..The sun is out!...Let's go FLYING....False alarm...
Heli-Log 8:18:2016
Posted 08-18-2016 at 12:55 PM by rcnut
IRCHA was here…and now it’s over
But what a time I had!!!
While working 10 hour days up to the last day, I took a half day of vacation to finish packing for IRCHA. I managed to get 14 (or so) flights on my Agile before IRCHA. And I still managed to forget things to bring!
IRCHA!
Friday was an extremely busy day after work! I had a list of things needed to get done before leaving…stop at the bank, drop off the insurance check, get oil change, pick up meds from the pharmacy (in which I left at home! Agin!!! I did the samething last year...), do some last minute shopping, get gas… Once home, I finished cleaning the house and some laundry, and then finished packing for IRCHA. I got to bed around 10:30 exhausted, and I still had a few things left to do. I also had a friend bugging me to help him setting up his heli before I left, only to say never mind, I figured it out…thanks!
For some unknown reason, I woke up Saturday morning at 1:32 am! What? And I was wide awake…ok, I finish up with the stuff I didn’t get to. I hit the shower at 4:00 am and finished packing my truck (clothes & computer). I did the last minute check through the house, locked up and headed out. I stopped at Mc Donald’s for breakfast and was on the way at 5:03 am. I pulled into the Pilot gas station just outside of Muncie at 11:00 am. Filled up and did the bathroom break thing, I also bought ice for the cooler. Now it was on to AMA.
The glider NATs were under way as I pulled in, and Raja has just got there 20 minutes before me, and he was already flying at site 3. We did the usual chit-chat for a bit and then I pulled out my Agile gasser. Raja was very happy to check it out and shortly after wanted to see it fly. Other pilots started pulling in and before long; we had our own little fun fly going! The day ended rather quickly and now it was time for dinner. Raja and I found our Canadian friends (Grace & Michael) and went to Texas Roadhouse. We had fun reconnecting over dinner, talking about how the year went and what was happening…lots of storytelling!
I checked into the hotel, unpacked (barely), and finally crashed! I was completely wiped out, but I am at IRCHA, so I can relax and enjoy this time there. It didn’t take long to fall asleep… 0.03 seconds? I woke up early Sunday morning and headed out to the 12th Street Café for breakfast! It’s a little corner restaurant on Memorial Drive. I’ve been waiting all year to eat there! Their coffee and biscuits and gravy is the best that I’ve had, well compared to here at home! My favorite waitress was no longer there, she moved on, however, the owner was happy to see me and asked if that heli fly thing was this week. I told her yes it is time for the IRCHA Jamboree, and to get prepared as more people will be pouring in over the week. People in Muncie really like the heli pilots a lot.
After breakfast, a short drive down the street to the AMA field! I met some of the gang from yesterday at site 3, and we commenced to flying all day long! We flew until the sun was close to the horizon, and then it was time for dinner. Monday my buddy Mark arrived, and had me test fly his G820 setup as a G4 instead, he had a lot of G4 parts and decided to convert it to a G4, so now he has 2-G4’s. It flew ok, but there was a problem with the governor and some tail issues. Mark fixed the gov and now it is flying much better! So our small family of friends grew a little bigger! We even had some foam turbine jets fly with us! That was cool… Yea, we shared site 3 with a few planker pilots, and got along just fine. The new owner of Miniature Aircraft (Josef & Judith) showed up at site 3 and Raja was busy with talking to them! Tuesday was more of the same only a bit hotter and more humid. We noticed the rest of the week would be more on the hot and humid side!
On Wednesday, we were “kicked out” as the speed race helis were setting up the area and start practicing. Well, we weren’t really kicked out, we knew it was reserved for them and it was time to find a place along the flight line! So site 3 was done until late in the day and after noon time Friday through Sunday. Wednesday Mark and I found Grace & Michael, and setup our canopy’s right next to them. On the other side of them, was most of the group from site 3 we were flying with! That was so cool. Once Mark and I were done with our setup, it was time to walk the flight line…vender row!
