Team Futaba in Miami Fl.

Ivan Kristensen, Don Mclellan, Stephen Hamilton, Don Hamilton, Steve Dionne and Jim Woodward.

The above picture was taken at the IMAC contest in Miami Fl. hosted by the AMPS club. Out of the almost 60 contestants we were 5 "Team Futaba" members present seen here with my QQ YAK-54.

This also was the first time we had a chance to show off our new "Team" shirts which is a great looking shirt and very comfortable one to wear in the hot temperatures of South Florida.

At this event I was joined by another 4 Canadians, we posed for photographs while practising at a superb flying field in Delray Beach Fl.

Rick Kroeze, Denis Plante, Steve Dionne, Don Mclellan and Ivan K. Click on picture for larger image.

I think we did quite well in the competition coming away with 2 second place trophy's, Rick getting a second place in Intermediate and my self a second in unlimited. Don, Steve and Denis placing 4th, 5th and 8th in Unlimited respectively.

A web album with a report on this event can be found here

Day two of SE Region IMAC opener in Port St. Lucie Florida Jan. 19-20. 60 contestants registred to fly in 5 classes

From L to R: Stephen Hamilton, Ivan Kristensen,Bryan Luckett, Butch Moser, David Moser and Don Hamilton.

WOW, what a difference a day makes! Yesterday we were melting in 28 degree C (82F)heat with a very high humidity and today we had a high of 15 degrees C. The temperatures dipped into the single digits overnight with heavy rain and T-storms. At 7:15 on our way to the field this morning the temperature was 10degrees C. (50F) with a strong wind out of the north.

Unfortunately with rain threatening and the cold wind out of the north continuing to build the CD decided to delay start of flying to 9am. At about 9:30am it was decided to call it a contest.

The scores were tabulated and the results were announced. I am not able to give you all the results here except for the once I can remember. A complete list of winners will be available on the IMAC site later.


In Unlimited David Moser placed 1st. David is only 17 years old and flying very well, I can't even imagine having had those skills when I was 17.



I managed to pull off a second place in unlimited just ahead of Jason Shulman.
Only 40+ points separated 1st. and 3rd.




Jason finished in 3rd place by only a very few points. We were only 4 people in unlimited and all of us were flying well, it was anyone's contest to win and had we flown an unknown this morning the result could very easily have been different.



Mike Remsberg got a lucky break this weekend when he hit a Buzzard with his 40% Carden. Unbelievably the only damage was a broken carbon fiber Mejzlik prop and , of course, the Buzzard didn't do so well.

Ivan K., Jorden and Justin Hardison & Jason Shulman.

SE Region IMAC Opener Jan. 19-20

The South East Reginal IMAC opener will be hosted by the Sundancer's R/C Flying Club of Port St. Lucie Fl. This club is my "home club" while I am staying in Florida for the winter. We have a great flying field located only 21km. south of the RV Park where we are staying in Ft. Pierce.

This was the view down the flight line at 1:30 this afternoon. As you can see there were lineups of 5 to 6 airplanes deep to ea. of two flight lines.
Already this morning when I got to the field at around 8:30 for a few rounds of last minute practice I found a dozen or so fliers setting up with the same thing in mind.

The weather started out with a low overcast and light winds but quite warm. Today's high reached 25degrees C with a high humidity. The forecast for the weekend is not too good with some rain and t-storms.

If time permits I will keep you up-to-date with information and scores from this contest.

Ivan K.

Testing the Futaba 2.4GHz

A few days into the new year I received the Futaba 2.4GHz FASST (Futaba Advanced Spread Spectrum Technology) receiver and transmitter module for my 14MZ. I immediately went to work and downloaded and installed the new software required for the transmitter from the Futaba site. The downloading and installation process is quite simple and went without a hitch.


The 14 channel 2.4GHz receiver is a perfect retrofit for the G-3 receiver so the installation was very easy as well. After carefully checking all the controls I found no change in the way it operated all the servos.

With all the prep work done it was off to the field for the first test flight. The range check exceeded the specified minimum by 75% both with or without the engine running so I was pretty confident that everything would be ok.

The test flight went perfectly and I now have about 10 flights on this new system and so far I am very impressed with the way it works. No trim change or deflection changes were required, the airplane behaves exactly the way it did before. BTW the test airplane was my 40% QQ YAK-54.

The real test will come this weekend when I will be competing in the SE IMAC opener in Port St. Lucie Florida.

Dec. 31st. and New Years Eve.

Preston Blake, Judy and Gerry Dale and Ivan K. Click on pictures for larger images.

On December 31st. Dianne and I found ourselves visiting our friends Preston and Mary Blake in Gainesville Florida. This was the first stop in our planned 3 month stay in this sunny state away from the cold snd the snow of Canada this time of year.

Of course, how could a couple of keen RC'ers get together on a warm day like that without planning a flying session. So we called another mutual friend, Gerry Dale from Ocala to join us.


Late afternoon we were joined by our wives and we all went to Casey's restaurant for dinner in Archer Fl. a little town about 20 miles west of Gainesville and very close to the RC field. Here we had a good time together and a very nice meal and brought in the New Year in an appropriate way.

Long time friend and fellow Canadian Gerry Dale and his wife Judy now living in Ocala Florida.

Transmitter Stick Mode!

I have been told that 4 out of the top 5 at the recent Pattern (F3A) World Championship in Argentina used Mode I stick configuration on their transmitters. This gives me reason to promote my Mode III stick set-up which I have been using for many years. Futaba makes this Mode available in most of their transmitters but they call it "Mode IIII".

Lets begin with an explanation of the 3 main stick configuration in use today.
The most popular and widely used stick configuration is Mode II. On this mode we have throttle & rudder on LH stick , aileron & elev on RH stick.

