Season update from Ian Emery, RC Heli Pilot...

Another top update from our friend & F3C RC heli pilot Ian Emery - we are proud & delighted to announce that he managed to finish an extremely impressive 3rd place in the British Nationals 🏆 last week!  

He'll be competing very close to home this coming weekend - as the Euro Heli Series comes to Abingdon in Oxfordshire on the 9th-10th September.  We hope the weather gods are kind, as there's an impressive field of international competitors in attendance (of course, we hope Ian has a massive home advantage 😉). 

Why not go along & support Ian if you can?

He has promised more exciting news soon, so we'll update you as soon as we find out what it is, but in the meantime check out his latest season update below:

"Scottish Nationals -

When I got back from Austria, I noticed the was a slight wobble with the elevator, I wasn't sure if this was connected to the previous issues I had experienced or something new, either way it wasn't the best news.  

By time I got to Scotland with one thing or another, I still hadn't figured out what was going on.  I had reduced the effect by altering some of the settings in the Flybarless controller but that was just hiding an underlying problem.  I had my Urukay with me but just didn't feel as comfortable with it compared to the JR Helicopters so I stuck with them.  With a constant elevator wobble in the hover, it didn't present very well to the judges and I think it was always at the back of my mind that there was something not quite right.  After 3 rounds I finished 4th and felt along way behind my close rival and friend Roger Mayo.

 

Germany -

The following weekend 5 British pilots traveled to Kleinenbroich in Germany for the second Euro Heli Series competition of the year which was really well attended.  The clubs in Europe are just superb with excellent facilities.  

After a rather blustery practice session on Friday afternoon, we all went out together to a Greek restaurant in a local town.  The best part about the Euro Heli Series is all getting together at the end of the day to socialize and have a good catch-up with friends that you only see a handful of times each year.  

Saturday was much calmer and after 2 fairly steady rounds I was down in 14th place.  

The final round was a different story, still battling with the elevator wobble, somehow it all came together and managed to get a great score which meant I moved up a few places and secured a spot in the finals for the Sunday.  The Fly off (Finals) Schedule is something I need to spend more time practicing, but with the wind direction in my non-preferred direction, I managed to get through 2 rounds and finished in 10th place gaining valuable World Cup points".

Ian with his valuable 10th place in the German leg of the Euro Heli Series, gaining World Cup points...

We are keeping our fingers (& toes) crossed for Ian's continued success & will update you on his progress again soon.  

GOOD LUCK IAN!!!!!

Ian Emery - RC Heli pilot season update...

We are excited to bring you a season update from the exceptionally busy Ian Emery today - check out all the happenings from the Euro Heli Series F3C season so far below:

Pre season and Austrian Competition

Ian's JR Sylphide

With one thing or another, it's been a bit of a funny year.  Pre-season I learnt that there was a significant chance that spare parts for my JR Sylphides were probably going to be an issue with the closure of JR. Although there was some light at the end of the tunnel with RC Depot in Japan stepping forward and taking on the World wide distribution of certain JR products which they would produce under licence.  Unfortunately it didn't look like the Sylphide parts would be among the supported items.  I was pretty confident going into the season as the Sylphides have proven to be so reliable, with the help and support of SMB Bearings of course!

some JR pre-competition servicing...

 I managed to get some flying in over the winter, although not as much as I would have hoped and the helicopters were performing well.  I did however decide that it might be good to get a helicopter that I could fly the F3C Schedules and be able to source parts if I needed them.  Having weighed up the various options, I decided on the SAB Urukay.  It had proven to be a good competition helicopter over the past few years and SAB had just released the latest version, the SAB Urukay Carbon. 

The SAB Urukay's 1st flight

I had some new and exciting venues to look forward to on the Euro Heli Series Calendar this year with F3C World Cup competitions in Austria, Germany, France and the final one at my club near Abingdon which will be in September.

I had been planning the Austria trip for some months, with 1100 miles each way I thought it would be a good opportunity for my Dad and I to have a bit of a road trip and stop off at some places along the way.  A week before we set off, I started having issues with my main helicopters rudder.  It had a really strange vibration. I stripped it down and had a look over it and couldn't see anything obvious.  I had run out of time, I had only had a handful of flights on the Urukay so decided I would take both Sylphide helicopters to Austria thinking that I could either use by backup machine or I could pinch parts off the backup to solve the issue that I was having with my preferred model. 

Snow-covered Alps...

 We set off early to catch the Eurotunnel, I had planned that we had to do 700 miles on day 1 which would allow me to stop off and take day 2 a little easier.  We stopped overnight in a lovely B&B near Ulm in Germany before heading to Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria the following morning.  

Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria.