Heli Shopping!!!!!! Our first stop was at AeroPanda. Mark and I were interested in the Jeti radios and we were directed to Manny. Well, Manny wasn’t fully setup, and asked us if we were the ones Greg said would be over to look at the radios. We said we were the ones! Manny asked us to come back in an hour and he would have the radios out for us to look at first. So we traveled down the row to see what was there. Several of the venders had arrived and were busy setting up. Experience RC had a much smaller tent and when I asked Steve what was going in, he told us that after doing a survey, it show a decline in the hobby. And even “all” the hotels in Muncie had many rooms available. So it made sense to only bring what would sell versus bringing the whole store. After all, it is a lot of work to setup!
There was a lot of things different this year…like no Mark Ryder, or SKS video (out of business), the Boy Scouts were not there, but there was another outfit that provided close to the same type of food, no “Welcome to the IRCHA Jamboree” banner…supposedly it was stolen. The overall attendance was lower this year, like ~750 register pilots. The golf cart company was short on carts as well. Rumor was buzzing the flight line with canceled orders for carts which made a lot of people angry. The AMA headquarters rented out every last one of their carts. They were upset with the cart company this year as well. I’m not sure how this will turn out for next year, but it will be interesting.
Thursday I got Mark up early and we headed to our favorite restaurant. We made the pilots meeting and then reported for flight line duty. While signing up, the SWARM tee shirts were available to buy, so we bought ours, and then rode around the flight line giving rides to anyone that needed one. Afterwards, we went shopping some more, this time all the venders were there and we had our pick of items for sale! I was looking for a “Bump Controller” to complement my PowerLab8 charger. Revolex didn’t show up until late Thursday afternoon! And they had the shipment of product for HeliDirect…my Bump Controller! However, HeliDirect needed to inventory the product before they could sell it to the public…aaarrrggg!
We spent a little time at HeliDirect talking to Greg about our Jeti radios…and the Bump Controller, or lack of! We stopped in at Experience RC and I bought some replacement flight packs for my helis. Mark picked up a few things as well, and then we headed to our vehicles to put our purchases away, and then off to lunch. After lunch, we spent most of the day hanging out at the Miniature Aircraft tent. We were checking out the new version 2 Whiplash gas heli and all the conversion parts to convert our current helis to the new V2. It was nice to talk with the new owner to get an idea of whom they are and if they are here to stay. I broke away to showcase my Agile gasser to the KDS tent. The guys there liked it a lot and asked if I could do a demo flight! Of course I will!
My demo flight went over very well, even though I got a different impression. “I” didn’t think they liked it. It wasn’t until Friday, when I talked to Carey that the KDS team liked the heck out of it and asked if I would bring my heli to setup in their tent for display. Pictures were taken and sent to the owner of KDS and even he liked it a lot! So my Agile gasser was a hit.
I walked back and stopped at the Miniature Aircraft tent only to show off the conversion to Josef, not my intent. He liked it as well. I got talking to his wife (Judith) and I did a demo flight with my Agile trying to explain this is how I fly my gas helis…and my Whiplash gasser. Little did I know when I was showing off for Judith, Josef was watching as well! What a day! I don’t think we could have done anything more! It was a full day of volunteering, shopping, meeting people, more flying, meeting new people. Oh yea, Mark and I meet Scott from Cajun Aircraft, the new USA distributer. And come to find out, Scott was the person I was PM’ing and texting with to buy my last Whiplash gas heli! That was mind blowing!
Friday, and it happened to be my birthday… Mark and I did the usual, up early, eat, arrived in time for the pilot meeting, and did our volunteer work. While Mark and I were driving around giving rides to anyone that wanted one, Mark decided to stop in at HeliDirect to see if the Bump Controller was ready for sale, and it was, so he decided to taunt me saying there is only one left and I had better get there fast because they are selling like hot-cakes! Liar! But he got me good as I was on the other side of AMA helping a fellow pilot with obtaining a cart from AMA. So when I finally showed up at HeliDirect, they said the Bump Controllers were all sold out; I had just missed the last one walking out! What a bunch of funny people! Ha, ha, ha! Yea, they got me good! I bought one and was a very happy camper! I saw the Bump Controller in action Saturday through Tuesday at site 3. I ask Mark (another Mark) to explain to me how it worked and how he was able to connect it with his tablet. That was way cool and I truly wanted to set my PowerLab charger up like his…hence the drive to find a Bump Controller, and the razing I got from Mark and the guys at HeliDirect. It was all in good fun!
