Ken Phillips Trophy Rnd 2

After topping up my tan at the BMFA league last week, the prospect of sunshine and wind at the same time had me up early and heading for the famous slopes of South Wales and the Ken Philips Trophy competition. If you want to cut your teeth around the bases, this is a great place to start as the atmosphere at these comps is informal and very helpful. My choice of weapon for the trip was my trusty Strega F3F but I just couldn’t help packing the MiniVec as a few lads wanted a go on it – turned out to be a pretty good decision for reasons unexpected!

We ended up on the Ice Cream slope with the wind slightly crossed off to the North. I really like this slope and got lucky with some great air in round 1, more suprisingly I held my nerve and the Strega took the round win and also gave my first sub-40 second time - 39.38s. Very happy! Unfortunately I asked a little too much of the model during a desperate attempt at a cut recovery in the next round which saw me plant her HARD into the ground with nearly 1kg of ballast on board – see The DOH! Page for details... Actually I’m pretty happy with the way the model handled the impact, with the wing surviving in perfect condition.

With the Strega out of action that little Mini Vec was looking at me! So I set about getting some ballast in there, but honestly, I wasn’t expecting too much from the little bird. I mean it’s hardly designed for racing is it?! Well the first round with the MiniVec put paid to that – a 47.xx. I kind of laughed it off as good air, but the next round was a 45.xx and I realised that if I gave her some respect, I might be able to get a decent result and prove that size isn’t everything after all!

And so the comp went on for me and I couldn’t stop smiling. I got to see Knewt flying his Ceres at what seemed to me to be a completely outrageous weight but somehow still making it look light as a feather. Simon Thornton showing everyone the secret of F3F - somehow making all the air look pretty decent even when he got dealt some real lousy stuff. Martin Newnham and his Extreme continues to give inspiration to all F3F newbies - in his first full season Martin’s already had many sub 40’s, qualified for the Viking Race and only just missed the top 20 fly off.

The Extreme looked to be the model most at home in many people’s hands – it was being flown by a number of pilots - Simon Thornton, Martin Newnham and Adam Richardson – the results speak for themselves I think. Mike Evans didn’t get the best luck of the air with his RaceMx, but was given a lovely bit of air right at the death by which time he was flying his Kyril. Think that’s the fastest time for you on that model at 35.xx Mike? Well done mate… Also the fastest time of the day I believe.

One of the great things about the Ken Phillips Trophy is that it’s really there to help new guys get started out in F3F. Simon Kronfeld’s skill around the course with his Skorpion and Acacia II is just building and building – good showing from him, and Martin Newnham’s son Jacob showed us all that it runs in the family with his first F3F comp being handled with some impeccable flying and great anticipation of the bases – something rarely achieved in one’s first competition. John Treble seemed to be very at home with his new Vikos.

However, all was not perfect, and there was a bit of carnage here and there, most notably from Andy Freeman – he experienced possibly the worst way to crash a model, which is to loose sight of it whilst walking back to landing. Sorry mate! But I’m pretty sure that you’re going to be VERY happy with the Breta Furio that you’re picking up to replace it. Adam Richardson also had an unfortunate bit of damage to his RaceMx nosecone which was a complete mystery to all given the perfect landing that preceded it - sulky face in the photos! By the way, thanks to Adam for snapping the photos of the MiniVec whilst I was flying...

So as it turns out I just missed beating our great leader, Tom Satinet, with a MiniVec. So close! But never mind – what a great day, and to cap it all off we had a ball with the MiniVec passing the tx around after the racing finished.

Come and have a go – email us for details and we'll put you in touch with the right people if you’re fancying a go at F3F but you’re not sure how to start – you don’t even need a 3m racing ship to have a go, as I unintentionally demonstrated this weekend!




1 Kevin Newton 12132.74 (1000)
2 Martin Newnham 11979.77 (987)
3 Simon Thornton 11368.74 (937)
4 Adam Richardson 11274.75 (929)
5 Dave Rumble 11065.33 (912)
6 Mike Evans 11034.76 (906)
7 Tom Satinet 10614.62 (875)
8 Warrick Smith 10587.08 (873)
9 Mick Walsh 10553.54 (870)
10 Simon Kronfeld 10182.56 (839)
11 Jacob Newnham 10113.94 (834)
12 Clayton Landells 10083.07 (831)
13 John Treble 9800.16 (808)
14 Andy Freeman 2339.11 (193)

Extremes available for immediate delivery

The Extreme is possibly the hottest European model available today, with glowing reports coming from the Viking Race 2010 in France being backed up by some great flights in the UK.

Here are the colour schemes available today!

Ian

MiniVec Maiden!

After a bit of a slog up to the top of a tasty DS ridge in Shropshire, George Pilkington, Adam Richardson and I were greeted by the sight of Mike Evans smoothly carving his Vector III through some aeros in the light thermic lift.

Adam and George bolted the wings on their D40’s in short order and had them whizzing round the back within 5 minutes of arriving. The conditions weren’t there for big speeds – only just enough for continuous DS - but as usual this little model didn’t disappoint and provided plenty of entertainment.

Soon enough the MiniVec was launched off too and I quickly had the confidence to start trying to remember my (limited!) aerobatic repertoire. Mike and Adam joined in with their big Vectors and with George on the camera, some fun was had trying to get all three Vectors in the same shot at the same time – the models ended up flying around on crow for about 10 minutes!

After some more larking about I landed the MiniVec as, in keeping with other Hammond designs, this one seems to be quite happy with less throw than you would expect, so she was rated down a bit on the ailerons, and duly launched off again. With a total of about 2 hours continuous flying time, it was pretty clear that there was plenty of fun on offer from the Mini. Meanwhile Mike and Adam were trying to loop around each other’s Vectors a bit further down the slope – sounds like a mid-air waiting to happen, but in the end they just had a lot of fun and no tears thankfully!

