Singapore National Aeromodeling Championship 2003,

F3C competition

D-Day plus one: 3D Demo, Fun Fly and last two rounds of F3C competition

17th August 2003, cloudy with slight rain, 9am, Bukit Batok Flying Club

The day began with another exciting 3D demo by Japanese 3D pilot Mr Yamaguchi. It had been raining for the whole night yesterday and parts of the field were flooded. Because of the slight rain, Mr Yamaguchi gave a 3D demo but with less difficult moves compared to the demo he gave on the first day. Here are some pictures of his Bravo with the canopy removed.

Left : The left side of the heli frame. Note how the cyclic servo is secured in place with two other linkage rods. Mr Yamaguchi is using JR NES8300 super servo for the cyclics and collective pitch.

Right : The right side of the heli frame. His Bravo does not have many optional parts. According to him, he only fitted the slanted machined delrin main gears, metal swash plate and metal rotor centre hub. The slanted machined delrin gear can only be bought from Japan.

After the flying demostration, Mr Yamaguchi was kind to give a short question and answer session.

These are quoted from the question and answer session. I recollect from memory, so I might miss out some things.

Q : What rpm are you using on your engine governor when you are doing 3D flying?

A : I am using 2100rpm. At this headspeed, the helicopter is more responsive. I use an engine governor because making a throttle curve for a 90 size engine is not easy.

Q : What modifications did you make to the rotor head?

A : I do not use any dampers. Instead, I have only bushings and ball bearings in the centre rotor hub supporting the spindle.

Q : Are you using some kind of pump on the OS 91 C-spec?

A : Yes, it's a perry pump. I want to have consistent engine performance no matter the fuel tank is full or 1/3 full.

Q : Why are you using the slanted main gear instead of the stock one?

A : The slanted main gear is quieter, but there is a small loss of power. This gear is machined and made of delrin. You can only buy this from Japan.

Q : What tail gear ratio are you using?

A : I'm using the stock gear ratio.

Q : For your style of 3D flying, what kind of exponential and dual rates are you using?

A : I am using a JR PCM10X and 40% exponential. As for dual rates, I will go all the way until the swash plate tilts at the maximum. But I remember not to apply full cyclics when I am at full throttle and high pitch. This is because there will be binding in the linkage rod on the rotor head.

Q : How do you practise your 3D flying?

A : I only fly on the weekends. I use RealFlight simulator to practise on the weekdays. I have been flying for about 10 years and I fly about 40 to 50 flights a month. My first helicopter was made by Kalt.

Q : How much upgrade parts are there on your Bravo?

A : I only have 3 upgrade parts, the slanted main gear, metal swash plate and metal centre rotor hub. There is no need to get many upgrade parts. Save the money for fuel.

Q : How do you orientate yourself when you are flying 3D?

A : I imagine myself sitting inside the helicopter.

Q : What happen to your horizontal tail fin?

A : I removed the horizontal tail fin because I do a lot of sideway flight.

Q : I noticed that you are not using the original OS 91 C-spec carb?

A : The C-Spec carb has 3 needles. The middle needle is for hovering. Since I fly 3D and I do not hover, I prefer the 2 needle carb from the previous version of OS 91.

I hope Mr Yamaguchi has a good time in Singapore and I like to wish Mr Yamaguchi a wonderful 3D flying career.

The next item was the Fun Fly. The participants had to land their heli on 3 helipads placed apart, performed 2 sets of figure eight around two poles and knocked down 2 bottles. After that, the participants had to hover their heli from one point to another. A short and long chain were tied to the landing skids. During hovering, the short chain must not touch the ground and the long chain must always touch the ground. Although the moves seem easy, they were in fact quite difficult to perform. One participant ended up doing a chicken dance when the earth came up and swallowed the heli. And other participant chop the pole into 3 pieces with the main rotor blade. Hmm....maybe he was inspired by Scott Gray from Canada who chop ribbons during the 3D Masters 2002.

2 cases of identity crises. Left : A TT Raptor with Hirobo Sceadu canopy. Right : A JR Venture with TT Raptor canopy.

Left : A Lama canopy on a JR Voyager. Quite cute!

Right : Zach and Simon with their helicopters. Note the V-blades on the Freya.

Left : Pole dancing, anyone? Now I know how tough is the job for the girls at the discos!

Right : A Hirobo Shuttle attempting to knock over a bottle. This is not easy, considering that the heli has to hover within the ground effect.

Heli fun fly had a total of 22 entries. All of them are Singaporeans. After many intense rounds of flying, the results are:

First is Mr. Chua Yong Choon

Second is Mr. Yam Teck Chong

Third is Mr. Kong Ah Cheng

The usual photo shoot after the fun fly. Note how cloudy the sky is. This environmental factor is going to matter alot for the participants in the F3C competition held later in the day.

It was casual chit chat and leisure flying during the break before the serious F3C competition starts. I walked around and took some pictures of the contest machines.

A TT Raptor 90 flown by Mr Walter Lee. This is a very serious machine. Look at how many optional parts are fitted onto the rotorhead. In a F3C competiton, every detail has to be looked into and there is no room for error. Hmm, I don't think he uses that 4 channel transmitter lying beside that heli.

Left : The Xcell Fury Tempest FAI rotor head fitted to a Fury Extreme heli frame. This mean machine is flown by Kris from the Indonesian Team.

Right : The Xcell Fury Tempest tail rotor on a Fury Extreme heli frame. The tail blades pitch control mechanism are fully ball raced!

This Tempest/Extreme hybrid is painted in Jaguar green. Guess what car does the owner drives? Note the TG contest blades.

I left the field before the last two rounds of F3C started. I was told that the cloudy sky and strong winds caused havoc during the competition. That Tempest/Extreme crashed. Two other contest helicopters also did a chicken dance. A Freya even went for a swim in the big puddle of water left by the rain last night. Fortunately no scuba diving gear was needed. What a day for all the nine competitors!

Finally, the official result for the F3C competition is

1st : Mr. Michael Leong, Hong Kong

2nd : Mr. Philip Chong, Singapore

3rd : Mr Walter Lee, Singapore

THREE CHEERS for the organisers for putting up a wonderful event. I like to thank Mr Walter Lee, Chairman, Bukit Batok Flying Club for giving me the opportunity to do a web cover for this important event. I also like to extend my appreciation to those who has in one way or another helped me to make this web coverage possible.