I caught up with Mark and he was laughing his butt off. Ha…ha, very funny buddy! As I was walking to my truck to put the controller away, and shortly after, Raja had sent me a text stating he needed to talk to me… I found him and we went for a walk. Raja informed me that Josef wanted to talk to me about becoming a team pilot for Miniature Aircraft! Wow! I didn’t see that coming! So I found Josef and said you wanted to talk to me… We talked for a half hour or longer, time no longer existed at that point, and I was asked to be a team pilot for Miniature Aircraft! Two hours later my buddy Mark became a team pilot as well. I thought to myself, this day couldn’t get any better, but it did! Mark told everyone it was my birthday and the new owners wanted to take us out for dinner! So we didn’t goto the SWARM party.
Carey had his Gas powered Thoughts seminar and my Agile was on display. The seminar was a big hit and everyone liked my Agile. Even Carey was happy with it. After the seminar, Carey had informed me the KDS people really like my Agile and ask if I would bring it to their tent for display; I said I could do that. I told Carey that I didn’t think they were interested because after I did the demo, they all split, kind of seemed uninterested…to me. Ok, so I read that wrong. Carey said they were very interested and wanted to see it up close. I told Carey I would bring it down for them.
The day ended on a high and it was hard to fall asleep that night.
Saturday, the second to last day and I’m ready to go home! The hot and humid weather was wearing on me, and everyone was feeling it as well. Mark and I needed to get up early to test fly his Whiplash gasser as I was asked Friday night to perform a demo flight at stage center Saturday morning...in front of IRCHA! Talking about no pressure! Initially Josef was going to have me fly his Whiplash gasser, but Mark spoke up and said I could fly his. So we made it to the flight line and I proceeded to get into the groove with his heli. Everything was going good until I shot a fast auto with a wall stop and land. The landing didn’t go to well as I had lost most of the head speed and his heli flopped over on its side (wrong blades for this maneuver). Both blade grip links popped off and the pitch slider ball popped out of the cup on the tail control arm. Come to find out, the screw for the tail pitch control arm was half out and I might have lost tail control during the demo!
Mark basically pushes me out of the way as he scrambles to fix his heli for me. Judith gives me a team Polo shirt to wear, and oh by the way, the polo shirt is cut in European sizes…go figure! I had to use the port-a-potty (duty calls!) and changed shirts while in there. Wow, that shirt barely fit! Now my phone is buzzing like crazy, “where are you”, “I’m on my way!” Raja goes first, then Devon, and me… I was doing great and a bit nervous, ok, a lot nervous. 3 minutes into some type of routine, I go into a forward flipping loop (I’ve done this hundreds of times), and as soon as I’m inverted tail away from me, the tail spins out and I panic a bit, I pull full negative pitch because the heli starts to race for the ground. The tail swings a full 180 as I’m inputting forward elevator.
The main blade tips skim the ground as I try to level the disk and have no more negative pitch to give…the heli goes in! Crash! As Mark and I start the walk to retrieve his heli, the announcer Nic, makes the walk of sham comment. My face turns beet red. Good thing as no one but Mark could see that. And to make matter worse, Mark is not saying a word to me. Ok, I’m feeling really low now. As we come walking back, I avoid eye contact with the crowd, as they have seen this many a times. Judith, on the other hand, gives me the “mom” look and I want to melt right there. Many people came up and asked what happened, so I explained it. And sure enough, the pitch slider ball had popped out of the cup again!
Josef walked up to Mark and said “make a list of the broken parts and I’ll replace them.” Well that made Mark happy and he started talking to me again! I told Mark to look at it this way, I crashed your heli…again, but I didn’t wreck your team Heliproz canopy! But I did destroy his good set of blades, so I bought him another set from Bert Kammerer.
About an hour after that, I took my Agile down to the KDS tent for display and people were asking 20 questions about it! The biggest one was the small generator sitting in place of the electric motor. I told the guys it’s a supper charged mini electric motor, anything bigger and it will rip apart the heli…it’s a new design! LoL! They loved that one! I explained it was the on board generator to keep the LiPo pack charged. On the way back, I stopped to watch some of the noon time demos. Dang…I wish I could fly that good!
