Friendly Flying: 2nd Swiss Indoor Coax Helicopter Cup 2009

2nd Swiss Indoor Coax Helicopter Cup 2009

On Sunday, March 22, 2009, the Rapperswil-Jona Model Flying Club organized the 2nd Swiss Indoor Coax Helicopter Cup 2009 at the Grünfeld Sports Hall. A total of 19 pilots gathered for this event. The hall, with its excellent facilities, was simply ideal for this repeat event.

The competition began at 10 a.m. with a briefing. Beautiful models representing a wide range of real-world prototypes were on the starting line: Lamas, Ecureuil, EC135, Agusta Koala, etc. The course consisted of three landing areas (23 × 20 cm), arranged in the shape of a triangle with 50-centimeter sides on a table (made of gymnastics mats in our case). The two turn markers were set up 4 meters from the table and 4 meters apart from each other

. The three external loads were placed on the right-hand landing area. The time limit for the entire course was a maximum of 3 minutes. The sequence of a run was as follows: The helicopter took off from the left landing area and climbed to a minimum height of 50 cm, where it performed a left- or right-handed pirouette followed by a landing in the same area. If the rotor shaft was within the circle when extended, the pilot received 100

Points; 50 points for landings outside the circle. These requirements applied to all subsequent landings. The pilot then had to fly to the right landing area. There, the pilot had to pick up a load and place it on the third landing area. Landing on the field earned 100 points. Then it was back to the first—and thus left—landing field. Immediately afterward, the pilots flew to the two turn markers. There, they had to fly two complete figure-eights and return to the left landing field. This landing concluded the run. The pilots had to get used to this course, as they were unable to practice beforehand. From the first to the second round, improvements in the pilots’ precision and speed were evident. Both rounds were completed without any notable incidents. Jan Ribak (age 12) won the junior division. Thanks to the participation of Torsten Steinau from Germany, the event took on an international character. Everyone had a great time. At 3:30 p.m., the awards ceremony took place, during which fantastic prizes from the two companies Graupner and

Hope. These were awarded by lottery, giving everyone another chance to take home a great prize. A big thank you goes out to the sponsors and participants. We look forward to another edition with many participants, likely during the winter months of 2010. *Eric Ribak*