Indoor News and Views

Rey Mazzocco’s Cat III AMA Record F1L

Click here to download a PDF of the plan.

March 23^rd 2019 looked promising at West Baden.  Sun was shining and the outside temperature was due to rise throughout the day.  I put up some flights on a new LPP earlier in the day and saw that the air was getting better as expected.  Pulled out a mini-stick and had some motorstick bending issues.  Pondered that for a while then decided it was time to fly the F1L.  Air was really starting to settle nicely.

I thought that I had it dialed in. Just had to launch it in the right spot at the right time. First flight ended up too far over to the side and got hung up in the rafters. Under high torque it flies straight for a while before it starts its turn. Luckily Mike Kirda was able to reach it with a pole from one of the balconies. I launched my second flight too flat and it immediately tucked. Launched again and it centered just to the side of the glass “pizza” after a long slow climb. Touched a beam once and dropped about 10′ then just sat there circling in the same spot. No steering necessary. When Mike Kirda told me the time was over 20 minutes I was elated since I hadn’t broken 20 minutes before in any event. I didn’t realize that it was a record until walking back to the table when several flyers congratulated me.  By that time it was after 5pm so no additional flights were possible.

The air the next day was not nearly as good due to a change in weather outside so I had to settle for one flight…but I’ll take it!

The plane itself “F1Lched”, (defined as: pilfer or steal in a casual way), was built a couple of years ago.  The design of the plane is a collection of the traits I liked from several of the currently high performing models.  The first propeller had differential flaring issues that I fought for a while before giving in and building a second one.  This second propeller has worked flawlessly.    It hasn’t been flown all that much as of yet.