2008 Season
2008 was a successful season for UK F5B. The majority of flyers were in open class indicating the switch to LiPo has made things a little easier in the handling of models, preparation of batteries and general availability of equipment. The biggest change this year was the availability of theenergy limiter. Most UK pilots used the SM Unilogger unit, with the exception of George who used his own based on the BNB logger. All units proved to be reliable all year, and the data obtained for fine tuning setups is invaluable. Dick built a limiter tester, which verified the accuracy of the units that had been used all season. Nice to know the limiter can now be considered an accurate and reliable piece of equipment after all the initial speculation. It emerged that the battery equation is removed, although using warm cells does give an advantage during the first few climbs, replicating what we found out with the late generation NiMHs.
In general equipment, the motor selections didn't change, with Hacker being a favourite choice, but a number of pilots used the Neu motors. Only one pilot, Mark, used Plettenberg, but generally each motor was comparable in terms of performance and power output. 4, 5 and 6S setups were flown, with no setup showing any distinct advantage over any other, although the flexibility offered by the LiPo power source meant switching from 4S to 5S and dropping a prop size gave pilots different options.
What did emerge was matching the power output and delivery to a pilots flying style is more important than out and out power. Pilots flew various models, but the favourite for speed and stability was the Avionik B06. Jos Mouris experimented with the Surprise range, lengthening fuselages and these proved to be fast and stable. Steve Burns flew the Enigma, and in the Nationals showed that this is a capable model posting a 38 leg score in round 2. Mark and George converted to 2.4GHz from 35MHz which is definitely comforting when whizzing around at 180Mph and sharing the field with other Club flyers. Both the Futaba system (Mark & George) and the Spektrum system (Jos) worked without problems with the course equipment and high power models. So to the competitions. Weather played a major factor. Only two days were blessed with decent weather, with the other days either being wet, windy or both. But we persevered and managed a full season of events.
Nigel took the league and Nationals titles, winning all events except one, which was taken by Alan. The league proved to be very tight, with around 4% covering the top pilots in most events. All pilots improved and the top 5 pilots were generally posting 40 leg scores in most events dependant upon conditions. All pilots were caught out at least once with the limiter and had to land early.
Equipment proved to be reliable, with only one or two speed controller problems, the most spectacular being Dicks smoker in his S-13. Major concerns centred around the ability of propellers being able to handle high powers which could be delivered, although only a couple of failures attributed to old units were seen.
So that concludes the excellent 2008 UK F5B season, except for the UK Team who have to do it all again in September! We must be mad!
In general equipment, the motor selections didn't change, with Hacker being a favourite choice, but a number of pilots used the Neu motors. Only one pilot, Mark, used Plettenberg, but generally each motor was comparable in terms of performance and power output. 4, 5 and 6S setups were flown, with no setup showing any distinct advantage over any other, although the flexibility offered by the LiPo power source meant switching from 4S to 5S and dropping a prop size gave pilots different options.
What did emerge was matching the power output and delivery to a pilots flying style is more important than out and out power. Pilots flew various models, but the favourite for speed and stability was the Avionik B06. Jos Mouris experimented with the Surprise range, lengthening fuselages and these proved to be fast and stable. Steve Burns flew the Enigma, and in the Nationals showed that this is a capable model posting a 38 leg score in round 2. Mark and George converted to 2.4GHz from 35MHz which is definitely comforting when whizzing around at 180Mph and sharing the field with other Club flyers. Both the Futaba system (Mark & George) and the Spektrum system (Jos) worked without problems with the course equipment and high power models. So to the competitions. Weather played a major factor. Only two days were blessed with decent weather, with the other days either being wet, windy or both. But we persevered and managed a full season of events.
Nigel took the league and Nationals titles, winning all events except one, which was taken by Alan. The league proved to be very tight, with around 4% covering the top pilots in most events. All pilots improved and the top 5 pilots were generally posting 40 leg scores in most events dependant upon conditions. All pilots were caught out at least once with the limiter and had to land early.
Equipment proved to be reliable, with only one or two speed controller problems, the most spectacular being Dicks smoker in his S-13. Major concerns centred around the ability of propellers being able to handle high powers which could be delivered, although only a couple of failures attributed to old units were seen.
So that concludes the excellent 2008 UK F5B season, except for the UK Team who have to do it all again in September! We must be mad!
Competitor |
Class
|
Country
|
30-Mar
|
20-Apr
|
11-May
|
01-Jun
|
26-Jun
|
27-Jul
|
25-Aug
|
Total (best 5 from 7)
|
Nigel Potter |
F5B
|
UK
|
100.00%
|
100.00%
|
99.97%
|
100.00%
|
100.00%
|
100.00%
|
100.00%
|
500.00%
|
George Shering |
F5B
|
UK
|
98.37%
|
96.78%
|
99.87%
|
98.02%
|
87.24%
|
98.51%
|
83.65%
|
491.55%
|
Mark Haigh |
F5B
|
UK
|
97.94%
|
91.49%
|
96.82%
|
98.25%
|
87.80%
|
97.82%
|
99.07%
|
489.90%
|
Jos Mouris |
F5B
|
NL
|
66.00%
|
93.15%
|
96.43%
|
97.46%
|
36.92%
|
95.19%
|
98.23%
|
480.45%
|
Alan Flockhart |
F5B
|
UK
|
97.06%
|
94.73%
|
100.00%
|
98.58%
|
76.69%
|
82.30%
|
472.67%
|
|
Dick Whitehead |
F5B
|
UK
|
90.62%
|
89.92%
|
92.85%
|
91.62%
|
89.98%
|
84.47%
|
93.57%
|
458.64%
|
Steve Burns |
F5B
|
UK
|
85.67%
|
89.91%
|
89.63%
|
47.77%
|
90.11%
|
94.39%
|
449.72%
|
|
Tony Wilson |
800
|
UK
|
76.97%
|
82.49%
|
83.85%
|
85.39%
|
85.65%
|
88.68%
|
88.15%
|
431.72%
|
Malcolm Tye |
F5B
|
UK
|
72.27%
|
79.12%
|
151.39%
|
|||||
Stephen Mettam |
800
|
UK
|
74.48%
|
74.48%
|
||||||
Alan Carr |
800
|
UK
|
6.88%
|
6.88%
|