This past weekend, March 18-20, 2022, I attended the AMPS Heli Smack Fest as a participant in the F3C Sportsman Class. There were four of us competing in Sportsman, and 7or so for advanced class. The competition in sportsman was fierce, with Brian Byrdsong taking first place, and myself taking second place. Aside from the contest, there was open flying for the funfly on the East/West runway of the field, and night flying under the construction lights.

I was competing with my Miniature Aircraft Whiplash 730E, equipped with:

Kontronik cool Kosmik 170A HVi speed control

Kontronik Pyro 750-56 motor

Xpert KD1 servos

Bavarian Demon AXON

Pulse Ultra 6s 5000mAh 70C batteries.... X2 for 12s

Funtech 730mm FAI main blades

Rail 116 tail blades

My transmitter of choice is Jeti DS-16v2

Below, is a photo of me flying in on of our last rounds for the contest, with Jeff Biter calling for me. It was extremely windy

during the contest, but we all toughed it out and flew our hearts out.

Until then though, it`s going to be practice....practice .....practice.

I never thought that I would be a competition pilot, but  I`m really enjoying competing in F3C. It is so much harder than it looks, and I think that`s why I like it so much. I`ve always been the type who loves a challenge, and the harder the challenge, the more I like it.

F3C has given me all of that and more. It gives me something to work for, and it`s just a lot of fun. Instead of going to the field and doing fast 3D flying, I`m getting used to flying slowly, and precisely. Which is very difficult...especially with windy conditions.

I`m definitely not at the master level, (I compete in sportsman class right now) but I`m progressing nicely, and maybe by next year I can moved up to the next class.

 I have competed in three contests to date, with the Helicopter Nats in Muncie Indiana being my second contest. I placed 7th of 10 at the Nats, and I`m very pleased with that. I was up against some very good pilots, so 7th, was a real accomplishment. I earned 2nd place finishes in the other two contests, first one was in Homestead Florida and my second contest was in Tampa Florida.

The helicopter I compete with is my Miniature Aircraft Whiplash 730E, which has been set up strictly for contest flying. So it will no longer see any 3D or hard flying. I don`t want to take a chance of crashing it, because it takes forever to get them set up and tuned for F3C competition.

I have my Whiplash Nitro, and Fury 57 for when the 3D bug hits me, so there is no reason to risk damage to my contest helicopter. However, with that being said. Miniature Aircraft did present to me another Whiplash 730 kit,(which I am VERY grateful for) to have as a backup to my main contest helicopter.

Once I get it build, set up and tuned.....it will also be reserved for F3C.

So, a few weeks ago, I posted about my purchase of a new Jeti DS-16 G2 transmitter, in red which I ordered from Aeropanda.com. Turns out they didn`t have a red one in stock, so I opted for my second choice. An all black one.

I have been flying it for a couple of weeks now, and I`m really enjoying it. It`s not a whole lot different from the older DS-16, but it does have some things that the older model does not have. Such as a mic to create custom voice announcements, Dual band (2.4 ghz/900 mhz) RF output, a colour screen, and voice commands to name a few.

I do have to adjust the stick tension on the rudder, because it is a little tighter than I prefer to have it. But other than that, it`s perfect. I did change the stick ends though. Being a thumb flyer, the stock ones are way too long for me. Especially with my small hands. Danny from Aeropanda realized that, and gave me a set of shorter SeaCraft stick ends to go on it. They got the sticks short enough for me to fly comfortably, and I love them.

I have been flying with a Jeti DS-16 carbon edition transmitter for close to five years now, and it has performed flawlessly for me from day one. I have been considering getting another Jeti for buddy boxing new prospective pilots, and today, I decided to go forward with that decision by purchasing another transmitter.

But rather than purchasing a DS-12 or a DS-14, I thought......why not upgrade my main transmitter, and use my current one for the buddy box transmitter? Sooooo.... I went ahead and ordered a newer DS-16 G2, to use as my primary system. I chose the carbon red one, and it looks HOT.

I will be taking delivery of it on Saturday 8-21-21, and I should have all my models in it by the following weekend. I`m really excited about this, and I can hardly wait to get my hands on it. The photo below, is from aeropand`s ( www.aeropanda.com ) website, and not my actual transmitter. I will be posting an unboxing video soon, on my youtube channel.  ( https://www.youtube.com/user/GeenaTucker ) and posting more blogs about it as well.

The past week for me, was simply amazing! First... on August 2-4-2021, I competed in my first ever Helicopter F3C Nats in Muncie, Indiana. What a rush it was to be surrounded by so much talent, and to be able to compete in an event of this caliber. 

I compete in the Sportsman class, which is basically beginner, but I hope to move up to the next class as soon as I can. The Nats was only my second contest, and I admit.... I was a little nervous at first. But the guys made me feel at home, and the nervousness soon passed.

There were 10 pilots in Sportsman class, and ended up finishing in 7th place. Although I didn`t do as well as I would have liked, I`m very happy to have been able to compete on such a level. Finishing 7th is my motivation to train harder and do better in my next contest, and to be more prepared to compete in the Nats next year.

The fist few days were kind of quiet. We walked around, checking out all of the helicopters and paid the AMA museum a visit. Thursday, friday and Saturday were the big days for me. Thursday and Friday, I worked in the Kontronik Drives booth, and also worked a little in the Miniature Aircraft booth. Thursday afternoon, I did a demo flight for Kontronik, during our power hour. Friday was my demo flight with Miniature aircraft, which I did with my Whiplash nitro.

Saturday, at about 4PM, was the golden hour for me. I was selected by Kontronik, to represent them in the Battle of The Brands on center stage. Battle of the Brands, is a 3D flight to musik competition, and I was up against some of the top pilots in the world....Yeah, I was terrified. But not only did I compete in the Battle..... I made a little IRCHA history, by being the very first woman to EVER compete in Battle of The Brands.

There were 13 pilots competing, and after we all flew, the crowd voted for their favorites by how loud they cheered for each of us. They must have liked me, because the officials informed me after the contest, that I had gotten 3rd place. I feel so honored that Kontronik trusted me with performing for them in the Battle of the Brands, and I really hope I get to do it again.