The rest of the day was normal…hot, but not as humid. The pilot’s dinner came and went and now was the time for all those prizes. Since Mark and I are team pilots, we refrained from entering and watched as others had their dreams come true! Amazingly, we had good seats at the MA tent for the night flight and fireworks. And so that was it for another year. There is a lot that I’ve missed, but it will come to me during the rest of the year…and into next year.
Sunday…Thank God!
It was finally the day I was waiting for, time to pack up and go home! Although I enjoyed the time there, it was time to go. The heat was the leading factor. You get tired of having sweaty suntan lotion soaked clothes on all day. And the last two days I really couldn’t fly any of my other helis out of respect for the MA owners. However, we met up with them at the 12th Street Café for breakfast, and then headed to the field for some last day of flying. Mark headed out early to get home earlier. I stuck around for two more flights with my N7 and called it a day.
I stopped in at the museum on my way out and ran into Grace & Michael. I got to say my goodbyes, and then did a little shopping. It felt good to get home, take a shower, and sleep in my own bed!
After thoughts…
IRCHA was an awesome time this year! The pilot count was down some, but the flying was off the wall, and there was a lot of new product.
KDS said they are here to stay and parts are plentiful.
Miniature Aircraft is also making a big come back, and there are a couple of helis I would like to buy! I have the version 1 electric Whiplash, so I might convert it to a second nitro heli.
I’m interested in seeing more of the OXY2 heli that is coming out soon. It looks like it might be a good indoor heli for the gym I fly in…time will tell.
I’m now a Jeti owner, the DS-16, and have a long ways to go figuring out everything it can do. Heck…I just want to fly a couple of my helis with it to get a good feel for it! I have my Whiplash gasser on the Jeti now, and it flies great…more on that later!
Any time now I’ll be starting my inventory with my micro helis, getting them lined up for some fun in the gym at church this coming winter.
I’m also looking into updating my charging case as I have seen several charging cases at IRCHA this year. It kind of makes mine look like crap, but mine is functional…for now. I've been looking at buying a case already done, but I could buy everything I need, including some of the material from BumpController.com and do it myself.
So I have lots of projects lined up for this winter, but too little money to possibly finish all of them…bummer! Oh well, I’ll try to complete as many of them as I can.
Until next time… Sorry for the long post, so much happened before and during IRCHA, I could have written a long blog about it for a week! So I'll try to add a little more in the upcoming blogs! Take care!
But what a time I had!!! While working 10 hour days up to the last day, I took a half day of vacation to finish packing for IRCHA. I managed to get 14 (or so) flights on my Agile before IRCHA. And I still managed to forget things to bring!
IRCHA!
Friday was an extremely busy day after work! I had a list of things needed to get done before leaving…stop at the bank, drop off the insurance check, get oil change, pick up meds from the pharmacy (in which I left at home! Agin!!! I did the samething last year...), do some last minute shopping, get gas… Once home, I finished cleaning the house and some laundry, and then finished packing for IRCHA. I got to bed around 10:30 exhausted, and I still had a few things left to do. I also had a friend bugging me to help him setting up his heli before I left, only to say never mind, I figured it out…thanks!
For some unknown reason, I woke up Saturday morning at 1:32 am! What? And I was wide awake…ok, I finish up with the stuff I didn’t get to. I hit the shower at 4:00 am and finished packing my truck (clothes & computer). I did the last minute check through the house, locked up and headed out. I stopped at Mc Donald’s for breakfast and was on the way at 5:03 am. I pulled into the Pilot gas station just outside of Muncie at 11:00 am. Filled up and did the bathroom break thing, I also bought ice for the cooler. Now it was on to AMA.
The glider NATs were under way as I pulled in, and Raja has just got there 20 minutes before me, and he was already flying at site 3. We did the usual chit-chat for a bit and then I pulled out my Agile gasser. Raja was very happy to check it out and shortly after wanted to see it fly. Other pilots started pulling in and before long; we had our own little fun fly going! The day ended rather quickly and now it was time for dinner. Raja and I found our Canadian friends (Grace & Michael) and went to Texas Roadhouse. We had fun reconnecting over dinner, talking about how the year went and what was happening…lots of storytelling!
