Futaba Extreme Flight Championship
Chris Mulcahy
cspaced@gmail.com
This year’s Futaba Extreme Flight Championship (XFC) was held at the Champaign County R/C club in Champaign, Illinois, June 10-12, 2016. Nick Maxwell won the helicopter portion of the competition, followed by Jamie Robertson in second place, and Mitch Marozas in third. There was some fierce competition from both helicopter and airplane pilots, a great night show with fireworks, and some of the best raffle prizes around.
Frank Noll, Steve Kaluf, and others do a great job every year, but none of it is possible without the donations they receive from individuals and companies. In fact, this year a GoFundMe campaign was created to bring in enough support to hold the event. Luckily, many generous people contributed and this awesome event continued for another year. Here’s hoping that Frank and crew are able to pull it off again next year.
In addition to the top three finishers, this year’s helicopter pilots included Ben Storick, Kevin St-Cyr, James Haley, JC Zankl, William Ramsey, Daanish Ahmad, Ryan Sams, and Jordan Horwitz.
Back to Basics
A typical flying day involves me being one of the few—if not the only—helicopter pilots at my local club. My club is actually a great club, and we all have a good time regardless of who is flying what. However, I find that as a result of being the only heli pilot out there, my helicopter skills don’t progress as quickly as I would like. In fact, I often get stuck in the dreaded “rut,” doing the same flight repeatedly without pushing myself to try something new and different.
This is not a conscious decision; it’s just something that happens when I get my helicopter in the air. My brain kicks into automatic and I do the same thing that I always do. It might just be me, but it’s something that I now recognize.
This changes when I go to a heli fun-fly and see the awesome maneuvers that some pilots do. When I am around other helicopter pilots, I watch their flying with great interest. That is when I see things that I never thought to try, or am reminded of maneuvers I know how to do, but forget to mix into my flight.
I believe that flying with pilots who have stronger skills helps drive your own skills further. As it is, I don’t have that benefit, and so one day I asked a friend whether he ever becomes stuck in a rut, and how he deals with it.
My friend is an extremely talented and well-known pilot, so I figured he would never have this same problem. As it turns out, he does. He told me that when he finds himself getting stuck in a routine, he will go back to the basics. By basics, he means all the way to the beginning. I’ve always said that if you have excellent orientation skills with your helicopter, the rest will follow, and this sort of follows that same thinking.
My friend will practice basic flight maneuvers, such as Figure Eights, and orientations in all directions. In the case of the Figure Eight, he will fly it in a chosen direction, repeat it upside down, do it backward, and then inverted backward, before reversing direction and doing it all over again.
I was intrigued by this and decided to give it a try. It goes without saying that there is a huge benefit to doing this on the simulator too, but sometimes you just can’t beat the real thing.
Laying out basic maneuvers such as these brings into stark relief those that I am uncomfortable flying. It became apparent how I was favoring one direction more than the other—I tend to roll and pirouette left more than I do right. Going back to basics forces us to brush up on the flying we might be avoiding without actually realizing it—at least that was the case for me!
Now when I go to the flying field, I make sure to practice these basic maneuvers. I hope to see an improvement in my flying skills and routine.
SOURCES:
IRCHA
www.ircha.org
