Ken Park

      The event had it share of Top-Shelf pilots flying 90mm sport planes like the US pilot Chris True “BVM Electra’s” had top speed of the day @ 188 kph.  Event sponsor John Dutkoski own design “Banshee II”.  Talk about pushing it!  Several maydays were called during the day.  Glad to say they all landed safely.  The cooking of parts included soldered connectors melting and speed controllers smoking.  Wow the smell of burnt E- gear is all so casually taken in stride with these guys.  The scale man JC Terrettaz had some truly thrilling flights.  JC was flying both a Mirage hitting 187 kph and a “Tamjet F-16”.  On his last flight the F-16 the intake tube did implode with a bang and JC calmly called out a dead-stick and landed safely.             It might have of been the tasty stake sandwich during lunch or the sunshine warming things up but everyone I saw was beaming with smiles.  I didn’t get an official head count but 100+ was my best guess-timate.  Everyone was having a great time.  The fun was putting a face to the guys who were conversing via the internet for the past few months.  After lunch the pilots were gathered for a group photo.  It’s sure to make its way into the M.A.A.C. magazine later this year.  Around 2pm the action was again halted for the raffle draws with the prizes generously donated from the sponsors.  I was taken aback a bit when people kept shaking my hand.  I was just one of the many local club members helping out doing my job as part of JC’s team.  The Rideau RC Flyers club is sure to call this event a major highlight of the year.  JC hard work and the clubs great team effort made this event look effortless.  From the other side the many pilots and spectators all unanimously exclaimed “Well done and we will be back next year!!!!!”       By Ken Park                         Photos by Richard Barlow   http://www.maac.ca/mcgal/main.php?g2_itemId=18447             Photos by Ken Park       http://www.vimeo.com/12153946             Club web site       http://www.rideauflyers.com                         Edited By Ken Park on 16/06/2010 12:47:55

I've written a event report and will post it here!   The Rideau Flyers EDF Jet Rally Ottawa, Canada May 29th 2010 An Event who’s time has arrived!             Over the last year give or take these little EDF jets seem to be popping up everywhere.  Frankly most fly amazingly well right out of the box.  You might be hooked on the scale details or be an adrenalin junkie looking for the speed. So the obvious question would be “Wouldn’t it be fun to have an EDF only Jet Rally.”  What could be better than a sky is full of jets all day long.  The real appeal is for less than 200 hundred dollars and only a few hours work anyone can participate!  Technically fun is seeing pilots pushing for every Amp of performance.  So the excitement factor is there for sure.  Don’t forget any time you pull out the radar gun you will have them lining up to see who’s got the most!               A true died-in-the wool Jet Jockey and good friend Jean Claude (JC) Terretaz went down too Ohio last summer and attended “Jets International” a very large EDF jet rally.  JC was in his element simply having a ball – When JC got back he asked “Why aren’t we doing this?”  The club loved the idea and they said “JC run with it - Make it happen”.  JC quickly assembled a team of helpers and got the whole ball of wax rolling.  For our club this event itself was a complete unknown.  Number #1 a EDF only jet rally was so new the event was the first one ever sanction in Canada under Model Aeronautics Association of Canada (M.A.A.C.).  #2 how many pilots and spectators would actually  show up for a first time event?  #3 was the weather.  Not being able to control 2 out 3 things here sure can put pressure a novice event director.             The good news #2 is mostly about getting the word out to the masses. All praise the internet!!!  We also got a good clue of how it was going about 2 weeks before the event when we saw a large number of new models being brought out for maiden flights.  The chatter on the internet was going good and we had promises of pilots roughly from Toronto too Montreal.  #3 the weather! Simply it did everything but rain that day!  The weather man predicted perfect weather with light winds.  Luckily for the event everyone believed what the weather man had predicted and came out anyway.  The morning was overcast cool 17-19C with a good cross wind that never let up all day.  It was after lunch before sky’s cleared and things warmed up to 24’C. The winds continued to gather into a stiff cross breeze but the pilots didn’t pay it much attention and bravely flew on.             We knew as early as 8AM it was going to be alright when the cars just kept coming in for the fancy breakfast and registration.  Fancy breakfast was hot crepes with maple-syrup, sausage, ham and fresh fruit.  Don’t forget the hot coffee and OJ.  By 9:30AM the pilots got briefed and everyone was clear on what was expected for a day. All pilots flew with spotter with 4 jets airborne at any one time.  99% of pilots were on the 2.4 GHz radios and the need for the old 72MHz Freq-control board became a real joke.  The 30 registered pilots were casually taking turns and most flight times were short around 6-8 minutes so everyone had lots of flight time.         The whole Bind-&-Fly foamy thing is such a great way to go for the many Nugget jet pilots who came out.  I was impressed with the “Parkzone Habu” and the “Phase 3 F-16” both flew extremely well.  Not a foamy convert yet I bought myself a “Velocity-RC Slingjet” a great balsa 70mm ARF.  The model proved to be a tough and stable flyer.  I even booked 140kph on the radar gun. I highly expect next year that those same Nuggets will be stepping up to a 70-90mm fibreglass models with or without retracts. There was a fare share of pilots who were already flying them evenly divided between the catapulted or fixed gear.  Both the “Het Hornet” and “E-flite Hawk” had some of the more zippy flight of the day.  The EDF bug bite is a sweet one and very hard to resist. I myself got bitten buying a new-in-box “SAPAC L-39” from another pilot who was at the event.  A good winter project for 2011 eh!                I was most impressive seeing a select bunch of guys flying 90mm giant scale foamy’s.  There was an F-100 and about 4 “FlyFly F-86’s”.  Pilots simply walked up to ants into the cross wind.  It was completely freaky to s if fThere overall size generated a great sense of realism that was hard to differ from the real thing.  Up close the stock scn oh so gross but some pilots had rewor

Check it out!   http://www.vimeo.com/12153946   http://www.maac.ca/mcgal/main.php?g2_itemId=18447   First time event 30 registered pilots should be bigger/better for 2011!   Ken Park   my club http://www.rideauflyers.com