built all the way to
complete overhauls from crashes. Great Planes even
provided a "Quick Fix" station set up with Foam Safe CA
for people to fix their planes.
The center of the RC Universe seems to be
Champaign, Illinois with 3 of the largest hobby
providers located here. So it's hard to have an event
like E-Fest without seeing some of the "big names" from
the industry here. So here are some of those people that
work so hard to make this hobby so great for all of us
to enjoy.
Frank Noll (Team Futaba) was the CD
for this event. He definitely earned his money as he
put on a outstanding show that was well organized
and fun for all. Frank deserves a big pat on the
back |
Frank Noll hard at work. |
For those that don't know the lady on
the right you have seen her work. This is Carol Pesch
and she is the Media Director for Hobbico. She's the
driving force for getting the word out about all of
the fantastic Hobbico products. |
AMA President Dave Matthewson chats
with a Team Futaba member |
Frank talks with the AMA Executive
Director, Jim Cherry. |
AMA's new marketing director, Jeff
Nance, gives a seminar on the AMA's Park Pilot
Program |
The AMA guys enjoy a little hard
earned rest. |
Model Aviation's Editor Michael
Ramsey (pointing the camera at me) and Assistant
Editor Jay Smith covered the event for the AMA |
Jay Smith captures the event for
Model Aviation |
Great Planes staff man the T-Shirt
table |
Tower Hobbies was well represented by
some of their sales associates |
Peter Goldsmith of Horizon and Don
Anderson of Hobbico chat at the event. |
Team Futaba photographer (and XFC
heli pilot) chats with Jeff Nance at the AMA booth |
Horizon Hobby's Mike McConville
really enjoyed E-Fest |
Len and Sandy Sabato of Advantage
Hobby
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The Horizon guys team up to evaluate
how a plane flies |
Hobbico Staff Photographer, Bill
Wiegand, was on hand to document the event |
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And Finally,
Here's the crew that covered E-Fest.
Andrew (BarracudaHockey)
checks out the new Novus
from Heli-max |
Ken (RCKen) films a booth visit
with one of the vendors |
Helicopter action at E-fest.
On the north side of the cavernous University of Illinois armory were
two areas set aside for 3D flying. They divided the area in two with
half set aside for fixed wing 3D style flying and half for helicopter
flying. Some of the best pilots in the country were in attendance
and the flying was hot all weekend.
A short walk along the helicopter pit area was all it took to meet
up with Bert Kammerer, Curtis Youngblood, Jared Granzow, Ray and Kyle
Stacy, Mark Fadely, Nick Maxwell, Mark Padilla, Jamie Robertson, Matt
Botos, and others. If that list looks familiar it could be that there
were 7 2008 XFC competitors including second place finisher Nick Maxwell
in attendance. I even saw former AMA president Dave Brown flying a
Trex 450 several times throughout the weekend. I promised him I wouldn?t
use the crash pictures or tell anyone that he crashed so mum is the
word!
The explosive popularity of small, affordable, high performance electric
helicopters was evident almost everywhere we looked. There was everything
from the Heli-Max Novus and Blade mCX at the small end of the spectrum
to the Curtis Youngblood designed Rave 450 flying all weekend long.
Futaba team pilots were showing off the prototypes of the tiny Novus
that will be available in several versions and it flew very well.
Mark Padilla put on a couple of awesome flights with a "box stock"
Blade CX2. Mark flew so impressively that it forced me to reconsider
the performance possibilities of a motor powered, fixed pitch tail
rotor.
Not only were the 3D helicopters represented, but there were several
scale models that flew all weekend long. Michael Lising of Colombia,
MO even entered the scale competition with his forestry service AH-1
Cobra. Another stand out in scale was the bright yellow EC-135 flown
by Matt McCarty from Rantool, IL. This good looking helicopter, that
includes a scale fanestron tail rotor, was built from an E-Flight
Blade 400. Another helicopter that was well represented is the new
Blade CX3 from E-Flight. This may be one of the best looking co-axial
helicopters on the market with its ME520 NOTAR body.