No Sloperacer test flight is complete without a bit of DS to test the strength of the model, so I sent the MiniVec down the back and after a bit of getting used to how hot the throws feel on an aerobatic model going faster than it was designed for, the light conditions pushed the MiniVec over the ton to 101mph – and not a mm of flex anywhere – passed that test then! It’s always interesting landing a model on a DS ridge, but the MiniVec has lovely handling on crow, so thankfully that proved to be an anticlimax. All in all this model does everything you would expect it to, with excellent energy retention, accuracy and tracking. It has lots of power from both controls at the back end too, so if you’re into violent flicks and tumbles, then she’ll serve them up no bother. All in all, what’s not to like? Great looks, plenty strong, doesn’t need masses of wind, flies beautifully on the front or the back, and is a peach to land.

By now the DS was starting to look a little bit more tasty so Adam got his Erwin DSS up. That seemed to be going round pretty well, so I decided to get my Strega F3F up for some acro DS – I’m really enjoying this kind of flying at the moment with an F3F model – they are a LOT of fun in light DS! Now I’m not one to brag (much) but I’ll just say this – Erwin DSS 102mph, Strega 107mph – sorry Adam! I don’t beat him at much so when I do, I gotta get the news out!

Now it’s not like we’d had a boring day up until this point, but George decided that we all needed a wake up and when we landed we found him putting his Dynamic 80 together in the pits. Still blowing only between 10 and 15mph, this was a close call decision, but George isn’t one to shy away from doing something daft. So off she went! That DS wing section always surprises us with how well it soars off in light conditions, so George got a little bit of height on and started carving her round. Admittedly these aren’t the conditions that D80 was designed for, but she got going pretty nicely nonetheless and took the fastest speed of the day with 112mph – hey I know it’s not fast, but when you’ve pulled that out of not a lot of wind, it’s a satisfying feeling!

Still not satisfied that he had entertained us enough, George then demonstrated that the conditions were dropping off by treating us to a couple of D80 cartwheels across the top of the slope. Neither George nor the D80 were in the least deterred by this, and she was launched off again, sent round the back, where again the conditions had just dropped off too much and George once again demonstrated how to use the wingtips, nose, tailfin and elevator as landing gear in a cartwheel that Louis Spence would have been proud of. We were all a little worried about a D80 getting two arrivals like this, but fair play to the model – it had a tiny crack in the top fuselage seam, and that’s it – since fixed with cyano to no detriment at all. Thumbs up Joe Manor!

Thanks to George for getting some shots of the MiniVec and the Strega whilst I was flying – here’s a few pics to browse through…

New summer fun

How about this for summer, the new mini Wizard 1.2m span.

Light weight with aileron and elevator control (elevator servo even comes fitted) for those light summer thermals on the slope. But this little beautie comes with ballast and a 100mph capability so you won't have to put it away when the wind picks up.

This little Wiz will be on a slope very very soon!

Yep, they've flown and are proving to be in the wizard mold of flying quality.

The ballast carrying gives it a great wind and speed range. Coming with a servo already mounted in the fuselage and fitted to the tail, the mini wizard only needs wing servos fitting.

Just £245

Sloperacer's NEW Vector III Schemes!

Thought I would take a few pics of the pimpin' new Vector III schemes. All colours in stock now - click the full screen icon on the slideshow for the full effect!

Zim

PS This scheme is available on the MiniVec as well, but it must be pre-ordered - drop us a line for more details. Stock MiniVecs will come in the RCRCM scheme

Lift ticket to norway

Just back from one road trip and there's Lift ticket to Norway on the doorstep!

Should have slept but there was a DVD to watch! You might expect me to say this but it's great! From the best locations to fly I've ever seen to some amazing shots and flying. I can remember being so inspired to get out and rip the slopes up after watching the original Lift Ticket - the second one gives you the feeling you get after those perfect summer days flying.

Ian

The MiniVector has arrived!

Yes it looks good in the pictures. But they just can't convey how beautiful this model is. I honestly can't even begin to describe it well enough to do it justice - it is absolutely gorgeous!

Lots of thanks to RCRCM to getting this one done for me in our new Sloperacer scheme - it's already with Adam Richardson getting built ready for the weekend.

Notable things about the model - it is STRONG! The joiner is seriously beefy, and there is no discernable flex in anything at all. The construction is beautifully done - all of the internal joints inside the wing are tidy and well matched and all the panel weights are within a gram of each other side to side. The all moving tail is butter smooth and has absolutely no slop once assembled - quite unusual as one expects a little lateral movement in any all moving tail set-up, so thumbs up there. And the paintwork from RCRCM just seems to get better and better...

And now for the fun stuff - ballast!!! This model takes ballast in the wing, with some rather cute little tubes already installed right on the CG. But it also comes with a 20mm ballast tube for the fuselage. After some headscratching on the best way to use this, we decided to cut it down and use it to carry 5 x 34mm brass slugs. The beauty about using this arguably oversized ballast tube in the fuse is that it actually bridges the width of the fuse at the rear and at the front of the wingseat, effectively acting like two formers, but considerably easier to install!

Servo-wise - again - some nice surprises here - my favourite little digital, the Savox 0255MG fits everywhere an absolute treat! So it couldn't be simpler - 6 of these gets you sorted for £100 on the servo front.

But for now, enjoy these hastily taken pics from yesterday. And fingers crossed for some nice conditions this weekend for a maiden!

Zim