I checked into the hotel, unpacked (barely), and finally crashed! I was completely wiped out, but I am at IRCHA, so I can relax and enjoy this time there. It didn’t take long to fall asleep… 0.03 seconds? I woke up early Sunday morning and headed out to the 12th Street Café for breakfast! It’s a little corner restaurant on Memorial Drive. I’ve been waiting all year to eat there! Their coffee and biscuits and gravy is the best that I’ve had, well compared to here at home! My favorite waitress was no longer there, she moved on, however, the owner was happy to see me and asked if that heli fly thing was this week. I told her yes it is time for the IRCHA Jamboree, and to get prepared as more people will be pouring in over the week. People in Muncie really like the heli pilots a lot.
After breakfast, a short drive down the street to the AMA field! I met some of the gang from yesterday at site 3, and we commenced to flying all day long! We flew until the sun was close to the horizon, and then it was time for dinner. Monday my buddy Mark arrived, and had me test fly his G820 setup as a G4 instead, he had a lot of G4 parts and decided to convert it to a G4, so now he has 2-G4’s. It flew ok, but there was a problem with the governor and some tail issues. Mark fixed the gov and now it is flying much better! So our small family of friends grew a little bigger! We even had some foam turbine jets fly with us! That was cool… Yea, we shared site 3 with a few planker pilots, and got along just fine. The new owner of Miniature Aircraft (Josef & Judith) showed up at site 3 and Raja was busy with talking to them! Tuesday was more of the same only a bit hotter and more humid. We noticed the rest of the week would be more on the hot and humid side!
On Wednesday, we were “kicked out” as the speed race helis were setting up the area and start practicing. Well, we weren’t really kicked out, we knew it was reserved for them and it was time to find a place along the flight line! So site 3 was done until late in the day and after noon time Friday through Sunday. Wednesday Mark and I found Grace & Michael, and setup our canopy’s right next to them. On the other side of them, was most of the group from site 3 we were flying with! That was so cool. Once Mark and I were done with our setup, it was time to walk the flight line…vender row!
Heli Shopping!!!!!! Our first stop was at AeroPanda. Mark and I were interested in the Jeti radios and we were directed to Manny. Well, Manny wasn’t fully setup, and asked us if we were the ones Greg said would be over to look at the radios. We said we were the ones! Manny asked us to come back in an hour and he would have the radios out for us to look at first. So we traveled down the row to see what was there. Several of the venders had arrived and were busy setting up. Experience RC had a much smaller tent and when I asked Steve what was going in, he told us that after doing a survey, it show a decline in the hobby. And even “all” the hotels in Muncie had many rooms available. So it made sense to only bring what would sell versus bringing the whole store. After all, it is a lot of work to setup!
There was a lot of things different this year…like no Mark Ryder, or SKS video (out of business), the Boy Scouts were not there, but there was another outfit that provided close to the same type of food, no “Welcome to the IRCHA Jamboree” banner…supposedly it was stolen. The overall attendance was lower this year, like ~750 register pilots. The golf cart company was short on carts as well. Rumor was buzzing the flight line with canceled orders for carts which made a lot of people angry. The AMA headquarters rented out every last one of their carts. They were upset with the cart company this year as well. I’m not sure how this will turn out for next year, but it will be interesting.
Thursday I got Mark up early and we headed to our favorite restaurant. We made the pilots meeting and then reported for flight line duty. While signing up, the SWARM tee shirts were available to buy, so we bought ours, and then rode around the flight line giving rides to anyone that needed one. Afterwards, we went shopping some more, this time all the venders were there and we had our pick of items for sale! I was looking for a “Bump Controller” to complement my PowerLab8 charger. Revolex didn’t show up until late Thursday afternoon! And they had the shipment of product for HeliDirect…my Bump Controller! However, HeliDirect needed to inventory the product before they could sell it to the public…aaarrrggg!
We spent a little time at HeliDirect talking to Greg about our Jeti radios…and the Bump Controller, or lack of! We stopped in at Experience RC and I bought some replacement flight packs for my helis. Mark picked up a few things as well, and then we headed to our vehicles to put our purchases away, and then off to lunch. After lunch, we spent most of the day hanging out at the Miniature Aircraft tent. We were checking out the new version 2 Whiplash gas heli and all the conversion parts to convert our current helis to the new V2. It was nice to talk with the new owner to get an idea of whom they are and if they are here to stay. I broke away to showcase my Agile gasser to the KDS tent. The guys there liked it a lot and asked if I could do a demo flight! Of course I will!
