MA pilots

[Zilly]

It seems that MA seem to be losing all their sponsored pilots at the moment :shock:

Matt Botos & Duncan Osbourne are the latest.

I know Eric Larson is still on the team but I guess he must be starting to feel a bit lonely by now :roll:

Have MA got plans to replace these guys and if so who with?

z

[DavidH]

Pilots come and go all the time. It is nothing new. With the amount of money being offered and paid to some pilots now. It is all about the deal. There is always someone new waiting in the wings just waiting there chance.

David

[Kinger]

David is exactly right. There are plenty of new up and coming pilots that can start working their way toward the top. In the end, do you fly what you fly because of what it is or who else is flying it?

[david.read]

Gent's,

I also noticed that there is only (One) entrant in the 3D Master's, Master Class using an MA Helicopter.
MA also don't appear to be a sponsor!

http://www.3dmasters.org.uk/

3D Masters Entrants 2006

Sportsman

NAME COUNTRY HELICOPTER

101 David Nolan Ireland MA
102 Tor Anker Nilsen Norway TT
103 Lukas Riva Switzerland JR
104 Paal Hagh Sandberg Norway TT
105 Olivier Camlong France Avant
106 Adrian Smith UK MA
107 Eigil Stang Lund Norway MA
108 Soren Jorgensen Denmark TT
109 Craig Simmons UK TT
110 Chris Lupa UK TT
111 Daniel Crozier UK JR
112 Thomas David UK MA
113 Franz-Josef Pfurner Germany TT
114 Richard Delporte France TT
115 Adam Turner UK Century
116 Tor-Age With Norway MA
117 Sikorsky Chang Taiwan ROC TT
118 Zhi-Ping Chen UK TT
119 Matthew Booth UK TT
120 Vladimir Golubev Russian Fed'n TT
121 Adam Crane UK Hirobo
122 Dmitriy Morozov Russian Fed'n TT

Expert

201 Nando van Arnhem Netherlands JR
202 Stefan Segerer Germany Heli-Prof
203 Dave Wilshere UK MA
204 Stefan Ring Austria TT
205 John Vugts Netherlands TT
206 Dave Fisher UK TT
207 Shinya Kunii Japan JR
208 Jon Roger Thomassen Norway TT
209 Chris Walton UK TT
210 Wes Crockett UK Synergy
211 Bruce Thompson UK TT
212 Daniel Jetschin Germany Mikado
213 Peter Roper UK Century
214 Nigel Brown Australia Synergy
215 Stuart Mott UK JR
216 Andrea Puosi Italy MA
217 Markus Roth Germany Roxxter
218 Heng-li Henry Chen Taiwan ROC TT
219 Igor Orlov Russian Fed'n Hirobo
220 Giuseppe Robertone Italy MA

Master

301 Kjetil Strom Norway Synergy
302 Andreas Rummer Germany Mikado
303 Jerome Ruiz France TT
304 Dominik Haegele Germany Helisystem
305 Ron Sebastian Germany TT
306 Jonathan Bossion France TT
307 Duncan Osbourn UK Synergy
308 Nir Meiri Israel MA
309 Chen Zarfati Israel JR
310 Steven Gerrard UK Avant
311 Hiroki Ito Japan JR
312 Scott Gray Canada JR
313 Paul Lison UK Synergy
314 Danny Szabo USA Avant
315 Alan Szabo Jnr USA Avant
316 Steven McFall USA Avant
317 Ying-Chih Liao Taiwan ROC TT
318 Jason Krause USA Synergy
319 Nicholas Maxwell USA Align

[megotroulette]

Ya Nir meiri...

He should Deffinetly kick some butt with his Bad Ass 3D :lol:

[DebianDog]

The talent is still DEEP with the MA pilots. Look up any of the following videos here Bobby Watts, Eric Larson, Bert K., Clintstone, Ben Minor, David Harkey, H to the C. There is tons more but it is late.

[Zilly]

Dont get the wrong impression guys I am not the type to jump ship just cause their is a new model out that is well sponsored and hence attracts the top guys to fly it. I think its fair to say that over the last couple of years this whole sponsored pilot thing has accelerated through the roof. Youve got the likes of Align setting the pace with multi thousand dollar sponsorships so its now possible for any good pilot to actually consider making a living from what they enjoy the most.However this will undoubtedly encourage a lot of mud slinging especially in forums like this (as we have already seen)

I have just spent the last year getting my head round the MA parts list there is NO way that I am going to move now ! :lol:

z

[DebianDog]

You've got the likes of Align setting the pace with multi thousand dollar sponsorships so its now possible for any good pilot to actually consider making a living from what they enjoy the most.However this will undoubtedly encourage a lot of mud slinging especially in forums like this (as we have already seen)

I believe it ruins the "hobby" like BIG sponsorship ruined NASCAR and baseball.

