Helis @ the 60th Nationals by Neil Harker

Arrived at the Nationals the afternoon before the Heli events as did many of the competitors and the weather was near perfect, warm and no wind. This was Rally day and by late afternoon Helis' were clearly getting their fair share of the sky much to the disgust of some of the anti Heli fraternity, in fact many Heli pilots were still flying after 7pm on RC1. It was good to see so many Heli pilots again at the Nats from all parts of NZ.

Saturday (29Dec) was the first day of the Heli events and despite all the promises the night before over Fish n Chips and most of the available beer in Masterton our 9am Comp start didn't get off the ground until about 11am in clear skys once more. Once started the day's comps ran smoothly with us getting thru several rounds in each class by the end of the day. A few Helis were pushed beyond their breaking point when 3D manoeuvres were attempted too close to the Terra Firma.

That night we headed off to Cobb n Co which seems to me a tradition for the Heli fliers, I am sure standards there are slipping there maybe next Masterton Nats we will go elsewhere for dinner.

We awoke Sunday morning to more fine weather and with the troops rallied earlier this time, were again trying to out do the Control Line fliers when it came to noise in the oval.

At 12pm we stopped and had the Heli Sig AGM which was well attended. The AGM ran well and the following new committee was formed.

No major issues from the AGM, some discussion about improving Safety issues and a few tweaks to the new 3D Comp rules everyone present agreed to.

Competitions then continued with another round in all classes to finish the official events off at around 3pm. Despite myself doing most of the score calculation & collating continuously during the two days as each flier finished his round it still took another hour to come up with the final results. 3D Comp events are much more complex to Judge and to score than F3C events we are still perfecting the judging paperwork that needs to be used.

Well done to all competitors, it was very by consensus from all those judging that skill level of Heli flying in NZ is definitely improving as well as seeing new blood coming into the hobby.

To finish off the events the 3D Events Sponsor Kevin Foote (Hobby Hangar) presented trophies to the winners, this was followed up with a draw from the hat for the Digital Camera he had also donated for all competitors and judges who were involved in the event. This was won by Ernie Theordom, and was a fitting prize for Ernie who has been a great help over many Nats bringing his Lawn mower along and re mow the Heli Square (the Nats organisers never seem to put the Heli square in a suitable place <vbg>)

Finally a big thanks to Kevin from Hobby Hangar for his huge financial support to these comps (Jason Greenwood of Flashcards donated memory for the camera) and to all those others that came along to judge and to make this another great Heli event.