Fancy Improving Your Flying?

Now here is an idea. An offer from Peter Jenkins and Mark Allen, ties in nicely with an article by Graham Ashby in the December 2023 edition of RCM&E.

Hopefully, you may get a chance to ask any questions at the AGM on Monday (7:30, Moreton Hall).

Peter writes:

‘Hi Folks
Some of you will be aware that there were two competitions held in 2023 for aerobatics under the
BMFA specialist body responsible for administering precision aerobatics in the UK – the UKF3A
Association. The competition covers 4 levels – an entry level, called Clubman and 3 other levels of
increasing difficulty. With the new entry route to the Knettishall site, it became possible to allow
spectators to come and go as they please for last September’s competition.

The Club Committee has kindly agreed to let me run 2 more competitions in 2024. These are likely
to be in June and September with the precise dates to be determined by the UKF3A Competition
Secretary as he has to deconflict international and national competitions from the league
competitions. Currently, there are three of us who fly this discipline, F3A or precision aerobatics,
Mark Allen, Mike Rieder and Peter Jenkins (me).

Mark and I thought we’d make a determined effort to help those who’d like to learn how to fly
precision aerobatics and perhaps give competition a go in either of the two planned Knettishall
competitions. We thought we’d do this with an initial Zoom meeting to cover off what this type of
flying involves and what sort of aircraft is needed. In fact, I have included a photo of the aircraft I
first started with and flew in my first competition. It’s the one on the left in the photo. Yes, an
ordinary club model, in this case an ARTF Wot 4. You don’t need a model like the one on the right
until you have decided that you’d like to take your skills to the next level.

The manoeuvres that are involved are loops, rolls and spins. That’s all. Every pilot with an A knows
how to fly those don’t they. Well, precision aerobatics, as its name implies takes the flying of these
basic manoeuvres up a notch so that loops are round, and are performed in a specified location –
usually in the centre of what’s called the aerobatic box.

The point of helping members to improve their own aerobatics is that it will help you to control your
aircraft more precisely and will reduce the number of time you recourse to the black bin bag! We
will help you to get the best out of your aircraft by trimming it so that the CG is in the optimum
position and your control throws are of the right sort. You may be surprised at how much better
your aircraft will fly at no additional cost following these simple adjustments.

Just express an interest and we will help you at the flying field by providing coaching. This will
consist of a short discussion about what we are going to fly, then you flying it and us showing how
you can improve either by adjustments to your aircraft, transmitter or your control movements. It is
helpful for a group to get together so that you can try out these new techniques with your club mate
providing input on what you are doing right and wrong.

For those who would like to try flying a schedule, we will suggest a series of 4-6 manoeuvres that
you can fly as a mini schedule. A schedule starts with a centre manoeuvre, followed by a turn-
around manoeuvre, another centre manoeuvre and a turn-around manoeuvre and so on.
If you would like to go one step further and learn to fly the entry level schedule, the Clubman, we
can help you with that as well. Then, if you feel you would like to give competition a go you could
enter one of the Knettishall competitions. We won’t be pushing you into competing by the way!
You do not need to be a member of the UKF3A to compete on your first attempt but you will need to
pay the entry fee, currently a modest £8.

If you would like to learn more about this please contact either Mark (mwallen65@gmail.com) or
Peter (peterjenkinsbmfc@btinternet.com) and we can answer any questions you have. Once we
have a list of interested parties we will arrange a get together at Knettishall. We will be doing this in
the same way as Ron Gray runs his training days i.e. just a normal flying day for all who are there.’