Having just returned from the WJM it is my understanding that most of the large Skygate Hawks entered by the German and Swiss teams were gyro stabilised on all three axes. I watched these models fly many times and they certainly maintained straight and level flight with remarkable consistency. Most of them also chose to fly very conservative flight schedules with mostly baseline options i.e. slow flight clean, inverted flight, horizontal rolls and knife edge flight with procedure and derry turns to reverse direction. I do not know if they chose these options because they obtained maximum gyro assistance in these maneuvers and the gyros would not have been as effective in vertical maneuvers or whether the models were underpowered for vertical options.

These models all scored very high flying marks but, as a spectator while being able to appreciate the smoothness of the flight I though the performance of these models was not scale. They were far too slow to represent the real thing, in some of the turns into wind the models slowed down to what appeared to be walking pace and the landing speeds were ridiculously slow with roll out of less than 50 metres. However, they certainly seemed to impress the judges which is , after all, the object of the exercise.

I understand research is currenty underway to produce a receiver which will fly the model in a gyro stabilised racetrack pattern in the event of a failsafe occurring so the idea of programming your flight and pressing a button does not seem so far fetched!

John