Mark Fadley's Furion testing the
promising Futaba GY520 gyro |
Upcoming release from Heli-Max the
collective pitch Novus |
"Magic" Dave from Venture Hobbies
with Chinook electric heli |
Matt McCarty (Rantool,IL) flies a
Blade 400 EC-135 |
Matt McCarty (Rantool,IL) flies a
Blade 400 EC-135 |
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Advantage Hobbies Beam E4 450 |
Advantage Hobbies Beam E4 450 |
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Curtis Youngblood's unique JR 12X
with rudder control on the right stick |
Curtis Youngblood flying his Rave |
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Dave Brown flies he Trex 450 |
Dave Brown flies he Trex 450 |
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TRex 250
Team Align'sBert Kammerer |
TRex 250
Team Align'sBert Kammerer |
Beginner pilots flew right
along side of the "pros" |
Dream It RC Flying Birds
One of the more unique
planes at the E-Fest were these flying birds offered by
Dream It RC (www.dreamitrc.com).
They are available in 2 sizes, 63" and 30" wingspans.
The controls use an elevon setup mixing elevator and
rudder on the tail feathers. The kits come in plain
white foam which lets the pilot use their imagination in
building them. Dream It RC was given some time on Sunday
morning and all of their birds that were on hand were
allowed to fly with the armory to themselves. It was
quite a unique sight. Make sure you
check out their booth
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The organizers of E-Fest made sure that
this event was kid friendly. There were plenty of
activities for the kids to partake in. Located to one
side of the armory floor was a Kid's Flying area set up
by Horizon Hobby. Here there were plenty Park Zone Vapor
planes and E-Flite Blade mCX helicopters for the kids to
fly. There was even set up an "aircraft carrier" for the
kids to practice their landings on. Maybe we were seeing
the next batch of Naval Aviators here.
There were plenty of sights for
kids to take in at E-Fest |
The kid's flying area had plenty of
Park Zone Vapors and Blade mCX's for the kids to fly |
Some of the area kids spend time on one of the
many flight simulators set up
at E-Fest |
A steady hand on the Blade |
Skyler Cleland of Indianapolsi flies his dad's
Blade mCX with mom looking on |
A custom built heli comes in for
a carrier landing |
Another future XFC champion in the
making |
An "Oops" moment coming in for a
carrier landing |
11 year old Jacob Trapman signs up
for
AMA membership with Jim Cherry |
Even the "older kids" enjoyed
this area |
The Kid's Area was almost
constantly busy |
The carrier was on the move
(Yes, it was radio controlled) |
While many pilots don't want to admit it,
those "oops" moments do happen. Flying in an area that
has walls, a ceiling, a floor, and up to 20 or more
other pilots in the air at the same time is sure to
result in some crashes, collisions, broken aircraft, and
rough landings. We're not trying to embarrass any of the
pilots by posting the pictures here. But rather we know
that pictures like this are kind of like a train wreck,
people don't want to look but for some reason they can't
seem to turn their eyes away from them! So here are some
of the "oops" moments from E-Fest 2009 for all to enjoy.
Even though a lot of electric planes are
made from foam and lightweight materials, that doesn't
mean that modelers have given up producing scale
replicas of their favorite planes. This fact was very
clear at the E-Fest as scale and semi-scale models
seemed to be everywhere. It was quite evident that modelers
will still spend the time to accurately reproduce their
favorite full scale aircraft. The models on hand for
E-Fest ranged from the very beginnings of flight with a
1903 Wright Flyer to present day modern helicopters, and
everything in between. The models were judged on both a
static display as well as a flying competition.
As you can see here at the static judging
there were quite a few planes entered in to the Scale
Competition.
The finalists from Static Judging then
went on to flying. The largest part of the scale flying
was that the pilot needed to fly he plane to scale. What
this means is that the plane needed to fly like it's
full size counterpart. Pilots were judged on how closely
their plane resembled the real thing flying. All of
these models were true works of art, and were absolutely
beautiful in the air.
