March 6-9, 2008
Rough weather but still beneficial
to jet modelers and the industry.
The weather cycles in the month of
March can be unpredictable. We could have 4 days of perfect weather as
were the 4 days before FL JETS and the last Sunday and subsequent 3 days following.
But this year, Friday and Saturday - the 2 prime days were a blow out
with 30 mph winds. Some of us flew, but it was risky. Luckily, the BVM
Jets
escaped without a scratch.
The point is, that no one can
perfectly predict or control the weather, so we deal with it as best we can.
Event organizer Frank Tiano is
investigating alternatives for 2009 that will allow the greatest Jet event
in the USA to continue to serve both the consumers and the related
industries. An F.T.E. production is worth attending regardless of the
weather. Frank assures that we all benefit.
Note:
The high winds also interfered with
photographing all of the BVM customers that we would like to.
Some left early and some never made it to the flight line, but
here's who did.
Photo
Gallery
click to
enlarge photo's
| The BVM team of Dustin, Sparky, Ken
Kenyon, and David Plaine flew a formation flight with the EVF powered
Electra and a P-70 powered BobCat. The Electra had no problem keeping
up and on a few vertical climbs it outperformed the BobCat.
Flight time was 5 1/2 minutes with a lot of full throttle
activity. |
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Dom Mirabello and Leonard Smart flew Dom's
KingCat a few times on Sunday. |
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| Dustin called for Tim Redelman during
our only, but spectacular flight of the BVM Phantom during Sunday's perfect
weather. |
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| Jorge Delray's "Lemans Blue" Ultra Bandit was maidened by Pablo Fernandez.
Pablo liked the "Perfect Jet Machine" as he called it so much that
he wants one
for himself. |
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Bob Jessey has one of the '07 KingCats
with the extended "Lex". Comments from Bob and Leonard Smart are
that they noticed an improvement over the early KingCats in the landing
configuration. They flew it several times after
Dustin helped with the maiden. |
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| The Kramers also have a new KingCat that
was awarded "Best Sport Jet" honors at the Saturday night banquet. |
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16 year old Jordan Facter traveled
from N.Y. and braved the wind several times to successfully operate his
BobCat composite. Jordan is a very good pilot. |
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| The BVM demo team has a
new Ultra Bandit with JetCat P-180 and smoke system.
BV did the maiden voyage on Sunday when the weather broke
in our favor, then Tim Redelman had a turn. Tim very graciously
volunteered a week of his time prior to the event to help us get it ready.
This Ultra features the #2 scheme with an extra color stripe and "Spektrum"
lettering.
We installed the brand new and flawless JR DSM 2.4 12
channel radio with 4 remote receivers. The onboard flight logger
confirmed the solid, interference free link.
Shown with the model after its first flight is David
Plaine, Tim Redelman, and Dustin Buescher. All had a hand in getting the
model ready. |
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| Ali Machinchy liked flying the Electra
Jet ARF (Spektrum scheme) so much, that he took it back to England with him.
With its speed (fast and slow), its aerobatic
capabilities, and the EVF 5012 with Flight Power 6400 30C cells, it's easy to get attached.
Ali is a great pilot and makes the Electra look good.
Al's Hobbies in Essex, England will be stocking the BVM
Electric products. |
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JR and BVM Rep. Kent Nogy brought his
Electra Jet from Paso Robles, California. It's great to
have Kent on the BVM team. Beside being a great model builder and
pilot, Kent is always available to help JR and BVM customers at events. |
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| Good times and good friends are a
benefit of a Frank Tiano produced event. Here
Tim Redelman, Nick Smith, Patty Generali, and Mark Woodland enjoyed
a few laughs. |
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Adding to our Electra show was Bob
Fiorenze with his "Fly Navy" all electric jet.
Bob powers his EVF 5012 exclusively with Flight Power EVO batteries.
The 30c 6400 12s balanced Saddle CellsTM
series are available only through BVM. They really have the punch and run
cool by comparison. |
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| Chuck McClellan (BVM Sparky)
coordinates our electric jet station.
Chuck's Electra (built from kit) has a particularly attractive paint scheme
that he designed with Coral Draw. |
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BV taxies the new Ultra Bandit into
position for the 1st flight. Two clicks of up trim were needed to
compensate for the wing tank drag. No aileron or rudder trim was
needed; testimony of the tooling and fixturing accuracy. |
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| BVM employees Sparky, Dustin, Tico,
and Ken prepared the F-100D for flight. |
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The Electra ARF was new for BVM at FL
Jets '08 and drew lots of attention in our 40 x 60 tent. |
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| There were two trophies
available to the electric jet participants and we are very proud that the
EVF powered Electra's won both. Dustin's ARF won
the "Best Electric Jet" award and Bob's Camo won "Best EDF
Performance".
We flew them multiple times even in the howling wind
on Friday and Saturday. Our normal 6+ minute flights were curtailed to
5 allowing for a go-around should a wind gust command such.
Electra flyers see
Electra Addendums
for high wind flap settings. We thank TamJets
and R/C Jet Models for sponsoring the trophies. |
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