Is anyone interested in trying some F3P flying this winter and maybe some relaxed competitions. We could always experiment with some indoor pylon racing or combat on the side :lol:.
As some of you may know, the guys in Lisburn and Dungannon ran a couple of very enjoyable and well attended indoor aerobatics competitions last season. I'm sure they'll be building on that this season and it would be great to get something similar started further south. Myself and a couple of others travelled to the 2 events last year and had a great time.
No previous RC competition experience required!
F3PF3P is the indoor equivalent of F3A but a lot cheaper and in my opinion a lot more fun and a great way to improve your flying. It can be flown in a typical 1 basketball court / 4 badminton court sports hall.
The PlanesI've attached a few pictures below to give an idea of the sort of planes used. They're typically built much like a Shockflyer from 3mm depron sheet and carbon rods. They're similar to Shockflyers in size but the purpose designed planes are lighter and more rigid. Most purpose designed planes are monoplanes weighing between about 110g and 140g which makes them nice and slow and very easy to manoeuver indoors. Biplanes are sometimes heavier, up to around 200g. You could use one of the Ikarus Shockflyer's to start off with but try and keep it light.
I really like the way these planes fly and I reckon the purpose designed planes are worth a try even if you have no interest in competitions.
There are plenty kits available for excellent designs like the Clik, Nexus and Mercury. Alternatively you can build from a plan or design your own with a little depron and carbon rod. I can point you in the direction of kits, plans or materials. Just ask!
I might put together some basic kits for my own "Index 3" design if anyone's interested.
The bits and piecesA typical setup uses a motor weighing less than 20g, 3 servos each around 5g and a 2 cell battery around 350mAh capacity.
This size gear has gotten a lot cheaper and more easily available over the last year or so. If you've already flown Shockflyers you probably have suitable radio gear. You'll probably want a lighter motor and maybe lighter cells. I'm using a Hacker A10-15s that cost about €30 in my plane. There are suitable options from as little as €8 up to exotic stuff around €100. Batteries are also relatively inexpensive at about €12 for a good pack.
If you're interested and need help picking equipment let me know and I can give you a hand.
The EventsThere are two disciplines at most events, F3P and Aeromusical.
F3P
F3P consists of flying a prescribed aerobatic schedule. It comes in 3 flavours from a pretty straight forward F3P-C schedule to the very difficult F3P-A schedule.
The guys in the north also ran a "Basic" schedule last year which was very successful and could be flown without a purpose built plane.
If we do run any events this year I'd suggest we forget the F3P-A schedule and just do Basic and F3P-C or if enough are interested we could run F3P-B too.
Aeromusical
This is a 2 minute freestyle flight to music. You can use the same planes although I think the rules allow Shockflyers, IFOs or almost anything else to be used too!
I think myself, Eanna and Stu are definitely up for it and I'm hoping Ralph can rally some support down his neck of the woods :wink: . Joe, Fred, Paul, could you be tempted? Anyone else?
Aidan
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There'll also be F3P-AM (aeromusical routine).