Mode I is a carry over from the old reed days and here we have rudder & elev. on the LH stick with throttle & aileron on the RH stick. Mode III is the reverse of Mode I with throttle & aileron on the left, rudder & elev. on the right.

Now I can hear the arguments already and I would agree that a good case could be made for learning to fly on the stick mode that is most popular in your area.
For general sport flying for you to learn to fly on mode II may well be the best way for you to begin. But if you have any ambitions of flying aerobatics competitively then Mode I or Mode III is definitely the way to go.

Here is why, I will use Mode III for my explanation as this is the one I use but the same principles applies to Mode I.

On Mode III aileron control is placed on your left hand along with throttle. Now imagine doing a slow roll, all you have to do is lean the stick slightly to the left or right to establish the roll rate and all the co-ordination is done with rudder and elevator on your right hand. Being right handed would be some benefit here.

This ability to co-ordinate all the corrective inputs with the right hand applies to all rolling maneuvers incl. rolling loops and rolling circles as well giving this pilot a great advantage over the one having to use two sticks to accomplice the same thing.

Quite some years ago as a result of my influence two already accompliced pattern fliers in Canada switched from Mode II to Mode III and they both went on to win the Canadian Nationals, one of them shared the podium with myself and one other team member when we won the team world championship in Australia in 1991.

I would also point out that Gernot Bruckman of Austria who won the free style at the recent Tucson Shootout is flying mode III so there is a lot of evidence in support of this set-up.

Now I don't want to give anyone the idea that switching stick modes will somehow make you a winner. Flying aaerobatics is all about practice, set up and reducing pilot workload. I strongly believe that mode III reduces pilot workload and that Mode III is the best option for a person who is right handed where Mode I would be best suited for a left handed person.

Indoor electric flying.

Today Terry Tripp and I went to Rim Park in Waterloo Ont. to fly our some indoor foamies. This is a popular activity in this area in the off season as we have a wonderful facility at Rim Park.

Terry torque rolling his Micro Epic.

The space we have to fly in we refer to as the "Field House". It is an indoor soccer field, I don't have the actual measurements but it is very large and one of the best facilities in Southern Ontario for indoor flying.








Anyone can come and fly here, all you have to do is call first to make sure the field house is not in use, book a time and pay $6.00 per hour per person.

Interesting detail on LE of Terry's plane.

Also, check this link for lots of photos and an excellent article Terry has written on building light foamy airplanes.



There is nothing organized but often Friday afternoons a group of us are there.



My Epic

Ocala Fl. IMAC contest

This past weekend Oct. 20-21, 2007 I competed in the Ocala Fl IMAC contest hosted by the Ocala Model Flying Club and CD'ed by Fred Johnson and assisted by his wife Julie and son Baron.

Fred Johnson, contest director.

I got to the Ocala area several days before the contest began giving me a chance to fly the '07 IMAC sequence again after having been away form it for quite a while to practice for and fly in the (TAS) Tucson Aerobatic Shootout.

The Ocala Model field is a beautiful place especially after having spent a month or so in the Desert of Arizona it was great to be back to green grass and not dirt and dust.

As a special bonus of arriving early I had a chance to go for an airplane ride with Fred Johnson in his T-6 Texan. Fred picked me up at the field early one morning and took me to Leeward Air Ranch where he lives and has his hangar.

After the mandatory preparations and walk around I got a quick lesson in how to get in and out of a T-6, I was then strapped into the back seat with a parachute and restraining harnesses and a Bose noise cancelling headset completed my preparations.

During start up and taxiing away from the hangar Julie Johnson was in charge of taking pictures. Julie is a digital photography "shutter bug" and took a series of great pictures, far too many for me to post here.

After take off we proceed west to a practice area near the town of Dunnellen where Fred took me through a series of maneuvers, a loop, barrel roll, a Cuban eight ans so on, I even got to take the T-6 through a loop on my own (with some assistance from Fred). After all that I suddenly wasn't feeling too well so we landed in Dunnellen for fuel and returned to our home field soon after that. What a fantastic experience and one I will not soon forget. Thanks Fred.

Back to the contest. We had two great weather flying days for this event with 48 contestants, of significance it is worth mentioning that we had 18 competitors in the Basic class many of whom were first timers. IMAC is alive and growing in the SE region for sure and seems to be in the rest of both the US and Canada as well.

I flew my new YAK-54 from Quique Aircraft Co. to a first place finish in this contest. This is a 120" version and the latest in their now well know YAK-54 series of airplanes.

Quique now has this airplane in stock at the very modest price of $1800.00 check it out on the web at this URL http://qqaircraft.com/

This is a great flying machine! I now have about 120 flights on it and have really come to appreciate its VERY strong rudder and perfect axial rolls. At 42.5 lbs it does require a strong running engine. A DA-150 on Greeves pipes combined with a Mejzlik 30x12 2 bladed prop is plenty of Power.


I really enjoyed this contest and met many old friends and made some new ones as well, of course it helps coming away with a first place trophy.

Here I am receiving the first place trophy from Julie Johnson.

David Moser, my young 17 year friend from Florida has been giving me a lot of trouble in unlimited ever since he moved up to this catagory a couple of years ago. In fact I have not been able to beat him in any of the 4 or 5 contest we have flown in together until this one. David placed a close second though.


I congratulate David on his early success, he is a great R/C pilot and has a wonderful personality. David, I predict that you will be successful in whatever endeavour in life you choose.

David Moser calling for me in the last round of the contest on Sunday.

I mentioned that we had great flying weather and we did. Somehow the weather gods were looking after us as it wasn't 10 minutes after the trophy presentations were complete before the skies open up in a torrential downpour. And so ended another successful IMAC contest and a good time was had by all.

Ivan K.