MHSA Heli Fun Flies for 2013 Ideas, Events & Venues

[thefrog]

Hi all,

As some may know I've very recently gotten involved with MHSA , the helicopter special interest group under SAMAA. My role for 2013 is to organise and promote heli fun flies around SA, with a focus on the regions where I can get support and numbers. For certain events I'd like to host the fun flies on the competition weekends (F3C, 3D, Speed, Scale) at the same venues - e.g. fun fly Saturday, comp Sunday. At other times I'd just like to arrange less structured and less formal get togethers. The focus is on growing the hobby and getting more people interested. Another objective is to help the guys who are park flying or beginners to get more involved if they want to. Finally, I want to promote R/C heli flying at the clubs and support the various heli communities.

So the MHSA Fun Fly objectives for 2013 are:
1) Promote R/C heli flying locally (club), regionally and nationally through events.
2) Help the new comers and park flyers get more involved (if they want to) and help them find support (if they need it).
3) Promote and support R/C heli communities at the club level.

So why am I telling you this?

- I need to know what's important to you as heli pilots - what events do you want to attend; what activities do you want to participate in; how do we help you get involved and enjoy your hobby more?
- I need to know when you want events to be hosted - which times of the year are best and do you want fun flies to coinside with competitions?
- How far are you willing to travel for a local, regional or national event?
- For those of you at clubs, are your clubs heli friendly and would they be willing to host events to showcase their club and promote membership?
- For those of you flying off public or private land, what would you like from Fun Fly events and what support do you need?
- For everyone, what activities, games, themes, etc. do you want to see at a Fun Fly?

Finally, I'm going to need help and contacts in the various regions. So if you are willing to give up a bit of your time to help arrange events please send me your details.

Feel free to post here - I'm keen to have a discussion and see what people think. Our little get together this past weekend was an eye opener in terms of what can be done and the effort involved (this event was NOT related to MHSA in any way).

Grant

[cabeng]

good one grant

Always a difficult one to keep guys interested on all skill levels and promote a "Club" atmosphere
we here in KZN will support , regularly try organise flyins and have fun , not always events , but simply gatherings , to learn from each other and enjoy the hobby

[l0n3i200n]

What is the bare minimum number of entrants to consider a heli clinic?
What is the minimum flying pitch required? Gras 10mx10m ??

[thefrog]

What is the bare minimum number of entrants to consider a heli clinic?

I think this will vary from region to region. If you have 10 guys locally and 5 pitch, then that's a success isn't it? If you have 50 guys and 5 pitch then that's not a success I think.

What is the minimum flying pitch required? Gras 10mx10m ??

Not sure what you mean here? How much space is needed to fly safely? I'd say typically 150-200m x 50-100m is a good start, depending what you're planning to do.

[Sonixs]

I'm a little disappointed that I missed the first event...the venue looks awesome! More of these would be great. Hosting a more informal event on the Saturday with competition on Sunday is a good idea. You have my support!

As a beginner/intermediate pilot the guidance and support of more experienced pilots is at the top of my list. Tips and tricks on how to improve, mix up my skill set and push me out of my comfort zone. I'd like to get together with like minded pilots that enjoy the hobby for the hobby and not what setup you fly or how your fly. There are enough airfields with cowboy pilots and $<<moderated - language>> talkers. That's the reason why I fly off private land.

At my current level I would like to be able to do the heli proficiencies at the Fun Flys.
This will hopefully grow my skill level to the point where I'd be able to compete. I'm not really into Smack 3D and would like to see competitions where it's more about aerobatics, precision flying and of course speed.

Keep up the great job Grant...Hypnotoad knows best

[thefrog]

I'm a little disappointed that I missed the first event...the venue looks awesome! More of these would be great.

That wasn't MHSA related - that was Alex and I messing around, with a little help from our friends. But yes, more of those would be brilliant.

[clivem]

nice grant!
its hard work to get anything going, we need to support grant on this as much as possible.
the Howick field is always available but a little further from Durban for most guys. (approx 100km from dbn) we can use the field for a w/end of helis only if needed.

[cabeng]

nice grant!
its hard work to get anything going, we need to support grant on this as much as possible.
the Howick field is always available but a little further from Durban for most guys. (approx 100km from dbn) we can use the field for a w/end of helis only if needed.

Nice one Clive , Howick is a good KZN field

mmmm, looking like our recent endevours were succesful, will certainy need to do it again , SOON!!

[danie.e]

Last year I tried to arrange a Fly-in at a fantastic venue at prices you cannot believe. The support was so poor that I had to cancel the event. I am prepared to talk to the venue owners again for the weekend 9,10 and 11 August or alternatively for September 21 to 24 - let me know if maybe this time there is enough interest. Last time there was only talk and at the end only 3 people actually committed themselves.

