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[mchristyuk]

Welcome to my contest diary for the 2010 European Championships to be held in Sibiu, Cisnadie, Romania from the 15th to the 24th July.

The European and World F3C championships alternate each year. Last year brought us the Worlds in the USA, this year its Euros time.

I am part of the British F3C contingent heading out, however unlike my compatriots (Steve Roberts/Dave Fisher... and no doubt the majority of competitors) I am not flying but driving.

To make this a little more interesting I am doing a little bit of a "touring holiday" on the way out covering 5 different countries and 2500 miles. I'm hoping to do a "daily Rave" photo shoot with the little machine at each "interesting" place I come across.. some earmarked already are:

Millau Viaduct in france:


Monaco:


Lake Garda in Italy:


And the offending "toys" (Cat not included!):


As for the contest itself I am personally running two Trex 700E's with some slight modifications to make them more suitable for F3C.



As can be seen in the picture I have replaced the horizontal fin with a Quick UK carbon Hirobo Freya fin (solid type) and have replaced the undercarriage with a low profile K&S undercarriage.

I am running a Raptor 90 flybar with Stubz paddles and the weights approx 7cm from the paddles:



Not so obvious are the Sylphide 90 damper rubbers I have cut down and put in the head.

The final tweak was A LOT of lead in the canopy to make the model slightly nose heavy. As standard the 700e runs slightly tail heavy:



Apart from that the machine is stock, including the mixing ratios on the head. To get around the low flybar ratio I have used the small fast Stubz and this combination seems to work out really quite well. Much better than I was expecting.



The rest of the machine specification is:

Motor : Align Stock
Speed Controller : Robbe Roxxy/Fusion Hawk 120Amp
Batteries : Zippy 5000mah 12S
Gyro : Mini G
Blades : Radix F3C FAI
Tail Blades : Radix 95mm
Cyclic Servos : Futaba BLS252
Tail Servo : Futaba BLS254
Hover RPM : 1400
Aeros RPM : 1950

Tomorrow is a day of packing all the equipment into their appropriate travel boxes and then into the car.. which could be a bit of a challenge as I'm taking a lot of spares.. and the other team members spares! (Hobby Shops stocking F3C equipment aren't going to be particularly common in Romania..) I also have to fit all of this into a rather small Coupe:



For those interested in the route here is a Google Map showing the itinery:
Trip to Romania - Google Maps

Ferry is booked for 8am Friday morning to set sail to France for the first leg of the journey. Hopefully this thread will start filling up with some F3C p*rn from about this time next week .

Until then..

Cheers

Mark

[Steve Roberts]

Happy Birthday for yesterday Mark, hope your head doesn't hurt too much

Just look after my stuff!

See ya next Wednesday.

Steve

[helivig]

Looking forward to your coverage! It should be great. Sorry we did not get ENVs to you in time for the event. I hope it goes well.

I have never been to the European Championships so I am really looking forward to the coverage.

[mchristyuk]

Hi Curtis,

Don't worry about it.. these things happen and it's best to make sure the models are right than rush it.

I'm sure I've got a video of you doing a 3D demo flight at the European championships many many years ago. It was on a JR VHS (around the time of the X347 transmitter) and was you flying an original XCell 60. Probably around 1992 time frame I think.. doesn't time fly?

Cheers

Mark

[mchristyuk]

Apologies for the lack of riveting material from Day 1. However the Sat Nav in the car thought it would be best to avoid the motorway traffic around Paris... instead it chose to head straight through the centre of Paris.. at rush hour. Suffice to say the 2 1/2 hour detour (through what can only be described as absolute mayhem!) ensured I arrived somewhat late at my destination. There was just time to unload the car, grab some food, then sleep.

Here we arrive at Day 2.. and this has gone somewhat smoother. I am writing this now from the South of France in a place called Frejus, just next to Cannes. The weather is hot!

The journey today called past the magnificent Millau Viaduct which is 2.5km long and a marvelous piece of engineering. This provided an excellent back drop for my first helicopter related picture of the trip. Also attached are pictures of the "packed" car, saying goodbye to England on the Ferry, and some of the interesting cars that were heading to France on the Ferry.