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Scale Finalists Preparing to Fly |
Steve Bevos
Antonov AN2
1st Place - Depron |
Michael Lising
AH1 Cobra, Forestry Service |
Tim King
1903 Wright Flyer |
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Mike Zabrowski
Gee Bee Sportster |
Jason Noll
Aeronca Champ |
Jim Frassino
Demoiselle Ultra Light
1st Place Winner |
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Chris Sydor
Pilatus Porter PC-6 |
Steve Gawlick
Sig Antionette |
Dave Johnson
Albatross DV |
Scale Flying Videos
After static judging and flying were
finished there was one model and pilot that stood out
above the rest. That was Jim Frassino and his model of
the
Demoiselle Ultra Light, and Jim walked away from the
competition with First Place.
Frank Noll awards Jim 1st Place |
Jim's winning Demoiselle |
Steve Bevos wins 1st Place in the Depron category |
Steve's winning Antonov AN2 |
Early on Saturday evening the entire
armory floor was cleared of planes and the flying area was turned over
to the "Big Boys" of airplane flying. In attendance at
the E-Fest were some of the world's best aerobatics
pilots and they were asked to put on a show for the
crowds in attendance. Each pilot performed his routine
for the crowd who showed their approval for the flying.
The crowds quickly learned that the louder they cheered,
the lower the pilot would fly. And trust me, they did
cheer. While all the pilots did put on a great routine
there were a couple of "boo-boos", but the crowd sure
didn't seem to mind as they applauded the pilots as
loudly as the others.
Of special note, check out Brandon
Chitty's routine. The people in attendance just would
not let him fly his routine unless he put his "special
touch" on the routine. Check out his
flying video.
Flying routines were the 2008 Futaba XFC
champion, Andrew Jesky, and the 2007 Futaba XFC
champion, Jason Noll. Both pilots put on routines that
were simply incredible. However, at the end of the
airshow the two pilots teamed up to fly a tandem
precision aerobatics routine that had the crowd in awe.
It's definitely worth checking out
out the flying video.
The pilots in attendance were:
One thing was for sure, after watching
the flying routines it was easy to see why these pilots
are indeed some of the best in the world. They were able
to put together flying routines that took difficult
flying maneuvers, set the music, and make it all look
easy. Watching these guys fly was worth the cost of
admission alone. Make sure you check out the videos of
their flights below.
The pilots
weren't just flying to the fun of flying though. The
Best Freestyle pilot was select by the applause of the
crowd on hand, and the winning pilot was awarded a prize
of $500 from Great Planes.
Saturday evening brought the 3D
helicopter smackdown competition. The large crowd in
attendance was treated to some spectacular flying by
some of the best in the country. The pilots were
required to fly a 3D routine that was choreographed and
set to music. The winner was judged based on audience
applause at the end of the competition. Helicopter
pilots have a habit of pushing the envelope when it
comes time to show off and E-Fest was no exception.
There were several minor crashes and one that looked
like a complete re-kit. Nick Maxwell flew in both the
fixed wing demos and the helicopter competition. During
his aircraft flight he clipped the ceiling and knocked a
large portion of his right wing off of the plane but
continued flying as if nothing happened. During his
helicopter flight he nicked the floor with is tail rotor
and brought an abrupt end to his flight.
Video of most of the competitive flights accompanies our
coverage but there were a few standout performances.
Bert Kammerer flew his Align Trex 250 with a precision
that rivaled most of the larger helicopters which I
thought would have a clear advantage. At the end of the
competition the pilots were lined up and judged by
audience applause. The two stand outs, Jamie Robertson
and Kyle Stacy had by far the loudest and when the
audience was asked to choose between them the clear
winner was Kyle Stacy.