[Gav.S]

Grant,
I would suggest to pin a date and wait for comments, I have 4 business partners and trying to get the best date for all often frustrates us - pinning a date with comments is often the easiest .
Try avoid major sporting and holiday weekends like Easter, Christmas and around Valetine's when the women want to do something romantic. Samaa organized events are published well in advance so avoid the major National ones.
I am always keen on the weekends away, happy to travel up to 300km (ie the whole kzn) to have a fly-in. Further away is good but will most likely be 2 mates sharing fuel costs to make it viable so the families sometimes get left behind.
Friendly comps such as speed tests and spot autos make for fun and tears
As Clive mentioned, Howick Model flying club is always open to heli's and it has shade for all those 20min heli builds.
Keep up the good work.
Gav.

[ASH26V]

lol at Gavin.....20 minutes build....
Grant count me in for Natal region. Anything u need help with give me a shout. winter time is a bit shitty as fires are a huge problem...but a plan we'll make.
looking forward to seeing you buggers again soon

[ktmflyer]

quote="Sonixs"]
As a beginner/intermediate pilot the guidance and support of more experienced pilots is at the top of my list. Tips and tricks on how to improve, mix up my skill set and push me out of my comfort zone. I'd like to get together with like minded pilots that enjoy the hobby for the hobby and not what setup you fly or how your fly. There are enough airfields with cowboy pilots and $<<moderated - language>> talkers. That's the reason why I fly off private land.

At my current level I would like to be able to do the heli proficiencies at the Fun Flys.
This will hopefully grow my skill level to the point where I'd be able to compete. I'm not really into Smack 3D and would like to see competitions where it's more about aerobatics, precision flying and of course speed.

[/quote]

There is a 3D competition 27th and 28th April in cape town. Prescion flying, smack all will be available there. This is over 2 days which includes fun fly and speed runs. Loads of info and sharing will be available there. tareq alsaadi will also be doing demo flights. If we have enough requests we can even schedule your proficiency on the day.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Grant - keep up the good work. The communication is a major factor on these fun fly's and competitions. We are still hearing people who dont know abt the event in cape town on teh 27th April. So there is a huge challange with communicating these events to all pilots, specially the park flyers. How to reach everyone is very difficult. I have some ideas which i can share with you on teh 27th April

[thefrog]

Last year I tried to arrange a Fly-in at a fantastic venue at prices you cannot believe. The support was so poor that I had to cancel the event. I am prepared to talk to the venue owners again for the weekend 9,10 and 11 August or alternatively for September 21 to 24 - let me know if maybe this time there is enough interest. Last time there was only talk and at the end only 3 people actually committed themselves.

Yes, this is a problem. For our recent trip we had a similar issue, especially with the GP guys. It was a private event so we targeted our flying buddies but it ended up being difficult to make the numbers as people went quiet in the weeks leading up to it. I suspect it is largely a cost and effort issue. Yes, we can get good rates, but it still costs a packet, especially if you'e got to travel a fair distance. Then getting time off from the family can be an issue. If you bring the family then it gets more expensive. So there's a trade off.

My thinking at the moment is to focus on the local, club based events for this year. These will be one day events close to home, so really not a big deal to pull finger and attend. We can arrange regional, multi-day events too, but I suspect we will only manage one per region for the year.

Guys - who's clubs would be interested in hosting a heli fun fly? Who would like to attend a heli fun fly close to home?

[thefrog]

The communication is a major factor on these fun fly's and competitions. We are still hearing people who dont know abt the event in cape town on teh 27th April. So there is a huge challange with communicating these events to all pilots, specially the park flyers. How to reach everyone is very difficult. I have some ideas which i can share with you on teh 27th April

Sounds good Paul. You're right, the comms is a also a tricky thing to manage. I'm consolidating my contacts list into the MHSA lists and adding more info on people's interests so we can target them correctly. There is an MHSA Facebook page where events will be added - so Like it if you haven't already. I'm thinking of setting up a Twitter account too as another mechanism. I expect we'll have the events listed on the SAMAA calendar, so that should also help. For Fun Flies I will be posting the events here and on Heli Freak.

I'm planning to build a 450 so I can go park flying and spread the word. Just waiting for a deal to come up in the classifieds.

[cabeng]

Grant , I think you've hit the nail on the head costs can spiral quickly in this hobby

many years ago Samaa hosted "Postal" funflys , the days before e mail , Samaa would post a schedule of events to be done at each club at their pleasure , we would arrange a date and hold the day at our club , the results were posted back to samaa to be published in their Mag!!
was good fun , and builds god spirits amongst members , perhaps consider something on those lines ?