Tomorrow we're heading on to Lake Garda in Northern Italy along the French Riviera so I hope to find somewhere I can stop and get some airborne pictures...

Cheers

Mark

[pchristy]

Isn't it the vintage Le Mans event soon? I know the guy who re-built my gearbox for me is heading to France with an old 2-stroke SAAB to enter in it. 130 BHP from 800cc!!! Could be where the exotica were going!

--
Pete

[helivig]

Some very nice photos. Looks like a very cool trip!

[Steve Roberts]

Thats that dodgy Sat Nav software you got

Looks hot! Whats the temp down there? Was 31 celcius in London over the weekend!

Will post some pics later of my models going into boxes ready to fly out Wednesday.

Laters

Steve

[Bruce Naylor]

Your route will make a trip to the Scottis Nats a breeze ..

Just think, by the time you hit Nuremburg on your return journey, you'll only be halfway there!

Take it slow and safe, enjoy the views, and hope to have a beer with you on Thursday

Bruce.

[mchristyuk]

Steve,

It's about 36 degrees down here.. AND HUMID!... not that pleasant..

Bruce.. slow and steady? You ever been on an Italian motorway??

Cheers

Mark

[mchristyuk]

Well todays entry will cover two days as the hotel last night had no wifi access.

Yesterday was spent driving to Italy. We started off with a quick swim in the Mediterranean sea before heading off to Monaco. Unfortunately before I could get a picture of the Rave in Monaco on the Grand Prix F1 track the heavens openend and we dived back in the car to carry on the trip. However there is a picture of the start/finish straight attached.

The traffic to Italy was awful and it took a long time. However once in Italy it was clear that speed limits don't mean much and we were soon on our way and making up lost time.. very quickly indeed..

The arrival at Lake Garda was at sunset and I quickly grabbed a photo of the Rave with the mountains in the background. Sadly it was across a busy main road so didn't have time to get a good one, so I made haste to the hotel before I got run over..

Today was a drive straight from Lake Garda to Vienna in Austria. This was the home of the 1998 European F3C Champs where myself and the UK team both got podiums.. fingers crossed this is a good omen. Can't believe it was 12 years ago. Where did the time go??

After driving around 1500miles across europe I hadn't seen another car like mine.. surprising considering it's a standard Euro car.. however pulling up outside the hotel in the South of France I parked right behind an exact copy of mine.. but in white!

Signing off now to go and get some food as it's been another long day on the road. Might go and visit the famous Vienna fun fair afterwards to relax after a lot of driving!

Cheers

Mark

[JustPlaneChris]

Beautiful pictures, Mark!

Is your Scirocco the TDI version, or petrol? I couldn't quite make out the badge in your photo.

[Bruce Naylor]

So when do we get to see a flying shot? I'm sure CY would have had it on it's back way before now....

Yes, you're right, I've not yet driven in Italy. Point taken, drive like hell ....



B.

[mchristyuk]

Hi Chris,

It's a 2.0 petrol with the DSG gearbox. I looked at the diesels and the 1.4.. but having owned a diesel car once before, and generally loving cars/motorsport, the inner petrol head got the better of me.

I've not regretted my decision once

The other car in the picture was a diesel though.. I felt dirty just walking past it

Cheers

Mark

[mchristyuk]

Bruce,

I know.. My aim was to do a flying shot every day.. but I haven't been able to stop anywhere that was far enough from the main road/motorway to do it I was hoping the journey through the Alps today would turn up a suitable spot but it was motorway all the way through.. maybe Hungary tomorrow will be good for flying spots.. the batteries are charged!

As for the Italian motorways.. the speed limit is supposed to be 130kph (85mph in English).. but I was getting flashed and booted out the way for anything much under 100mph.. even through the roadworks!.. was quite crazy..

Oh.. and as can been seen by these replies I survived some scary rides at the fun fair in Vienna this evening!.. now back to the bar to calm my nerves....

