When you go to a competition like that do you get good access to the inside of the planes to actually see what equipment they use to fly so hard with. And if you did was there anything interesting or new or something you you and I don’t even know about.
Yes you do if you know a pilot they can put on the support crew and get a pit pass for the five days of competition .
I did some scribing during the Wed and Thursday iMac and was asked to help scribe during the Freestyle on Friday evening but i want to see this flying from the pits which was amazing . The days before the event, Sat ,Sun Mon and Tuesday you can sit and walk through the pits , i didnt ask alot of question to the pilots as they were getting into the zone for practising . I did get quite about of time getting to know Spencer Nordquist and his father and the Las Vegas and California pilots Santi, Kim, Bruno ,Matt ,Sharaud,Cam and Aaron from Australia and Sacha from Florence Italy .This was invaluable .
I talked about thier Spencer and his father about thier Carf Extra 330 sc and what has been done over the five years . Along with the different type of batteries they use and prefer.
Mr Nordquist is an Electrical engineer so gave me insite to which type of battieres they use for the Futaba radio and why he didn't like the Life A123 as compared to the Lithiumploy from the performance . You will never get this info from any forum .
Got to talk with the owner of Powerbox and they were introducing thier new Transmitter which was beautiful , very similar to the new Jeti radio with the backup 900mhz receiver . In Europe they are getting alot of interferance with the 2.4Ghz radios so they are using this 900mhz to help with performance and they have a tighter band width than here in North America . The Powerbox radio was beautiful and the screen could be seen in the bright Tucson sky with no color wash out , a bit pricey .
Most of these top pilots who are Sponsored get thier gear at cost so that helps but not everyone gets this advantage . Talked to the owner for RC Depot and he told at TAS that he throughout the mold for JR28 radio and that the market wasn't that large for this radio .Oh my
I didnt know they were that hugh in the model business but they are , very nice guys from Japan ..
Snoopy1 you have to spend some time a TAS to really appreciate the vast knowledge and skill all of these pilots and aircraft possess.
You get to talk to the venders and even some of the Bosses that run the companys like Powerbox and all the guys at DA who are the backbone of this iMac Freestyle flying and a tour through thier shop and you will be amazed at all the tech that goes into these engines.