littlerotors.com Newsletter
2nd February 2002

Welcome to the first Littlerotors.com newsletter for 2002. Already, 2002 is shaping up to be an exciting year, the JR Venture made it's appearance in New Zealand as did the Futaba FF9 transmitter (the replacement for the 8 series) and now the Kyosho Caliber 30 is arriving.

I've been busy getting my new Vigor CS built up and shaken down as well as getting the Z230 back in the air again. This, as well as practising for the new Sportsman competition schedule (that's the next level down from F3C here in NZ). Unfortunately, this, and work, has prevented much work on Littlerotors.com at the moment.

Santa's Sack:
In my last newsletter I spoke of tactics you could use to encourage 'Santa' to get you the bits and pieces you REALLY wanted. I hope Santa paid attention and got all the toys you wanted. These exercises paid off for me and Santa got me an NHP blade bag, MS 550 night blades and a glow wire set. Word on the street is that Santa had quite a bit of help from some fellow club members and Ron Lund :).
Remember, the tactics mentioned in my last newsletter are not limited to Christmas time, they're applicable for birthdays too! For my birthday a couple of weeks ago I recieved some new rotor blades for the Z230.

Productive Practice:
Lately, my mate Darryll and I have become quite intent on bringing our competition skills along. We can loop, roll etc, but doing a nice round loop right in front of you right first time every time is really quite hard! We've learned a lot of about the importance of setup to help make things easier.
We've taken to coaching each other to help improve each other's skills. While one is flying, the other comments on the performance and offers suggestions for improvement. Just before the end of last year we did a session like this and in the space of one afternoon we both felt our flying improved immensely. The difference was, we were trying disciplined flying instead of hooning around and that makes all the difference. Anyone can loop and roll, but can you do it right there, nicely, everytime? Don't get me wrong, there's nothing I like more than having a good hoon around, but the challenge of disciplined flying can be very rewarding.

New addition to the family:
Finally, after months of waiting, my CS arrived and is all built up. Took a bit longer than expected, but it was well worth it. I'm even more impressed with the kit now after building it. I decided to go with the new OS 91 (of which there is a review in this issue) and I am more than pleased with the result. I'll have a review of the kit from my perspective in the next issue.
I've now got three helicopters, but do you think that all of them are operational at the same time? No... There's always something up with one of them that prevents all of them coming to the field at the same time, seems to be the way of things...

Articles this issue are:

Kyosho Caliber 30
Could this be the heli of 2002? Kyosho's answer to the Raptor is here! Click here

Nothing beats cubic inches!
OS's entry in the monster engine market has achieved a large following in the US, I chose one to power my new JR Vigor CS, here's what I think of it. Click here

Feel free to contact me at simon@littlerotors.com at any time.

Si