The background in the armory was a bit harsh for
helicopter (or any) flying with the model going in and
out of the dark back ground and bright lighting but Kyle
seemed oblivious and put in a very solid flight that was
in synch with his music. I spoke with Kyle after the
competition and he confirmed that living up north in
Rochester means a lot of indoor flying.
Kyle Stacy accepting his 1st Place Trophy
and an award check for $500 for winning the Heli
Smackdown
Great Job Kyle!!!
One
of the last events of Saturday night was one that had the crowd picking
and cheering for their favorites. And this was the Combat Competition.
Unlike many combat events where streamers are trailed behind the plane
and opponents attempt to cut the streamers on other planes, this event
was a true all out, "knock 'em out of the sky", last man
standing fight. The rules were simple. Each pilot took off with his
plane and if the plane touched the ground for any reason it was out.
And the last plane in the air was the winner.
The combat started with more planes than could be easily counted,
but I would say it was 40-50 planes in the air. As it got going the
planes started falling from the sky pretty quickly as collisions started
taking their toll. But pretty quickly the pace settled down to about
10-15 planes still in the air. The circled and continued to try to
take each other out, but eventually the combat became a matter of
shear endurance as the planes circled each other trying to stay in
the air as long as possible. Check out our video below to see how
it turned out!
We shot video of this event, but the combat lasted close to 13 minutes.
To keep the file manageable so it can be downloaded I have edited
the competition and included some of the more interested parts of
the event.
There were two of us covering this event and each of us had a different
viewpoint for the combat. Andrew (BarracudaHockey) has edited his
video together with the Pylon Racing, while the other video is strictly
the Combat event. We hope you enjoy watching both videos to get a
good view of what the event was like.
One of the more unique events that was
held at E-Fest 2009 was the "Prizeatta" that was held on
Sunday afternoon. The concept of this event is based on
the Piñatas that graced kid's birthday parties for ages.
We all know how it goes, the Piñata is suspended from a
rope, the child is blindfolded and given a stick, and
then they take swings at the Piñata with the stick
hoping to break it open and spill out the "goodies"
inside. For E-Fest Great Planes has adapted that event
to indoor RC flying. Two sets of balloons are filled
with coupons good for prizes which included servos,
batteries, gift certificates, and many other RC related
prizes. The balloons are filled with helium and are
connected to a weighted platform that allows the
balloons to slowly rise towards the ceiling of the
armory. All the pilots participating in the event line
up with their planes in front of them. On the "Go"
signal they all take off and attempt to pop the
balloons. When the first balloon is popped the pilots
must then land in any way they choose (yes, that means
that some of them did crash their planes). And with
their planes on the ground they can then proceed out to
the now grounded balloons to try and retrieve the
"goodies". All I can say is that it was really fun to
watch. Check out the videos of this event!
We have two videos of the "Prizzatta"
taken from two different locations inside the Armory. We
hope you enjoy!
One of the fun things about flying
electric planes is that it's very easy to put lights on
them. And the pilots that attended E-Fest definitely
like to put lights on their planes. To wrap up the
flying for the day on Saturday the lights in the Armory
were turned out for the last part of the night. I really
don't know how many planes were up as it was kind of
crazy trying to count them all, but I would say there
were 30 or more pilots flying planes with lights on
them. And one heli pilot had his bird decked out in
lights and was putting on a 3D night heli show for those
watching. It was almost surreal seeing all of the bright
lights floating in the darkness above. It was quite a
sight to see. Check out the video of the night flying.
Events such as this are the perfect venue
for vendors to display their new and existing products
to the consumers that are most interested in them.
E-Fest 2009 was no different. Businesses that provide
planes, helicopters, equipment, materials, and supplies to the electric indoor flying
public were on hand in Champaign showing off their
products. We stopped by to visit some of these vendors
to give them a chance to show off their wares to the RCU
public.
Even though Great Planes is the company
that is responsible for E-Fest it's hard to hold an
event this large without the sponsorship and help of
other companies. Listed below are the sponsors that
helped to make E-Fest 2009 a successful event.
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