It may have been a horrible winter day outside, but the flying field inside the armory (facing page) is always the same forecast—great weather. The back wall (above left) was lined with banners of many of the sponsors of the event
when most of the vendors, sponsors and diehard fliers show up. It is a bit relaxing at this point. There may not be as many air- craft in the air so you are almost guaranteed a flight. While the flat foamy style of air- plane is still a popular choice, the RTF mi- cros from both Horizon and Hobbico certain- ly dominate the scene. A few modelers were relaxing and talking amongst themselves— a common sight at any meet—while others were fine-tuning models they had built for the big weekend. Saturday would of course be the busiest day of the weekend.
The big day
Saturday for me started at 4:30 a.m. For- tunately coffee was waiting and I was soon behind the wheel again. After ten years or so of mild winters here in central Illinois, win- ter was back this year, with a vengeance. This had me wondering about the overall crowd attendance. As I arrived at the ar- mory, I was happy to see that the effect on attendance was minimal. The parking lot
including FLYING MODELS and its sponsorship of the Scale contest. Don Belfort (above right) was on hand to help out as well as fly his newly completed FLYING MODELS Baby Biwingermodel. Don chose the Tactic system for his model.
was filling up fast with every manner vehi- cle suitable for carrying models. FLYING MODELS’ own “Electric Flight” columnist, Don Belfort, showed up to help me man the booth and answer questions from anyone about his builds. Don didn’t show up empty handed either. In addition to other indoor models, Don brought along one of FLYING MODELS’ own kits, the Baby Bi- winger. Both Don and I got to fly our Baby Biwingers that Saturday. We had planned to fly a bit of formation flying, but our sched- ules never seemed to match. Next time, Don! As with anything Don builds, his Biwinger was a real sweetheart and flew very nicely around the armory.
Saturday is inevitably the busiest day with every manner of model in the air. Adding to the excitement, E-Fest is host to a few events. The Gauntlet is a flying obstacle course designed to keep any pilot on his toes and the crowd on their feet. The Combat event is always a popular event and really brings in the spectators. The mid-day
Freestyle air show is the best of the best with 3D and Pattern flying, along with heli- copters, and is also a thrill to the crowds. The indoor scale contest is an E-Fest origi- nal and of particular interest to those who enjoy watching finely crafted built-up air- craft take to the skies. Not only do these models look great, their builder/pilots also aim to replicate the flight patterns of the full scale counterparts.
Scale competition FLYING MODELS was the primary sponsor of the Scale event for the second year. Michael Zaborowski took up the role as the E-Fest Scale Contest Director last year and has been hard at work to make it one of the more popular events. Michael worked on the rules and started a thread on RC Groups to get pilots excited about the event. Participants were encouraged to bring in their latest models and compete much the same way they would at any AMA sanction scale event. The event focus is on models
Matt Andren originally built this beautiful foam CRJ-700 (above left) for the scale event. Unfortunately the model was too large to fly safely during the event
FLYING MODELS
so Matt brought out his Helio Courier. The Courier (above right) features a list of scale features yet only weighs in at 6.03 ounces.
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