Heli Spring Fling
Chris Mulcahy
cspaced@gmail.com
I recently had the opportunity to travel to the Fredericksburg Area RC Club (FARC) to attend the eighth annual Heli Spring Fling. Held in the small Virginia county of Spotsylvania, this 10-day helicopter event took place April 28 to May 7 and is one that I’ve wanted to go to for a long time.
I was excited to be able to make it this year. Although I couldn’t spend the whole 10 days there, I did go for the second weekend. My friends from FARC have often come to North Carolina to visit my club, and my visit to theirs was long overdue.
FARC is located on a 350-acre farm owned by Keith Campbell. Keith and his son, Kasey, built an awesome flying site that is enjoyed by more than 100 FARC members. Kasey and Keith are very welcoming to RC hobby enthusiasts, and we all appreciate their generosity.
The site features dual flightlines that are parallel to, but facing away from, each other. Parking and a clubhouse divide the two runways. There are approximately a half-dozen large carport shelters with concrete pads beneath them, and electrical outlets installed at each one. There are even lights in some of the carports so that the day’s activities can continue into the night. The clubhouse has heat, air conditioning, and a television. I’m sure many a night has been spent there by members on the weekends!
The club’s president, Salvatore “Sal” Vezzi, told me that the group flies a little of everything and that everyone gets along well. This was about as good of a group of pilots and a flying site as you can get. I felt welcomed and their hospitality was second to none. There was food being grilled on-site, drinks, and ice—all of the amenities a hungry aeromodeler could want.
As though this wonderful place wasn’t enough at which to spend a few days, the members of FARC had a little something extra up their sleeves. Not only did pilots from throughout the US get to hang out there for a week or more, there were also many professional-level pilots in attendance, including Todd Bennett, Matt Botos, Jamie Robertson, Tim Jones, Ben Storick, Kyle Stacy, and Bert Kammerer.
It was cool that the event had an informal feel, and the pros were flying alongside the rest of us. I often saw them helping out others. There were a lot of helicopter team pilots from companies such as Synergy, Mikado, Align, and SAB, and the event kind of felt like a very laid-back mini International Radio Controlled Helicopter Association (IRCHA) Jamboree. Todd and Jamie ran a 3-D clinic for pilots who wanted to push their flying to the next level.
I hope to have more information about the clinics in upcoming columns.
With approximately 123 pilots in attendance, it was hard to believe the “slow down” that the hobby has been feeling. The event was well attended by vendors and aeromodelers. Up and down the flightlines, modelers of all skill levels enjoyed their machines and their friends.
The flying was just getting started when the sun began setting. Night flying at FARC is something to behold! The club had two giant floodlight towers that lit the flying field—all the way back to the tree line! There’s nothing quite like flying nitro at night, and many pilots made the most of it.
We had music playing and a lot of cool flying took place. There were flights from the pros as well as everyone else. Tandem
flights seemed to be popular with the spectators, as Matt Botos and Bert Kammerer, as well as Jamie Robertson and Ben Storick, demonstrated with some amazing flights! I even got in on a little tandem flying action with my friend, Chris Olsen! They were fun times for sure.
Things really amped up another level when Todd Bennett picked up the microphone and started coaching pilots on their hurricane maneuvers—helping them get locked in and down on the deck.
When the microphone was passed to Matt Botos, hilarity ensued. I think Matt missed out on a different career path. He was pretty funny. He challenged pilots to push themselves, with one performing several successful autorotations for the first time.
For those who are afraid to fly when professional pilots are around, there was one modeler who walked out in front of everyone with a night-flying Blade 180 and flew with great enthusiasm. The crowd cheered him on! It just goes to
show that it doesn’t matter what you are flying or whom you are flying in front of, as long as you are having fun!
I can’t wait to go back there next year. I thank FARC for putting on this excellent helicopter event!
SOURCES:
IRCHA
www.ircha.org
