CLUBMAN 3D HELI-FEST 2007 - 18, 19 and 20th May
The Clubman 3D Weekend is not just about the Clubman 3DX competition, this is the only event of its kind in the UK. It is a unique, fun packed weekend for all RC helicopter enthusiasts.
Friday - Clubman 3D Event Setup:
Arriving early on Friday the Clubman 3D team set about preparing the LHC site for the 3rd Annual Clubman 3D 'Heli-fest'. With the wind blowing hard, a few pilots and Clubman 3DX competitors began to arrive and got setup for the weekend.
Saturday - Clubman 3D Flyin:
Saturday dawned with a clear sky but a strong blustery wind along the flightline to challenge the pilots. A steady stream of pilots booked in at Tx control, with over 45 registered pilots on the day, including many of the UK top flyers. Bob Johnston, Steven Gerrard, Richard Mead and Ade Law all had their fresh new T-Rex 600 Nitro machines and put on many impressive displays during the day. Clubman 3D 2006 Championship winner Adam Turner (Century) put on some impressive flying, the Clubman Team wish him all the best at the 3D Masters this year. And many more ……..… including Duncan Osbourne's (Synergy N9) with Flights to Music, Wes Crockett (Avant Aurrora) and Stuart Mott (JR Vibe 90).
Many of the Clubman 3DX Competitors were seen practising and tweaking their helicopters in preparation for Sunday's competition also. It was great to see all the competitors helping each other, to get the best out of themselves and each other!
Sponsors of the event were in attendance throughout the weekend, Colin and Wendy Mills of CSM fame, Bob Johnston from Skyline Models, Roger Hamilton from Climb-Out, Angelos from Spartan RC, Trevor Wallinger from Midland Helicopters and the The Motts flying the flag for JR Macgregors. Fast-lad Performance and Real Raptors had setup trade stands to sell there goods to all the punters with money burning a hole in their pocket!!
Holding the day together was our very own DJ Paul 'Clubman FM' Lison, with regular weather updates (as we did have some rather short and sharp rain showers during Saturday morning) and music requests!! Requests for 'Another bites the Dust!!' by Queen proving quite popular!! We hear that for next years event, Clubman FM will be no more :-( but don't worry, as we will be upgrading to Digital for 2008!! :-)
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Into early evening and Tx control was closed down, to allow flying 'off the peg', and no sooner was this announced that the weather took a dramatic turn!! All day the wind had blown hard with some sharp showers in the morning. This all change to a near perfect 'summers' evening, clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind. Flying continued while many others retired for the day to have a few beverages and tuck into the Pig Roast (Yummy!!), that was supplied by our catering company.
The first ever UK Night Flying freestyle competition was planned for Saturday night. Judged by Roger Hamilton (Climb-Out), Kevin Targett and Nigel Fraser Kerr (Helilessons), we had 6 competitors take up the challenge, with a Trophy and ££CASH££ prize to the winner!
The eventual winner was Duncan Osbourne with a superb flight to music. The night will be most remembered for what we saw, OR didn't See, from Steven Gerrard, as he flew his T-Rex 600E without Night Blades or Night vision goggles!! We did wonder what that big bag of carrots in the back of the Fast-lads van was for, now we know!!
Sunday - Clubman 3DX Competition
We awoke on Sunday morning to some more fabulous weather, near perfect conditions.
With all the competitors booked in for the 3rd Annual Clubman 3DX competition a pilots briefing was held at 10am, before the competition got underway with the first round – Set manoeuvres. In this round all pilots had to choose and then fly 5 manoeuvres from a list of 30 provided by 3DX. Each manoeuvre has a declared K-factor, which is used to define the difficulty/complexity of the manoeuvres relative to each other. With the judges scoring out of ten for each manoeuvre then being times by the K-factor to determine the scores for the round.
With the judges, Paul Lison, John Parker, Simon Brown and Duncan Osbourne in position the first pilot took to the skies and the competition was underway!! After the first round of set manoeuvres it was clear the standard of flying had raised a lot from previous years. With Andy Hornyak (Synergy N9) leading the pack after this all-important first round.
After the first round we broke for lunch and our first Demo slot began, with flights from Bob Johnston, Steven Gerrard, Ade Law, Adam Crane, Duncan Osbourne, Adrian Smith. And many more. Thanks to our sponsors we had a very good raffle, with many high value prizes to be won!! With tickets on sale throughout the weekend the raffle was drawn later in the day. Colin Mill also held a talk on gyro theory and technology, which proved very popular.
Back to the competition with round two and 3 minutes of Freestyle. This round gives the pilot the chance to show just what they can do. The judges marking the technical content and overall appearance of the flight. With exciting and sometimes tense flying by the competitors the leading contenders from the first round battled it out. After the end of the round the pilots waited to here who would make it into the Top 5 and go forwards to the fly-off finals.
After the first two rounds the results were as follows:
This meant that the following would fly again to compete for the Clubman 3DX 2007 Cup:
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| Adam Boon |
Trevor Burley |
Andy Hornyak |
Patrick Arnould |
Steve Boothman |
The finals consisted of flying the Set manoeuvres and Freestyle rounds again. The final result for these Top 5 flyers being based on the finals rounds only. Meaning that after all the hard work making it to the finals the slate was wiped clean and they all started on an equal footing!!
Unfortunately for 5th placed Adam Boon (Trex 600E) his luck ran out during the finals, after much consistent 'how low can you go' flying ALL weekend he clipped his tail and lost tail drive. Impressive flying no doubt! Keep your eye out for Adam at this years 3D Masters.
Steve Boothman 4th place (Freya, Trex 600E) pulled out his 'party piece' for the finals again, a stunning K2.5 Auto including Piro-flip and then rolls to the delight of the watching crowds.
Trevor Burley (Trex 600E) consistent performance earned him 3rd place. Trevor will be competing in the 3D Masters this year, so is another Clubman pilot to watch out for.
Patrick 'Paddy' Arnould (Knight 50 3D) put on a superb display of technical smooth 3D that earned him a well-deserved 2nd place. Also the only competitor, choosing to fly his Freestyle round with music went down well with the judges.
Andy Hornyak (Synergy N9) was the class of the field, consistently taking 1st place in all the rounds. Not only does Andy become the 2007 Clubman 3DX Champion, his victory has guaranteed him a place in the 2007 3D Masters Sportmans class. All the best to Andy in the Future, we hope this is just the start of things to come.
FINAL RESULTS:
Clubman 3DX Winners
Trevor Burley (3rd) - Andy Hornyak (1st) - Patrick Arnould (2nd)
Clubman 3DX 2007 Entrants List Online --> CLICK HERE
Friends Remembered -------> CLICK HERE
The Clubman 3D Team would like to thank all the event sponsors, as without them this event would not have been possibly:
A BIG thankyou to Sean Brown and the LHC team for their help and the use of their great facility over the weekend.
We would like to thank all the Pilots, Callers, Judges, Event Helpers and Spectators of the event for making the Clubman 3D 2007 Event the Best Yet !!
See you all again next year!
Clubman 3D Team
Clubman 3DX Competition Videos ------> CLICK HERE
The following pics are a few highlights of the event. Thanks to Nigel Fraser Kerr for the use of his photograpy work:
Clubman 3DX Competitors
Judges - The Usual Suspects !! L-R Duncan Osbourne, John Parker, Paul Lison and Simon Brown.
Prize Giving
Raffle Prizes - Thanks to our Sponsors
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