Asia Pacific F3C Competition
Simon Lockington

Gary, Dave and Andrew in the back of the 'van' that picked us up from Depensar airport.

Adrian, you can see the Curtis cases piled in the truck in front.

Unloading our stuff at the hotel.

Checking in at the hotel.

View from my hotel window. As you can see we were living rough.

The pool. Like I said, we were living rough...

The poolbar which was to become our second home for the duration of our stay.

The back yard of the hotel. Behind us is the pool.

Sunset over the pool.

Beach BBQ.

The serving area of the BBQ.

Our table.

The singers who did a great job of singing anything we wanted.

Day One - Arriving
Day Two - Lessons with Jason and Todd
Day Three - Official Practise Day
Day Four - Opening Ceremony/Opening Dinner
Day Five - First Day of Competition
Day Six - Second Day of Competition/Closing Dinner
Day Seven - Returning Home/Summary of IOHC 2004

Early last year, Stephen Fan from Cyberheli emailed me asking if I thought anyone from New Zealand would be interested in competing in an Asia/Pacific F3C competition he was wanting to get started. I ofcourse wrote back saying that at the very least I would attend with the possibility of two or three others coming also.
Stephen went to work and a few months later there was a viable competition planned with pilots from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore confirmed. The competition was to be held in Bali, Indonesia and was planned for the 5th to the 9th of May 2004.
When I was at the Victorian State Championships in Australia during November, a representative from the organising committee visited to promote the event.

Over the months, the event developed as more and more pilots entered, up to the maximum of 25 imposed by the event organisers. The organisers also announced that Jason Krause and Todd Bennett would be attending to do demonstrations and also conduct 3D Workshops.
World renowned designer of the Raptor, Shigetada Taya and Thunder Tiger demonstration pilot Kazuya Yamaguchi, were also due to attend.

Judges from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, China and Indonesia had also been organised to score the competitors. It was shaping up to be a very exciting event promoting F3C in the Asia/Pacific region!

GETTING THERE
Being that I'd just moved to Australia, I fly to Indonesia with the Australian team who was made up of Andrew Donaldson and Gary Watson who were both competing, and Dave Crump (team manager), Don Dennis and Adrian. George Atkinson who was also competing would be joining us in the following two days.
Don had organised our tickets to fly Garuda Indonesia and stay at the official event hotel, the Kartika Discovery Hotel in Kuta.
We were all very keen to stay in a reputable hotel in an effort to avoid being hit with the infamous 'Bali Belly', a condition that can ruin your day very quickly!

I had planned on taking the Tempest and Don's Sylphide to Bali, however, it wasn't till the night before that I tried to take the boom off and realised that the gyro sensor had to come off to get the belt off. To cut a long story short, I ended up stripping the head of one of the hex bolts and was not able to get the boom off, so the Vigor had to quickly pack its bags and get ready for another trip!
With the day of departure upon us, it was a 3am start to get the car packed and begin the rounds of picking up Don, Dave, Andrew and Adrian. Getting two Curtis cases, all the support gear and our bags and five adults into my Holden Commodore can be a bit of a mission, but it can be done!

At Melbourne airport we met up with Gary Watson who had flown in from Brisbane the previous day and we made our way to the check in counter. You could tell the check in people had seen us coming and were trying to see who would draw the short straw of checking us in.

My strategy of packing every helicopter part I had into my Curtis case, along with just about every tool I have yielded quite a heavy case. 32 kilograms to be precise! The Garuda people weren't overly impressed with this and said I had to remove at least half a kilo. I quickly removed the blade bag from my case of 'static display models' and put it in Andrew's case which brought me back down to 31.5kg. We had just managed to get away with no excess baggage.

The flight from Melbourne to Depensar (Bali) went via Adelaide and was pretty straight forward. I don't think anyone tried any of the 'food' that was served, although Adrian was quite surprised to find a sausage peering out at him from within what he thought was a bun!

DEPENSAR AIRPORT
Once off the plane, we lined up to go through immigration and I decided to go and visit the toilet. The toilet itself was pleasant smelling enough as far as toilets go, but once you actually got to the business end of things, it was one of the dirtiest, nastiest toilets I've been in for a while. Unfortunately, as far as toilets were concerned, it was a sign of things to come!

Getting through immigration was very straight forward, you pay your money (in US$), and you get your stamp. Getting through customs for us was even easier. By the time we'd made it to the luggage carousel, some Balinese guys with a local policeman and a customs officer had our Curtis cases loaded up onto some trolleys waiting for us! Organising these guys was Lukman, a key organiser of the event, and a man who would be very busy over the next few days! They waited for us to pick out our other bags and the customs officer escorted us out of the airport to the waiting vans and truck that would take us to our hotel. That was it! No explaining the 'static display models' or anything. It became apparent quickly that the organisers of the event had gone to some length to ensure things would go smoothly for the event participants.

With the Curtis cases loaded into the truck we piled into an old van which took us along the narrow ,bustling streets of Kuta towards our hotel. This is where we got our first taste of road rules, Bali style. Firstly there are hundreds of people of mopeds, scooters and small motorbikes, they're everywhere. They weave in and out of traffic rapidly and there isn't much in the way of indication going on. It seems that things work on the natural rules of the bigger you are, the more influence you have.

DISCOVERY KARTIKA
Prior to leaving Australia, we had been a little worried about the security situation in Bali. With one of the primary suspects of the Bali bombing being arrested again, and the local unrest related to this, as well as the increased travel warnings from the Australian government had made us a little wary about travelling. What was good to see was that just about every hotel of any size had security guards on the gate. The Discovery Kartika Hotel was no exception.
What was also surprising was the large flags and signs the organisers had erected along the driveway into the hotel welcoming competitors of IOHC (Indonesian Open Helicopter Competition).
Once check in was completed the helicopters were delivered to our rooms. The rooms very very nice and had very good air conditioning (thank God!) and a well stocked bar fridge. It took all of five minutes for us to decide that we should be visiting the pool.
The Discovery Kartika is a large resort located right on the beach in beautiful surroundings, with a large pool area that had a pool bar situated in the middle of the complex. Drinks were being ordered as we swam over to the bar, where we stayed until dinner time.

Jason and Todd had arrived and we were soon joined by Chris, another one of the organisers of the event who hosted us at a dinner on the beach. The food here was spectacular! Easily the best buffet style food I have had for as long as I can remember.

During the course of the evening, three musicians travelled around the various tables belting out rendentions of whatever song was requested. They were actually very good and spent a lot of time at our table.

With dinner over, it was time for those of us with helicopters to go and assemble them, while the others resumed getting familiar with the pool and pool bar.

Day Two - Lessons with Jason and Todd