My demo flight went over very well, even though I got a different impression. “I” didn’t think they liked it. It wasn’t until Friday, when I talked to Carey that the KDS team liked the heck out of it and asked if I would bring my heli to setup in their tent for display. Pictures were taken and sent to the owner of KDS and even he liked it a lot! So my Agile gasser was a hit.
I walked back and stopped at the Miniature Aircraft tent only to show off the conversion to Josef, not my intent. He liked it as well. I got talking to his wife (Judith) and I did a demo flight with my Agile trying to explain this is how I fly my gas helis…and my Whiplash gasser. Little did I know when I was showing off for Judith, Josef was watching as well! What a day! I don’t think we could have done anything more! It was a full day of volunteering, shopping, meeting people, more flying, meeting new people. Oh yea, Mark and I meet Scott from Cajun Aircraft, the new USA distributer. And come to find out, Scott was the person I was PM’ing and texting with to buy my last Whiplash gas heli! That was mind blowing!
Friday, and it happened to be my birthday… Mark and I did the usual, up early, eat, arrived in time for the pilot meeting, and did our volunteer work. While Mark and I were driving around giving rides to anyone that wanted one, Mark decided to stop in at HeliDirect to see if the Bump Controller was ready for sale, and it was, so he decided to taunt me saying there is only one left and I had better get there fast because they are selling like hot-cakes! Liar! But he got me good as I was on the other side of AMA helping a fellow pilot with obtaining a cart from AMA. So when I finally showed up at HeliDirect, they said the Bump Controllers were all sold out; I had just missed the last one walking out! What a bunch of funny people! Ha, ha, ha! Yea, they got me good! I bought one and was a very happy camper! I saw the Bump Controller in action Saturday through Tuesday at site 3. I ask Mark (another Mark) to explain to me how it worked and how he was able to connect it with his tablet. That was way cool and I truly wanted to set my PowerLab charger up like his…hence the drive to find a Bump Controller, and the razing I got from Mark and the guys at HeliDirect. It was all in good fun!
I caught up with Mark and he was laughing his butt off. Ha…ha, very funny buddy! As I was walking to my truck to put the controller away, and shortly after, Raja had sent me a text stating he needed to talk to me… I found him and we went for a walk. Raja informed me that Josef wanted to talk to me about becoming a team pilot for Miniature Aircraft! Wow! I didn’t see that coming! So I found Josef and said you wanted to talk to me… We talked for a half hour or longer, time no longer existed at that point, and I was asked to be a team pilot for Miniature Aircraft! Two hours later my buddy Mark became a team pilot as well. I thought to myself, this day couldn’t get any better, but it did! Mark told everyone it was my birthday and the new owners wanted to take us out for dinner! So we didn’t goto the SWARM party.
Carey had his Gas powered Thoughts seminar and my Agile was on display. The seminar was a big hit and everyone liked my Agile. Even Carey was happy with it. After the seminar, Carey had informed me the KDS people really like my Agile and ask if I would bring it to their tent for display; I said I could do that. I told Carey that I didn’t think they were interested because after I did the demo, they all split, kind of seemed uninterested…to me. Ok, so I read that wrong. Carey said they were very interested and wanted to see it up close. I told Carey I would bring it down for them.
The day ended on a high and it was hard to fall asleep that night.
Saturday, the second to last day and I’m ready to go home! The hot and humid weather was wearing on me, and everyone was feeling it as well. Mark and I needed to get up early to test fly his Whiplash gasser as I was asked Friday night to perform a demo flight at stage center Saturday morning...in front of IRCHA! Talking about no pressure! Initially Josef was going to have me fly his Whiplash gasser, but Mark spoke up and said I could fly his. So we made it to the flight line and I proceeded to get into the groove with his heli. Everything was going good until I shot a fast auto with a wall stop and land. The landing didn’t go to well as I had lost most of the head speed and his heli flopped over on its side (wrong blades for this maneuver). Both blade grip links popped off and the pitch slider ball popped out of the cup on the tail control arm. Come to find out, the screw for the tail pitch control arm was half out and I might have lost tail control during the demo!
