Road to the Worlds - Page Two
Simon Lockington

Unfortunately, this is probably going to mean that I’m going to have to nominate a date where I stop playing with the CS and the Raptor doing 3D, lock those machines away and concentrate on F3C.

Fliers at the field volunteered to hold the Vigor and the Rappy at their houses so I wouldn’t be tempted, but I figure that maybe I could have one or two 3D flights a day though, you know, just to break up the monotony of F3C. Just one though… Or maybe two…

However practising maneuvers, especially the hovering ones by yourself is very difficult and often times I think, pretty unproductive. I much prefer practising with someone who can comment on the maneuver. A common thing I get people to help me with is telling me where the helicopter is in relation to the flags. Often when I think the heli is dead over the flags, it’s infact not. Because hovering maneuvers are worth twice the points of the aerobatic ones, you win or lose in the hovering.

One thing I’m going to test to try and help me sort this problem out is put markers on the helicopter (such as fluro tape) that marks the point that I have to line up over the flag. For instance, I’ve often found that if the flag is directly over a spot 20mm behind the front skid brace, them I’m bang on the flag. It might sound crazy, but I feel it might have some merit. Hey, if you’re gonna fly with the top guns, you need all the help you can get!

I make the usual mistakes with my hovering maneuvers. I climb too high in the rectangle, I cruise across the top of the rectangle too fast. I can’t consistently settle the heli at the top of the climbing pirouette and it drifts.

My height control is inconsistent through the nose in tail in horizontal eight and it’s rare that I hit all four flags consistently. Let’s not even get started on the heli stalling and not moving when hit with a gust of wind either!

The triangle gives me a bit of trouble on the descending leg. The Sylphide seems to like to roll off to the left when it has a strong wind up it’s tail and just like everyone, getting a smooth descent in rough weather is tough.

The things going for me though is the Sylphide is quiet, and hovers very well when nose into the wind. I’m getting there with the setup of it, so I really feel it’s going to help me.

One thing the Sylphide really helps me with is the aerobatics. The thing rolls like it was born for it and it really does make things easier for me.

For instance, I used to really struggle doing rolls flying from left to right. I don’t know why, I just couldn’t do a good roll consistently. Nowadays, they’re certainly a whole lot easier to get consistent.

What I really need to do with the aerobatics is getting my flight line consistent. By this I mean flying at a common altitude and not moving in towards the judges, or away from them, something I’m doing badly during the double loops.

Generally I’m pretty slick at autos, but I need to get them consistent again. One thing I’ve noticed about the Sylphide is trying to pull it up smoothly. It always seems to come whistling in faster than I anticipated and I have to pretty much stand it on it’s tail to stop for the circle which is just not good. The Tempest and Vigor was always a bit more predictable in this respect.

I’m also going to try playing with the head a bit more to see if I can get the machine to hover steadily with the wind coming from directions other than over the nose.

So begins the long road to the Worlds, by the time the second instalment is ready to be published, the Australian F3C team will have been selected so I’ll know who I’ll be travelling with.