Welcome to the UK F5D Association

The Journey Home

darronr@tealbox.com (Darron Rodrigues) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:22:34 +0000

The journey home was, fortunately, uneventful.

Getting the model boxes free carriage as sporting equipment was no problem at all. Somewhat different to the UK.

Bumped into our Pilot at security so we were invited to the flightdeck before the flight.

Our slightly overweight Pilot then informed us that he was recently back at work after a heart attack. I then checked the Co-Pilots credentials. Both are RC Model Pilots too.

The Pilot told the crew to treat us well, so we got served champaign and at the end of the flight were presented with a bottle of Champaign and Red Wine. A great treat, but an upgrade would have been nicer .

Mark Chinery was kind enough to play taxi again and we were soon home to catch up on some sleep.

Unfortunately I was stuck with Ollie for another night as we were off to the Nationals the next day, where I could pass him on the next unlucky surrogate dad.

- Sorry for the delays in getting this blog updated, but been really busy at work since returning.

Check back again in a few days when I hope to have some pictures up, and a report from the Nationals.

GB Gets 2nd and 3rd? in F5D Team Event

darronr@tealbox.com (Darron Rodrigues) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:58:44 +0000

Ollie gets 2nd Place and Darron gets 3rd in the Neu-Castle F5D Mixed Team Event!

A little unexpected as they never announced the teams...

Overall a not so good WCh result for Team GB I guess, but lots to be happy about for the future.

More later, we fly back tomorrow and then off to the Nats to do this all over again!

Welcome to F5D

darronr@tealbox.com (Darron Rodrigues) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:39:21 +0000

FAI F5D is the international class for remote controlled electric powered pylon racing model aircraft.

We race these models round a 400 metre triangular course at speeds close to 200mph for 10 laps. It now only takes the top pilots less than 60 seconds to complete the course which is as fast as our "wet" fueled relatives.

RAF Wittering - 8th August 2010

john.heffer@live.co.uk (Scorian) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:36:13 +0000

The morning of Sunday 8^th August found us again in a remote corner of RAF Wittering, staring at almost perfect weather conditions. Wind was around 5 knots from the north west, with blue skies, scattered clouds and a few full sized gliders to keep us on our toes. We had a mixed entry in F5d of 6 pilots, 2 regulars, 2 nubies and 2 F5d virgins to keep us entertained. However, it should be noted that the F5d virgins were not innocents, being Ali Machinchy and Duncan Horlor!

4th July - Festival of Electric Speed MIddle Wallop

darronr@tealbox.com (Darron Rodrigues) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:52:01 +0000

The 3rd and 4th of July saw the 2nd Festival of Electrric Speed organised by the UK F5D A at the Middle Wallop Army Air Corps. Where we saw speeds up to 425kph!!!

This year saw international attendance in the form of serious F5S speedster, Michael Jakob from Germany flying his Eagle with 10kW+. The Saturday was spent with the speedsters practicing and the organisers fine tuning the electronic timing equipment. On Sunday, the weather had taken a turn for the worst with gusts up to 40mph. This didn't seem to bother the speedsters and was more of a problem for us, the organisers, as we had to battern down everything to stop pylons from falling over and gazibos from taking flight. In the end the electronic system worked well and the results were as follows:

F5D is faster than F3D

darronr@tealbox.com (Darron Rodrigues) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:51:31 +0000

Here's a short video from Wings and Wheels 2010.

The BMPRA were lucky enough to have a stand and some flying slots, so we put both an F5D and F3D model up at the same time to entertain the crowds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4KSjOU3bTI

I think that out of a dive F5D is significantly faster, but doing the short laps they were about the same, which if you consider how the tuned pipes and electric motors work makes some sense.

Video - Barkston June 2010

darronr@tealbox.com (Darron Rodrigues) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:41:06 +0000

1st League Event 2010 Wittering

rob@f5d.co.uk (Rob Ashley-Roche) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:58:43 +0000

1st	Darron Rodrigues	100%
2nd	Rob Ashley-Roche	71%
3rd	Tony Wilson	70%
4th	John Heffer	65%
5th	Ollie Witt	40%
6th	Joe Harvey	35%

Hi Race fans, we are back after a long wet old winter and kicked the first F5D event off of 2010 in beautiful sunshine and with full size gliders circling all around us catching thermals all day.

Germany Calling

rob@f5d.co.uk (Rob Ashley-Roche) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:42:29 +0000

My Alarm clock started beeping at 3.00am Friday the 23^rd October 2009 and I remember thinking I hate whoever it was that talked me into going to this German F5D event!

I had moved on to hating the World by the time Mark turned up at 3.30 am, but by 6.30am when we picked up Olli and Paul at Dover and I had moved towards thinking we all must be barking mad?

Last Event of 2009

rob@f5d.co.uk (Rob Ashley-Roche) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:49:24 +0000

It’s been a long flying season with 9 events planned for 2009; unfortunately due to the good old British weather 2 have been cancelled so far leaving 4^th of October 09 the date for the final and 7^th event of the year. With 2009 being the team selection year for the UK F5D team to compete in the World Champs during 2010 it has been quite a year for UK F5D with records being broken as well as models in an effort to make the team.

The first 2 team places are already secured however 3^rd is still up for grabs as Olli Witt failed to close the door at the last event on Ben Jones who is very much on Olli’s heals and improving at each event making this more than just another League event.