Radio Control: Helicopters
Dave Chesney
This month's column is devoted to a letter I received from Horace Hagen, who spent 10 days in Finland last May by invitation of the Finnish Aeronautic Association. The following comments and the photos are from Horace's trip. I hope you will enjoy them as I did.
Horace Hagen's Visit to Finland
While attending the 1981 FAI/CIAM meeting in Paris, my friend Matti Jyllila invited me to visit Finland and fly in a helicopter fly-in/contest. My reply was "Yes," followed by "What about the expense of the trip?" Matti replied that the airfare could be paid by the Finnish Aeronautical Association. Needless to say, I was quite surprised but a little skeptical, because I did not know whether Matti could convince the people back home; however, a few months later Matti called to tell me the ticket was ready.
My Finnair flight left New York on May 17, 1982 at 7:30 p.m., and I arrived in Helsinki at noon on May 18. I was greeted by Matti and his daughter, Mari, and after clearing my fairly large crate through customs, we mounted the crated Jet Ranger on the roof rack of Matti's car and drove about 20 km north to his home in Vantaa.
Upon arrival at Matti's home, I met his lovely wife, Tuula, and got a quick tour of the neighborhood. A little while later we opened the shipping crate and inspected the Jet Ranger to determine if it had survived the long trip. It had. We then rode to another part of town and had lunch with another helicopter pilot, Mauri Gadd. Mauri and I had even more in common because, besides being the first to fly a model helicopter in our respective countries, he also works for a telecommunications firm.
For a day or two we spent time sightseeing and then visited a public school where Matti had been involved overseeing a course on building model airplanes. The day of our visit marked the end of the course, and the small balsa airplanes were ready to be test-flown. Although not all of the models flew well, the ones that did brought back memories of my early days of modeling. It was a delightful experience. At the end of the flying session, Matti and I showed a film on model helicopter flying which the fourth graders seemed to really enjoy. After our visit to the school, we were invited for coffee and cake at the home of one of the teachers. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful day and showed how hospitable the Finnish people are.
The following Friday I was picked up by limousine and driven to Dalsbruk, a town of about 3,000 population and home of Raimo Makkonen. Raimo is also a model helicopter pilot and is director of a large company. After a day of fishing and a picnic lunch among the islands of the gulf, we had dinner at Raimo's home.
Raimo and I swapped stories and I showed movies of some of the helicopter flying from back home. I couldn't believe my eyes when Raimo pulled out a scrapbook covering his flying experiences, and I discovered a copy that I wrote for Model Airplane News back in July 1972 describing my experiences with the original Schlüchter Cobra. One never knows who reads one's articles, does one?
The Contest at Nummela
The following morning, Raimo and I drove to the contest site at Nummela airport. We arrived around 11:00 and found about 15 fellow enthusiasts already at the site. Mauri Gadd had brought my Jet Ranger, and once I had assembled it I requested some fuel. Most of the fliers in Finland use a castor-oil–based fuel rather than synthetic oil and very little nitro. I usually use 10% nitro, 22% synthetic oil, and the remainder methanol, and so, after a bit of a search, I had to agree to try foreign fuel. It was quite similar to U.S. fuel; the engine ran well, and I was favorably impressed. They typically settle for 5% nitro and 20% synthetic oil. During the trim flight I found I had to close the needle valve about a half-turn to compensate.
I did a few of my favorite maneuvers, including maximum-performance quick stops, high-speed reverse takeoffs, high-speed low-level passes, stall turns, tail spins and a few autorotations to shoulder height. When I returned to the pit area I was asked what changes I had made to make the machine fly like that. After I gave my "secrets" away, I did add that I had been flying this particular helicopter for almost eight years. I also wanted to convey that a machine will fly well if it is trimmed well; this can sometimes take a whole season to accomplish and only one crash to eradicate, unless one takes careful steps to record each trim adjustment.
The contest got underway after lunch with Daniel von Nandelstadt, the contest director (CD), and myself as judges. The contest maneuvers consisted of a subset of official FAI maneuvers plus one fun-fly type maneuver which required tipping over a plastic bottle.
Although there were about 20 helicopters on the field, only five fliers decided to give competition a try. I was a little disappointed but remembered our humble beginnings here on the East Coast in 1976, when we held our first chopper contest. They had entered in competition two Hirobo Mini-Stars, one collective-pitch Kavan Alouette, one fixed-pitch Kavan Alouette, and one Schlüchter Heliboy. Other helicopters flew aside from the contest. This phenomenon seems to be a worldwide problem, because we see the same thing here in the States.
Two rounds were flown each of the two days. At the close of Saturday's flying, we ate, then gathered in one of the motel conference rooms to look at helicopter movies. One of these featured the full-scale Sikorsky S-58, while the other showed the history of model helicopters starting with John Burken's first world record flight set in 1969, followed by Dieter Schlüchter flying his Huey Cobra in 1970 (which I had taken when I visited him in 1970). The film continued with my helicopter demonstrations at several Toledo and WRAM shows and finished with demos of the newest machines. Some of us swapped lies about helicopters after the show until we couldn't keep our eyelids open any longer.
Sunday's flying ended a little before 3:00 p.m. We had to clear the site to make room for the Finnish FAI control-line team racers' practice session. The contest results were tabulated as follows:
- Raimo Makkonen — 801 points, Heliboy
- Seppo Lehtinen — 738 points, Mini-Star
- Heiki Pukkinen — 709 points, Alouette (collective-pitch)
- Mauri Gadd — 706 points, Alouette (fixed-pitch)
- Jyrki Lehtinen — 599 points, Mini-Star
The affair was organized by Lennokkikerho PeliKaani R.Y. (Pelican Model Airplane Club) and directed by Daniel von Nandelstadt with help from Mauri Gadd. Prizes were awarded later Sunday afternoon at the motel. It was my honor to receive a prize for the nicest-looking helicopter, as selected by spectators. The set of calipers made a nice addition to my workshop.
Final Days and Thanks
For the next few days I stayed with Mauri Gadd, then returned to Matti's home near Helsinki Airport. On my last day, Matti and I were invited to lunch with Sandy Pivnick, president of the FAI/CIAM. I really enjoyed chatting with Sandy about international model concerns. A point he made that concerned U.S. modelers is that we should think more of the rest of the world so that the FAI committees can arrive at rules and regulations that represent the best compromise among all nations.
I would like to especially thank my friend, Matti Jyllila, for making this trip possible. Thanks also to Raimo Makkonen and Mauri Gadd for taking time from their busy jobs so that they could entertain me. And finally, thanks to Marke Roning for showing me the sights in and around the beautiful city of Helsinki.
I have been very fortunate during the past 11 years flying RC helicopters. I have been on many trips to air shows and contests throughout the U.S.A., but this trip to Finland has left a special impression that I will not forget. I really felt welcome throughout my stay in Finland. I hope my new friends can come and visit the U.S.A. and I can reciprocate. Until that time, I will say a heartfelt "Kiitos," "Hyvästi," and "Näkemiin" to my Finnish friends.
Many thanks to Horace for sharing some of his experiences with us.
Next month, I'll make a report on the Washington, D.C. Schlüchter Cup — can you believe it; it finally made an appearance. Good flying.
Dave Chesney P.O. Box 16612, Greensboro, NC 27416.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
