Mick3d-Low Down SSmaking!!

Saturday night - (the calm before the storm).... the silence deafening whilst i perform last minute heli maintenance and charge up my receiver and transmitter packs. I throw in a few final sim sessions for good measure before retiring for the night. Saturday with family at the beach sets the scene for a full Sunday of flying and an early start to boot!

Plans to hit the Marcs flying field for the first half of Sunday are destroyed late Saturday night after realising some photography gear left at the Mrchc field on Friday night. Inevitably, revert back to plan A.

Arrived at a picturesque Melbourne radio helicopter club at just before 7am. The morning dew and fog had mostly lifted, conditions were perfect (no wind, no clouds, and pleasant temperature conditions) and further improvements for the day were forecast. I thought to myself - Action and Attendance factor today? -- "VERY HIGH"- yes sirreeee





I assess sun position (whilst sipping on my hot coffee) and decide on the back flight line to best manage glare from the early low level sun. The field had been freshly mowed and the smell of freshly cut grass and surreal conditions beckon me on. This was going to be one HELI of a day!

I wasnt wrong!

I manage 3 low key flights and then --- enter Brian Johnson with his compass 6hv and goblin 630). Its also not long before Mick Stefani (logo700 and Gobin 630) and Gavin (mini protos) also arrive (now 9:30am).

There arrival is followed on by an entourage of fellow pilots all of whom, no doubt had also succumb to the perfect flying conditions to be had and the week long growing desire to fly our treasured helis again.

The mood on site literally transforms from one of excitement to sheer exhilaration with the addition of Michael Naylor ( logo 800 extreme, kyle stacy goblin 630), Tony Hilton (soxos db7, mini protos, synergy e6), Ben Bolderman (goblin family) and Tom standing ( goblin blck thunder and logo 700) now added to the flight line and the amazing flying that would follow! For the second time today ( reflecting back) - i was right again.

The first of the f3c and scale fliers had also joined our band early today (around 1030am) including Paul Ukov, Gary Cameron, Jeff Sussman and Ant Sisley

Later in the day Ray Close and Sean Hodge from Zenrc also arrive. The field felt like a fattened up pig with so many attendees ready for the carving.... It was great.

With a large attendance, 2 of the avail 3 flight lines received good use for the most part of the day. At times, the sound of blades farting from all fliers , high pitch Goblin screaming tail belts and tail blades, buzzing Logos, and high pitch overspeed explosions echoed from all corners of the field. If you were one of the lucky ones there, you would not be wrong in thinking this was bliss!

Compass, Goblin, Mikado, Msh, Soxos and Trex helicopters were all in strong presence and littered throughout the pit area.

Brian Johnson flew the compass 6hv very fast, hard and low early in the day. He made
flying in morning glare look effortless. Bryans 6HV looked the goods and flew just as controlled, intended and smack hard as when the last time i saw Mick Dee fly his.





Mick Stef and Tom Standing put there magestic logo 700s and Goblins through there paces throughout the day. Mick Stefs flying was powerful, bold and accurate. Bold fast speed runs, inverted funnels with very smooth transitions to upright funnels to complete very clean and pro looking fig 8 funnels, some very nice tic tocs and push outs with piro transitions. Mick also flew his goblin 630 and his flights again were very accurate and enjoyable to watch. Mick had his logo 700 and Goblin heli positioned where he wanted them! Very nice indeed!



Tom was back at it again with his Logo 700 and if he wasn't flying low, he had his logo 700 and Goblin Black Thunder zipping across the sky , spinning into pirouettes and transitioning out with half piro flips. Good solid stuff there as always!