The castle and surrounding area is absolutely  stunning, and if you ever get the opportunity to visit I would highly recommend it.  After a short stop we headed East towards Salzburg.  We had planned to go to a small town called Hallstatt on the edge of a lake but were running a little behind schedule so decided to head straight for the apartment we had booked into in Klopeiner see, about 10 minutes from the competition site.  Travelling through Bavaria and Austria I was lost for words, the scenery was breathtaking.

Because of the long drive we decided to get to the competition site a few days early which would give us a few days of much needed practice/maintenance before it got under way.  Annoyingly I was still having issues so I decided to swap tail units which solved the problem.  Expecting the backup model to now have the rudder issue, I lifted off into a hover and it was perfect. I had 2 serviceable helicopters which was a result but I still wasn't sure why I had the rudder issues in the first place. 

Saturday morning came round all too quickly and the competition began, it was great to see familiar faces and pilots I had not met before.  

All the pilots together 😄

Given the lack of practice pre-season, I was really pleased with how I was flying.  As always there was small things I would have liked to have to done differently, but on the whole I was pleased.  My fellow team mates Steve Roberts and Bruce Naylor were also flying really well.  Bruce used to fly F3C but was making a comeback in his first competition for several years.  It was like he had never been away but I think it was based on his secret Flight Mode 5 which I will explain another time.

Ian Emery (left) piloting & his pal Steve Roberts (right) calling for Ian...

 We were really looked after by everyone involved in organizing the event and members of the MFC Jauntal Club in St Stefan.  I managed to finish in a very respectable 8th place given the company I was in.  Most of the pilots there would be competing in the World Championships in Poland in July. 

Brilliant results - well done Ian!

Before I knew it, it was time to pack up the car and start the long journey back.  The Scottish Nationals was only 3 weeks away.

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Thanks so much Ian - we can't wait to hear all about the Scottish Heli Nats!  It's great that the Euro-Heli Series is gaining some much deserved recognition in the press - see the feature below from an international magazine recently:

We are so proud & delighted that SMB Bearings continue to be a very small part (quite literally 😅) of Ian's RC Heli journey & we look forward to bringing more news (& stunning photos) as his season continues...

All of us at SMB Bearings wish you a very Merry Christmas!

2015 has been a pretty hectic year at SMB Bearings, so we're looking forward to our Christmas break very much & hope that you are too!

We had a lovely, unexpected visit yesterday from our friend Ian Emery, an F3C RC helicopter enthusiast & organiser of the EuroHeliSeries.

Ian Emery & his gorgeous son Oliver...

Ian brought along some choccies, festive cheer & his very lovely son Oliver & we were delighted to have a catch-up on Ian's news & grab a quick snap of them in our new reception area.

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For us at SMB, the last pre-Christmas despatch date for any orders from our swanky new warehouse

 is the 23rd December.

Our new warehouse is gradually filling up with our new stock & extended ranges...

For many areas, the last posting date has already passed, but we still have a range of express courier delivery options available for urgent requirements - please contact us to discuss the options & avoid any disruption.

We are then closing on Christmas Eve afternoon & will re-open on the 4th January 2016.

All us of at SMB Bearings would like to wish you all the very best for the festive season & the coming year - we'll look forward to talking to you again in 2016!

Euro Heli Series news...

Our friend Ian Emery has been involved in the establishment in 2014, & growth in 2015, of the Euro Heli Series - a series of radio controlled helicopter competitions across Europe.  

The first two events have already taken place this year, in France & Belgium - & two more events follow in the autumn, the Netherlands &, just confirmed, now also in Slovenia.

Photo by Mark Christy, Belgium competitors 2014...

And the winners from Belgium 2015...

Ian visited us recently & told us some of the difficulties involved in arranging these events (not least being able to afford the judges required to make it an officially recognized F3C event) so we are thrilled that he's been able to gain the support & momentum required to make a go of it!  

Ian says "I am pleased to announce that the Moonlight Cup, held in Slovenia will be added to the Euro Heli Series Calendar for 2015. It will give pilots from other parts of Europe who can't make it to any of our other events an opportunity to get involved in the Euro Heli Series and as always everyone is welcome to come along.

This years Moonlight Cup will be held over the weekend of 11-13 September 2015. I will be adding a page to the website over the coming weeks and information will be added as it is confirmed.

Thank you to everyone who came to Vitry le francois and Lendelede over the past couple of weeks and to everyone involved in organising the events. It was great to catch up and really nice to see so many F3C pilots and judges there".

We'll bring your more news from Ian & his Euro Heli Series adventures throughout the season - in the meantime we wish Ian & his fellow competitors continued fun & success - happy flying guys!

F3C European RC Helicopter Series, new website launched today...

Congratulations to our friend & RC helicopter pilot Ian Emery, who has today launched this year's website for the F3C European RC Helicopter Series - it looks great Ian, well done!  