Cheers

Mark

[JustPlaneChris]

Originally Posted by mchristyuk

The other car in the picture was a diesel though.. I felt dirty just walking past it

Hehe, very funny Mark. I have a 2010 Jetta Sportwagen TDI, with the 6 speed manual gearbox. It's pleasantly fun to drive, with oodles of torque. My previous car was a Volvo 850R so the all-out speed of the VW is a bit of a let-down, but the outrageous fuel economy makes up for it.

[Steve Roberts]

Bruce

What hotel are you staying at?

Well I've started to box my models ready for the flight out tomorrow morning.

All being well the airport crew will leave the box the correct way up and wont be tempted to jump on it!

Steve

[mchristyuk]

I'm now a mere 200 miles or so from our base camp in Romania.

Today was a straight forward drive from Vienna to Hungary. The roads were dead straight and apart from a minor detour through Budapest hassle free.

We actually ran out of road before we got to our hotel.. which was worrying.. however we need not worried as the hotel is excellent and much to our excitement there was a brilliant distraction next door. You can see it in the "Daily Rave" photo below (airborne this time Bruce ). So there are no site seeing photos today as the afternoon was spent with the "distraction".

The large mileage has clocked up some impressive "strikes" on the front of the car as can be seen in the attached pictures.

Although it is only 200 miles to drive tomorrow the roads are pretty grim into Romania so it's going to take about 6 hours.

I close with an "interesting" little article I saw in the paper on the ferry on the way over. Suffice to say now my car parking skills are beyond reproach!

Cheers

Mark

[Bruce Naylor]

Wheeeeeeeeee ... water slides are just the best.

Don't know where I'm staying yet? I'm assuming (which is always fatal) I'm getting picked up from the airport - email'd the organisers a few days ago just to confirm, but so far just silence.

Mark - I have a 700E here in the garage - if you need, want, require any spares, speak before Wed night and I'll bung them in bag.

[choppertastic]

Hi Mark,

Really interested in reading about your setup of a 700e for the F3C style of flying.

I've got a 700N that I am getting setup with a view of trying to have a stab at the sportsmans schedule. The dampers have been my biggest headache and I am currently running a pair of o-rings on either side. What did you have to do with the sylphide dampers to get them to fit in. Also I love the Freya fin... Think I will have to get one of these for mine.

Good luck for in the Euros. Will be watching.

Cheers,
James

[mchristyuk]

Hi James,

The Sylphide dampers are the correct depth, just a little large in diameter in certain places. I just attacked the corners with a sharp knife to trim them down to size. The hole in the centre of the dampers is square but this doesn't matter as the 700 spindle can't lead lag anyway.

As for the Freya fin you either need to shorten the boom stays or re-drill the fin as otherwise it sits far to far back. You also need some spacers to lift it up from the boom as there is no relief hole in it for the mounting bracket.

Cheers

Mark

[mchristyuk]

Well we are all now safely in our hotel in Romania. The internet connection here is not the most reliable so updates may be a little delayed.

The drive from Hungary to Romania was "interesting" to say the least.. it took us about 7 hours to do the 200 miles and you can see why from the pictures below.

Today we are going to assemble our machines and make sure they survived the journey ok. We're also going to go and check out the contest site as well as make ourselves a practice square at the hotel. Luckily for us the hotel has lots of fields around we can go and make a flight line in.

Cheers

Mark

[mchristyuk]

Today finally brought some helicopter action after our long travels.

This morning was spent putting the models together and checking everything was ok. We then had a trip to the contest site to check it out. The site itself is a microlight airfield and a number of other teams were already there practicing. We've not heard about any official practice sites yet.

All 3 of us flew our machines several times today and everything was good. The electrics really allow you to get on practicing without having to worry about fuel mixtures in the different climates. There appears to only be a couple pilots flying nitro so far that we have seen.

Tomorrow is model processing and check in.

Cheers

Mark

[pchristy]

Love that look of grim concentration!!!



Best of luck, guys! And for Heaven's Sake, do better than the footballers did!!!

--
Pete

No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

[helivig]

How many people and how many countries are supposed to be competing this year?