I hadn't seen Tony Hilton in a while, although i am guilty of regularly messaging him on a late night to draw on his wealth of knowledge regarding the Brain (gyro) and Synergy helis in general. Tony put in some great flying during the course of the day. The highlight for me was when Tony performed some amazing looking piroflips with his Soxos DB7. They were near perfect. The Soxos appeared to rotate in what seemed to be a perfectly centered and stationary invisible axis as it flipped inverted and upright again. It also staying almost vertically centered. It was the cleanest and most symmetrical piroflip i had seen Tony perform to date! Really inspiring stuff mate. Going to have to put more hard time in on my piroflips having seen that! Although I suspect the great heli geometry inherent in the DB7 had some small part to play too.

Despite Tonys absence from MRCHC in recent times, Tony didnt seem to have lost any of his flying form.





Ben Boldeman also put in some quality hard smack 3d flights over the course of the day across his full heli fleet range which was nothing short of inspirational to watch. Some great low down off the deck smacking by Ben really had me revved and fired up for the following flight!





A nice interlude during the middle of the day saw Jeff Sussman bring out his scale heli and fly it beautifully through the field. I had to take some good shots of this little beauty.





Enter Mick 3d with his Goblin and BIIIIIGG BEERRTHAAA (logo 800 extreme or as I more aptly put it - scale heli flying its heart out trying to be a 380). Mick3d put on a real show with both his goblin and the logo 800 extreme. Who sad you shouldnt fly helis on bad packs and beat them to within an inch of exploding? LOL I wish I had recorded some of your flights.. Maybe next time.

As always some absolutely astonishing and amazing flying by this young man! Even if he is out off road bike riding 90% of the time! hehe





Sean Hodge also put in some flying during the day and his blue Goblin looked Smacktacular in the air.





I managed to get some good air time during the course of the day. Thanks very muchly to Sean Hodge from Zenrc. As you may have recalled, I had some issues with my new Brain2 on the 500L that ultimately had to be sent back. Sean was only too kind to loan me an Ikon to use in the interim period for my replacement to be provided. Very gentlemanly for sure!. I managed to setup the Ikon on Friday night and after a few tuning flights in glaring morning conditions managed to get the 500L dialed in nicely. Roll rates on the 500 at 480 both aileron and elevator, piro rates up to 500 from memory, a bit down on tail gains from default and she was locked in. No changes to P I or D.. She received some nice smack spanking during the course of the day as thanks!. I think Sean received first hand knowledge that the Heli was in good shape and needed that Gyro sorted LOL.

I also flew the 600L dominator during the course of the day also in between all the Logo, Goblin, Synergy, Compass porn. Whilst my Trex's aren't the glamour that surrounds other brands, they have thus far handled my increasingly developing aggressive type of flying. LOL.

Sean also managed to get to me all the Synergy E7se parts I needed and so the rebuild of the E7se has begun folks. Keen to remaiden in the coming week or so.

Just as 3pm rocked up and after many flights by all (I think I was at around 20 flight sat this stage), Phil Coghill, Andrew Morris and Peter walker show up for some calmer more relaxing f3C flying. It was the perfect way to wrap up the day. An hour or so later and most of the entourage were in the process of leaving for the day or had left already. But not before Peter put on a show by setting up his 18pound thrust turbine engine he had recently acquired. He proceeded to run the engine in to the total surprise of everyone.

This thing was ear pearcing loud and powerful. Cannot wait to see what model this beauty goes into!





After 20 or so flights in direct sunlight and warm conditions, flying had taken its toll on me and I reverted back to some tame flying style, focussing more on single tricks like pogo piroflips and just general flying. It also gave me the opportunity over a few flights to increase my flip, roll and piro rates on the 600 to make it feel more like my 500s super quick moving off centre.

Peter Walker asked for some guidance on piroflips so during my last flight I broke the piro flip into the 3 key moves during my flight slowly describing timing and keying off elements. It was a nice way to wrap up the day.

Ill leave you all with some club / field shots and some of the entertainment.




Until Next weekend. Take Care, fly safe, Over and out.

Some more pics below for you to gander over

Michael Naylor




Sean Hodge


Mick Stefani


Tony Hilton


Brian Johnson






Ben Bolderman













Jeff Sussman








Field photos




Phil Coghill