Tom Standings Logo 700 - Pic of the day

Each time I approach my final turn off and turn onto what I now refer to as the Golden Mile, ( a long expansive stretch of road that delivers me to the front gates of the field) my adrenal glands kick into overdrive in preparation for an exciting days flying. Today was no different and my instant subconscious reaction sees me accelerating down the now much improved Riverend Rd conditions. At one time poor road bitumen conditions would see regular slow traffic.


The Golden Mile

An early start today both a product of my gruelling long week and also the very hot weather forecast for the day (predicted top of 35degC - Sheesh).

Action and Attendance factor today? -- mmmmmm split decision. Action and attendance likely to be medium due to hot weather conditions.

The thought.... "Only the crazy / daring will attempt to take on conditions all day" enters my mind. I chuckle to myself... I am one of them.

Arriving at the Melbourne Radio Helicopter club at just before 8am, I have lots of fluids in hand (hydration will be the biggest challenge today). My arrival (as always), is very much a therapeutic experience. I finish my morning coffee whilst absorbing the tranquillity of the vast open field and the warm low rising sun before unpacking my boot and setting up shop for the day.


Panaromic shot of field from just outside of pits area.

A rude shock strikes me when marching out to the flight line the first time. Since last weekend, heavy known development works adjacent the Cornish college site sees a significant amount of fill dumped at the rear of the south east most flight line (flight line 1), which sees the previous fill ( east most) now extending parallel with flight line 1 all the way to the south most tree line (orange shading below). The fill hasn't been levelled yet and at first site appear overpowering and almost as though (as Ray close has commented) a new Volcano is forming . Here is hoping its levelled soon.



At the beginning of each of my morning flights and after setting down and arming my 600L, I look up at the towering high fill mounds in front of me. "Its not all that bad I say to myself".

One of the aspects of my flying that I have been wanting to focus on more and more is to fly inside of controlled box. The new obstruction at the rear of the flight line may just be the kick I need.

Putting things into perspective further, we still have it extremely good here at the Cornish College with a fully powered club house, cooking and refrigeration amenities, tree covered shaded pit area, 3 flight lines (flight line 1 is still completely functional so long as you fly a little higher if you are flying further out, toilet amenities and a secure site. Cant ask for more than that.

My first few flights are low key as I build up a new feel and adjust my flying in light of the above. Its not long after (approx 9:00 am), Peter Mcnaff arrives (Trex 450) and scale helis. Peter tells me his visit today is a short early one to avoid the later day heat. His approach is both sensible and most likely consistent with many other (sensible) pilots thinking also.

We both put in a few more flights and before long Tom Standing (Goblin Black Thunder, Logo 700), Mick Stef (Logo 700, Goblin 630) and Bryan Stu (Logo 600, Goblin 380) arrive.

By around 10-10:30am, Ben Bolderman decides the days weather suits his Goblin family very nicely and brings 2 of his goblin children along for some play (Goblin 770 being one of them).

The morning is filled with hard 3d and aspiring 3d flying in various personal flying styles by all until late morning where Peter Walker, Nick form the last of the attendees today.

Peter Mcnaff
Peter Mcnaff flew his scale heli this morning a few times. Such a delight to see high level craftsmanship and no doubt 100s of hours of build time making scale helis so picture perfect. His scale helicopter also hovered very nicely on the hover patch.



After a few flights on his scale heli, Peter flew a few packs on his 450 Trex at the flight area behind the club house performing low level rather fast paced fig 8s that illustrated the fine control Peter had over his trusty 450.

Tom Standing
Tom Standing flights today were (considering the short flying time Tom has been flying) nothing short of impressive. Toms Goblin Black thunder and Logo 700 today both received the love they deserve.

I asked Tom to do a few low level sweeping inverted flights and managed to pick up a few great shots of his Logo 700.





Tom was working on his inverted clockwise funnels today performing them 3 mistakes high in the air. Good approach mate! After a few flights Toms inverted funnels seem to start looking the goods. Tom told me his funnels on the Goblin Black thunder felt easier to do. We discussed lightly and agreed perhaps it was related more to feel..... than heli dynamic differences.... and that perhaps he should experiment with roll rates / expo etc to make the two helis feel a little closer in response. As always some good morning flying today Tom.

Mick Stef
Mick Stef flew his logo 700 and Goblin 630 throughout the morning. Both receiving equal attention. Early flights looked like Mick stef was tweaking his Hobbywing 160A gov settings. Mick stef flew both helis showing off his fine and precise control performing inverted funnels, collective putouts and his infamous fast low level passes.



Following on from last weeks "Glamour photography session" with Ben Boldermans red Goblin, you can see the pics in the Sunday Smack posts - 29/1/17 in my corner - which yielded some RED hot shots of Bens Gobby, conducted a similar session with Mick Stefs Logo 700 also. The edited shots are below.









The shots even if I say so myself set on the green turf behind the club house came out fantastic. For these photos I used my trusty sharp 400mm L series Canon lens and aperture of around 5.4.

Bryan Stu
There were times during the day where Bryans 600SX whizzing past at speed had me turning around. The logo 600sx made no mistake about using the complete flight line. Bryans flying today probably more so because of the heat, seemed to be a little more relaxed (rightly so).



