The title of the subject "40% Electric entries at SA Nats" sounds impressive, and it is, even though we had just 10 entries in stunt. Here in South Africa, 10 entries is plenty, and to have the 4 electric stunters is great. Percy Attfield eventually withdrew with his Protron due to the rotten weather and as he said later, he was having too much fun judging Novice Stunt. The weather here in Johannesburg at this time of the year is usually very stable and the best time of the year for decent flying weather. These days with global weather changes, it's really hard to predict good weather, and we had thunderstorms, and loads of rain. Most days, we ended around lunchtime.
Now for the "Go-Electric advert"............. With the continually changing weather, all of the glo engine models had a nightmare trying to get a decent mixture setting, while the electric guys just switched on and flew. You can see the 4 models in the picture below.
I placed first with my Electron and Lionel Smith came in at 3rd with his "Yak-like" Eze-Pro profile electric. The second place pilot was Callum Orbell with his Tower Hobbies .40 powered Eze-Pro. (The blue model in the top left corner) Callum was our junior team member at the 2004 world champs in the USA, so he is a very good pilot. Put it this way, if he was flying my Electron and I was flying his Eze-Pro, things could have been different. Every round that he flew, his engine sang a different tune, so his flying ability was hampered by his equipment. The Eze-Pro is a pretty good stunter and is more than competitive for a profile. Lionel Smith's Yak version, and Peter Locke's 40 Watt are basically the same model with small changes to the looks. The Protron take-apart profile is also similar but has tapered wings.
There were two other Eze-Pro's with modified FP .40's in them, flown by Len and Warren Smith and both of them had rich/lean engine runs in the changing conditions. The wind was gusty and sometimes violent, but the electric stunters just chugged out the same power and solid rpm, through all the rounds. Peter Locke, who lives in a place called Grahamstown, is close to sea level. He has been faithfully competing in our Nats in Johannesburg for many years, and each year his engines that perform flawlessly at home, have problems up here at 5500 ft. This time, he flew all 4 rounds without any hassle at all. After round one, he added 200 rpm because he felt a little more confortable with more speed in the strong wind. He will now be selling all of his glow engined models!
Just by the way, all of the models used my governor timer system. This is not another plug (well.....sort-of!) but it shows clearly that a good flying stunt power package does not have to break the bank. All of the electric profile models used a simple E-max/Arrowind 2820 motor, 40 amp Hobbywing basic esc, plus my governor timer. The cost locally is about the same as an OS LA .40, and the electric package is far superior in all-round performance. Everyone present at our Nats said that this was clearly visible. The four novice entries all had engine problems without exception, so instead of having to cope with their "not-so-good" flying abilities, they also had to handle bad engine runs continually. There was one youngster there named Sheldon Vokes who was clearly talented, but once again, hampered by poor engine runs. His dad Richard has already spoken to me about an electric set-up for him. He said that it was totally obvious to him that electric was the way to go. Back home in Knysna where they live, there are not many flying fields available for noisy models, but plenty of school and sports fields, so without the noise all of these fields are available.
I know that I tend to repeat myself somewhat, but I don't think that I've seen a better advert for electric power than our last Nats with the continuously changing, and even thunderstorm weather. Viva E-Stunt!
Keith R
Topic: 40% Electric entries at SA Nats (Read 702 times)
