If you and your electric helicopters have a few days spare late September, why not book a short break? Spaces are going fast, but there’s still time to book a camping spot at Croft Farm – home to the annual BMFA 3D Championships. It’s a Camping and Caravanning Club site, so take your cards if you’re members to get a discount.
Those not taking part still have plenty of room to fly their electric helicopters. The weekend kicks off with a fun fly event open to all-comers, so pack your Walkera and ESky. A lot of other RC helicopters will be there with the same idea, so we highly recommend you invest in a 2.4GHz transmitter/receiver, if you haven’t got one already.
The competition is divided into three rounds: freestyle with set manoeuvres; freestyle without music and freestyle with music. The two highest scores are combined to determine the final fly-off, with the lowest overall scores being eliminated.
RC helicopters are entered into various classes depending on their fuel type and size. Pilots are divided into intermediate and advanced fliers. The top five from each class are chosen for the fly-offs. There are trophies for the winners in each class, and one for the overall winner.
The set manoeuvres system is very fair – pilots create a display that includes just four set exercises from a list of several they download before the day. This allows them a lot of flexibility with their RC helicopters during the event itself with regard to weather conditions etc. The judges must know what manoeuvres they have chosen before the event starts, however.
The Freestyle (1) must be done without music. This is where pilots can show off all that they and their radio control Helicopters are capable of. Marks are given for content, structure, smoothness and style. Freestyle (2) is set to music of the pilot’s own choosing. Marks are given for synchronisation, appearance and technical merit. This is the part of the contest where RC Helicopters go mad with coloured smoke etc!
The entire competition is geared towards creativity and freestyle flight. Even the set manoeuvres section has marks for content design. There are some great radio control helicopters on display and a night flying competition for, and we stress, electric helicopters only. Remember to pack those LCD night flying lights.