The heat and electromagnetic radiation belting out and pounding on our earths surface by midday was very harsh indeed. Wondering if we will ever see that nose in upright funnel again



Ben Bolderman
Ben Bolderman again put on some good smack during the course of the morning. His 380, 770 sung very nicely during flight and if I could describe the sound of his goblins during flight, it was an equal mix of opera high strung notes (i.e. during fast hard collective passes), with very abrupt tenor tones mixed in (tic tocs, hard stops). It was music to my ears LOL.



Bens flying today seemed to focus on alot of continuous half piros done at very high speed and lots and lots of aileron transitions mid air at high speed. It reminded me alot of the transitions Jason Figueth performs in his flights (SSSFA). Looking very nicely mate.

What I loved the most from Bens flights (looking to try to emulate now ) is Bens precision in forward flight aileron rolling into inverted nose forward circle pull outs. The move looks very unnatural and is commonly performed by plane acrobatic pilots. Imagine the heli passing left to right, right aileron rolling (heli rolling towards you), and then banking anticlockwise inverted nose forward away from you... Ben had it down pat and it looked absolutely amazing at fast speed. You might see me doing this soon enough ! Great flying as always Ben.



A special treat... video recording of one of Bens early warm-up flights.. This video was taken in secret. Posted now with Bens Permission.

Peter Walker
Peter Walker had returned this morning and had brought his JR Forza. I had previously commented to Peter in past site visits how much I loved the look of the Forza, very slim air frame and great colour scheme. Sadly support is now questionable with JR pulling the plug mostly from the heli industry. I made sure to make some good photography ground for Peter today with the below pic coming in equal first with Mick Stefs logo on the green shots - for shot of the day!. Toms Logo 700 on the deck however won it out in the end based on the excitement factor the shot portrays



Peter had been working on his piro flips since last weekend, where I assisted briefly with breaking the piroflip down. Im sure we will see Peter nailing piro flips soon enough at the field

Peter flew many flights in the morning (early afternoon) performing lots of flipping moves in all directions including towards himself (which I understand was the cause of a past dirt nap). Great work mate.





By about 3:30pm, the heat had intensified and whilst all attendees had managed to deal with the intense heat thus far, all had called quits by 3:30pm, packed up and left for the day. Leaving one crazy / determined me behind on my own.

Nabil Abaki
At this point, a quick check on weather zone and willyweather, temperature was up to 35degrees. It felt a little milder in shade due to some nice fresh cool breezes. But the intense heat was a reminder how crazy this all was each time I walked out of the shade and out to the flight line. In the past I had always avoided flying in hot conditions. For good reason too!. I have heard and read many cases where flying in high temperatures has overcome many motor, esc and batteries. As I contemplated whether to call it quits like all others before me or take on the challenge, my irresponsible and illogical reasoning kicked in. Naturally I stayed LOL.






To help manage the extremely hot conditions throughout the afternoon, (I recall at 5pm the temperature had tipped 38degC) I relied on the following:

- reduced my flight times to 3min on the 600L (from 4m). This saw my batteries whilst coming I hotter than normal, not as hot as they could have been. Brian Thompson late afternoon confirmed his batteries had hit 65degC. Even so, I was putting those packs in the freezer for 2min after every flight to drop that temperature down as quickly as I could.





- I also experimented with trying to cool my esc and motor down quicker also LOL.



- naturally drank lots of water that afternoon.

- tamed down my flying a little didn't work too well... LOL.

Thank you to Tom Standing for the below shots of my heli earlier in the day




- and stayed mind focussed with a few aids.. .spot the red can below?



I focused a lot on piro tic tocs during the later half of the day and I was becoming more and more confident and starting to become more controlled. Eventually ill start bringing them down in height but at the moment still doing them up a little higher. As I have learned on the sim many times before, they can go haywire very quickly if you don't stay focused and control them. Here is a short video of the first few piro tic tocs I did that arvo.

It was a great afternoon, even though I was all alone. My 600L did not disappoint or miss a beat. It took my beatings well and some, and managed to survive the day

I was particularly enjoying the high roll rates set from last weekend (now 500 on aileron and elevator - brain) and my piro rate up to 600. My piro flips at these new rates seemed incredibly faster than last weeks early flights and mimicked more closely my sim flying settings also.

During one of my last flights, the sun had softened lighting to some extent and the heat had died down a little. I decided to attempt a recording of a quick flight (this flight was only 1:30min- long as it served to test new camera head gear. Unfortunately, the camera angle was all wrong (Setup on hat). What followed was a great short but hard aggressive flight but half of the flight out of shot. LOL Very Dissapointed.

Perhaps next time ill ask someone to record the flight. Still though, watching it, you cant help but listen to all the blade farting LOL.. it leaves something to the imagination. Towards the end you'll see more piro tic tocs and my faster piro flips which are a bit messier because of the faster piro rate.. slowly locking these in at the faster rate though

All in all a great day had by all at the field. Eventually I wrapped up, leaving the field at 8pm. A full 12 hour slog in heat.

Until next weekend, hope you all have a great weekend. Until next weekend,

Stay safe people.

Nabil.

More pics below








































All images in this post remain the copyright property of its author- Nabil Abaki.