Mark basically pushes me out of the way as he scrambles to fix his heli for me. Judith gives me a team Polo shirt to wear, and oh by the way, the polo shirt is cut in European sizes…go figure! I had to use the port-a-potty (duty calls!) and changed shirts while in there. Wow, that shirt barely fit! Now my phone is buzzing like crazy, “where are you”, “I’m on my way!” Raja goes first, then Devon, and me… I was doing great and a bit nervous, ok, a lot nervous. 3 minutes into some type of routine, I go into a forward flipping loop (I’ve done this hundreds of times), and as soon as I’m inverted tail away from me, the tail spins out and I panic a bit, I pull full negative pitch because the heli starts to race for the ground. The tail swings a full 180 as I’m inputting forward elevator.
The main blade tips skim the ground as I try to level the disk and have no more negative pitch to give…the heli goes in! Crash! As Mark and I start the walk to retrieve his heli, the announcer Nic, makes the walk of sham comment. My face turns beet red. Good thing as no one but Mark could see that. And to make matter worse, Mark is not saying a word to me. Ok, I’m feeling really low now. As we come walking back, I avoid eye contact with the crowd, as they have seen this many a times. Judith, on the other hand, gives me the “mom” look and I want to melt right there. Many people came up and asked what happened, so I explained it. And sure enough, the pitch slider ball had popped out of the cup again!
Josef walked up to Mark and said “make a list of the broken parts and I’ll replace them.” Well that made Mark happy and he started talking to me again! I told Mark to look at it this way, I crashed your heli…again, but I didn’t wreck your team Heliproz canopy! But I did destroy his good set of blades, so I bought him another set from Bert Kammerer.
About an hour after that, I took my Agile down to the KDS tent for display and people were asking 20 questions about it! The biggest one was the small generator sitting in place of the electric motor. I told the guys it’s a supper charged mini electric motor, anything bigger and it will rip apart the heli…it’s a new design! LoL! They loved that one! I explained it was the on board generator to keep the LiPo pack charged. On the way back, I stopped to watch some of the noon time demos. Dang…I wish I could fly that good!
The rest of the day was normal…hot, but not as humid. The pilot’s dinner came and went and now was the time for all those prizes. Since Mark and I are team pilots, we refrained from entering and watched as others had their dreams come true! Amazingly, we had good seats at the MA tent for the night flight and fireworks. And so that was it for another year. There is a lot that I’ve missed, but it will come to me during the rest of the year…and into next year.
Sunday…Thank God!
It was finally the day I was waiting for, time to pack up and go home! Although I enjoyed the time there, it was time to go. The heat was the leading factor. You get tired of having sweaty suntan lotion soaked clothes on all day. And the last two days I really couldn’t fly any of my other helis out of respect for the MA owners. However, we met up with them at the 12th Street Café for breakfast, and then headed to the field for some last day of flying. Mark headed out early to get home earlier. I stuck around for two more flights with my N7 and called it a day.
I stopped in at the museum on my way out and ran into Grace & Michael. I got to say my goodbyes, and then did a little shopping. It felt good to get home, take a shower, and sleep in my own bed!
After thoughts…
IRCHA was an awesome time this year! The pilot count was down some, but the flying was off the wall, and there was a lot of new product.
KDS said they are here to stay and parts are plentiful.
Miniature Aircraft is also making a big come back, and there are a couple of helis I would like to buy! I have the version 1 electric Whiplash, so I might convert it to a second nitro heli.
I’m interested in seeing more of the OXY2 heli that is coming out soon. It looks like it might be a good indoor heli for the gym I fly in…time will tell.
I’m now a Jeti owner, the DS-16, and have a long ways to go figuring out everything it can do. Heck…I just want to fly a couple of my helis with it to get a good feel for it! I have my Whiplash gasser on the Jeti now, and it flies great…more on that later!
Any time now I’ll be starting my inventory with my micro helis, getting them lined up for some fun in the gym at church this coming winter.
I’m also looking into updating my charging case as I have seen several charging cases at IRCHA this year. It kind of makes mine look like crap, but mine is functional…for now. I've been looking at buying a case already done, but I could buy everything I need, including some of the material from BumpController.com and do it myself.
So I have lots of projects lined up for this winter, but too little money to possibly finish all of them…bummer! Oh well, I’ll try to complete as many of them as I can.
Until next time… Sorry for the long post, so much happened before and during IRCHA, I could have written a long blog about it for a week! So I'll try to add a little more in the upcoming blogs! Take care!
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