That is not to say these sponcered pilots don't deserve to get paid. i.e. travel, machines, parts, fuels, etc. But to make a "living" at it? -I- think it is over the top.

In sitting and talking with a bunch of folks here at Clintstones the older pilots remember where this type of pilot jumping turned off a lot of folks to the FAI stuff.

However I really did enjoy enjoy ribbing Marcus yesterday as he was flying OPM. :twisted:

[WayneBrown]

it's 'Days of our Choppers' or maybe 'General Choppers'..too much drama... :shock:

[Kinger]

The sponsored pilot round and round the merry go round thing is definitely getting a little crazy if you ask me. After seeing how it affected the RC car hobby a number of years back, I'm not looking forward to seeing what it does to this hobby as well.

On the other hand, you really can't solely blame the pilots for all this jumping ship. If somebody came to your job and said, we'll give you X number of dollars over what you are currently earning or an office with a window for doing the EXACT same thing over at our company it would be hard to stay where you're at.

If anything, what all this pilot jumping shows me is that all of the big machines are SUPER capable of kick butt flying anymore. Alan Szabo looked freaking awesome with a Raptor and now he's going to look great or maybe even better with the Aurora. However, since I couldn't fly to his level before with a Raptor, why would I think that purchasing an Aurora is going to get me that much closer to his level of flying now? :)

[david.read]

As far as changing heli, It's a bit like golf. If Tiger Woods uses an Titleist driver off the tee and hits it 320+ you automatically think it's the way to go.

David..

[Spawndn72]

I remember when Curtis was flying for MA, before that if I am not mistaken he flew for GMP, after MA he went to Schulter, then to JR. The point is he flew the crap out of all those brands. Just goes to show you it is not the brand of heli, it is the pilot. Any helicopter from any of the major manufacturers will fly better than 90% of us ever can make it fly.

Todd

[EricLarson]

There is a bit of "Velcro Shirt Syndrome" out there at the moment to quote our good friend David :wink:

Nothing to be concerned about guys. There are many reason's people may decide to do something different. As for me, well it is a hobby I am pretty darn serious about but really am quite hesitant to make it a job. I got pretty wrapped up in everything a few years back and decided to just do what I felt was right and I have been very happy since. I hope everyone has as much fun in this hobby as I do.

For those that have flown another machine or product for a few months and decide to change based on the fact they like a product better I have a lot of respect for that. I would much rather be in this position than the one in the next paragraph.

For those that make the decision based on the deal, I can completely understand that also and really don't find a fault there. We can all understand how enticing some of the deals out there are to those that are very serious and work so very hard to improve to the highest level. Only time will tell if it was a good choice as most of the time the change did not happen because of the equipment.

I expected there to be some changes happening with 2 more highly competitive MFG entering the market. I am sure the fireworks are not finished yet. For those of you that have been around a while, I believe a very similar thing happened a while back when FAI was much more popular.

[ecofan_]

Hi

I know that Jerome Ruiz (Master pilot) is now flying MA

Two MA pilots in master class !

check his vids : http://djeruiz.free.fr

[Gary O]

If people are selecting brands based on watching how other pilots make them perform that's not a good assessment for either the pilot or the machine. You take any of the top fliers and they could take a brick with a rotor and make it look great. All this switching around make for good conversation I guess, but that's about it.

[Wayne]

Several years back when Curtis started flying JR, not a lot of people went out and bought JR helicopters. I think the majority of the pilots take information in, sort it out, and then decide what to buy. There is certainly plenty of good choices today.

As for sponsored pilots getting large amounts of money, this could be the transition of this "hobby" from a "hobby" to more of a professional sport/business. But, one thing is certain, if a corporation spends thousands of dollars on a signing bonus for a pilot, and if that pilot decides to jump ship in the middle of the year, they will be hearing from corporate lawyers, something we really don't need in this "hobby". And when that company spends thousands of dollars on a pilot, the pilot better do what the company wants and when they want it. I've been offered money many times to do things in this hobby, but every time I've turned it down because I did not want my hobby to turn into my job... :)

Wayne
www.flymha.com

[Gary O]

I don't know that I've seen many other guys besides Curtis that didn't have a full time job along with his sponsors. I think Curtis has been the exception to the rule for a long time.

Wayne, I agree. I do this for the enjoyment, if it got to the point where I was being told where to fly, when to fly, I don't think it would be fun anymore. For a young guy without the obligations of a family and all that goes with it I could see where that would be a hoot for a while though.