As always, it's been horrendously busy for me this last month, when I last wrote I was about to leave for Australia for the 3D Downunder and Victorian Champs competitions. I've now been there, done that and had an AWESOME time doing it. My girlfriend Sharon and my mate Darryll came along and we met a huge amount of great people all of whom were great to talk to.

Australians are in general great people, that is unless they work for Avis rental cars. They're very laid back, so laid back they may as well be horizontal and they will do anything to help. I had a bit of an incident with the Tempest when it's flybar carrier got bent while in the Curtis case. Everyone who I talked to did their best to ring around and locate some new parts for me to fix the damage. This occurred once again after the 3D Downunder comp when Gary Watson and I were practicing F3C we noticed that the Tempest was emitting a loud 'cracking' type noise at times which Gary identified as being due to the tail shaft not being pinned. Without hesitation Gary offered to exchange the drive shaft out of his Tempest 3D to get me going. It's this kind of attitude that makes traveling overseas much more pleasant and enjoyable.

I thoroughly recommend traveling to events where you can meet different people and see different styles of flying, plus the whole social aspect is awesome. We saw things like the huge turbine Long Ranger and the contra-rotating Z230 that we would just never see in New Zealand.

Santa's Sack
It's already that time of year again. Luckily for me, Sharon has done all the Christmas shopping cause I have neither the time nor the desire to spend hours in shops packed with people like me who hadn't planned out their Christmas operations efficiently. I'm going down to my parent's place in Nelson for Christmas and then we're off to the New Zealand Nationals on the 29th and 30th of December. A couple of the guys I met in Australia are also making the trip out to compete which will be great.

I hope everyone has a safe Christmas with your families and friends and manages to get a successful flight or two in between times!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Si

Buggy
A 1/5th scale off road buggy powered by a Zenoah G230RC petrol engine has arrived in the house and I've been playing with that this past weekend. This thing is just all kinds of fun! I'll get some pics and do a write up of it for you guys. Makes a nice change for when the wind is too heavy for helis.

Winner of the Sonic Nitro DVD
The winner of the Sonic Nitro DVD is Jason Stiffey from WA, in the United States. I'll be contacting him shortly. If I cannot contact him, I'll redraw. The answers to the questions were:

• What event was Sonic Nitro filmed? - 13th Annual Maryland RC Helicopter Funfly.
• What is the make and model of the turbine helicopter featured on Sonic Nitro? - Jetcopter SX.
• Who is the featured pilot representing JR on Maximum 3D? - Curtis Youngblood.

Pilot Locator
The Pilot Locator has continued to grow in popularity since the last newsletter with it still rating second most popular section of littlerotors.com. Make sure your details are up-to-date! The pilot locator can be found at www.littlerotors.com/findapilot/

Market
The Buy/Sell Market has been growing also. It should be noted that this section will accept postings from all over the world, not just New Zealand. List your items free of charge! See the market at www.littlerotors.com/market/

Articles this issue are:

3D Downunder
Australia's first event to promote 3D went very well despite the weather! Lots of great flying and great machines! Click here

Victorian F3C Champs
With some of Australia's top pilots and some top guns from Hong Kong present, this was always going to be a hard event! Click here

Visit to Model Engines
Model Engines Pty is one of Australia's largest distributors of modeling equipment and goods, I got to take a look through their Melbourne premises. Click here

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

Si