Ian says:
"There are still some areas that need updating but I hope to get that done over the next few weeks. It has some great new features including and F3C Event Calendar, a Twitter feed to provide updates on the build-up to a competition weekend and live updates throughout the weekend. There isn't really anywhere that people who want to get started in F3C can go to for information. We are hoping that the pilot profile and getting started pages can help to resolve this. Quick tips off experienced pilots can be added to help those just starting off.

I am also hoping that the website and the Euro Heli Series competitions could form the basis of the F3C World Cup events which everyone is wishing for".

Ian tackling some pre-flight maintenance...

Well Ian, we wish you every success with that - you've been so successful in creating the Euro Heli Series that surely a World Heli Series can't be far behind?!

Ian Emery, RC Helicopter pilot, competition update...

SMB Bearings have been friends (& fans) of Ian Emery for over two years now - the RC Heli pilot shares his F3C season update with us here:

"With a short break in the competition season I thought I would take the chance to let you know how I have been getting on.  This is my first year in F3C having moved up from Sportsman’s so I knew that this year was going to be a big challenge.

The first Competition of the year was held at Lendelede, Belgium over the weekend of 10/11 May 14. We got there nice and early on the Friday hoping to get some much needed practice in before the Competition started on the Saturday.  It turned out that you can plan everything down to the last letter but you can never rely on the weather.  

 

We were greeted by very strong winds with gusts of 38mph, not the ideal way to start my journey in F3C.  We all decided that it would probably be better not to fly so that we had a helicopter left to fly for the Competition.  Unfortunately the weather was extreme to say the least for the remainder of the weekend.  Somehow I managed to be drawn out of a hat to fly the calibration flight (this is to make sure the judges singing off the same hymn sheet).  A mixture of the weather and nerves my calibration flight was awful.  

Thankfully I managed to recover and put in a half descent round for my first round.  The second round, the wind had got worse again and it was touch and go whether we should stop flying. The wind was just inside the limits imposed by the FAI so it was voted on that we should continue.  Trying to keep the model still for the hovering manoeuvres was a nightmare, I decided to try the Aerobatic part of the schedule but it was just too much for me so I came in to land and save the model.  The final round on the Sunday was a little better.  Some of the flying by the other pilots was exceptional, especially the World Junior Champion Pierre Gutierrez and Arnaud Poyet from France and Steve Roberts from the UK.  I eventually finished 14^th, but learnt some very valuable things over the course of the weekend.

The next completion was the Scottish Heli Nats just south of Aberdeen at the beginning of June.  Thankfully the weather was much better.  The whole weekend was very enjoyable as always.  I was doing quite well with my flying also lying in 3^rd place going into the last round.  For some reason I had a mental block going into the penultimate manoeuvre putting in all of the wrong collective inputs to compensate for the wind earning myself a big fat Zero for that manoeuvre dropping me down to 5^th.  It finished very close with only a few points splitting 3^rd to 5^th. Very disappointing from my perspective but these things happen and hopefully you learn from them and move on.  

The following weekend we made the long trip to Toldijk in the Netherlands for the second round of the Euro Heli Series.  Everything was looking good for a good weekend - a beautiful setting, fantastic weather and amazing hosts.  I felt as though I was really starting to get somewhere with my flying and my model setup,  managing to put in 3 good rounds on the Saturday leaving me in 6^th.  There are always areas for improvement but I was happy knowing that there was just 1 more round to fly on the Sunday.  I dropped one place after the round on Sunday but was very happy to finish 7^th but from a personal view my scores have steadily been improving throughout the 3 competitions.  

By time we had got home we had travelled over 2000 miles in just 10 days and was very much in need of a break."

Thanks for the update Ian, what an amazingly busy season so far!  We'll bring you more news on Ian's escapades as the season progresses.

Ian Emery, RC Helicopter Pilot update...

We've had a great update from our friend Ian Emery - he has been instrumental in organising the new Euro Heli Series, whilst still competing himself, working full time & looking after his lovely family ...

"Well it’s a little over a week until the first F3C Competition of the 2014 Season so I thought I had better give you an update.  As previously mentioned there have been many changes for this year.   A new schedule is in place for this year, although as this is my first year in F3C I knew I would have to learn a new schedule anyway. 

I have been busy organising the Euro Heli Series competition, which will be a total of 4 F3C events in total to be held in Belgium, France, Holland and the final one here in the UK in September.  I’ve been making the most of the good weather and getting out flying as often as I could.  Moving up to F3C just seems like such a big jump from the Sportsman’s class I have been flying in over the past few years.  

There have also been changes in the rules on helicopter setup.  For the first time in F3C competition, flybarless helicopters are allowed.  This brings even more choices. Is a 2 rotor blade or 3 rotor blade setup best? What flybarless controller to choose? Would I be better keeping a flybar and paddle setup?  I have tried most options but think I now have the best setup.  

For me, I think the 3 bladed rotor head offers the best all-round feel and I am lucky enough to be flying the Spartan RC Vortex flybarless system which is superb.  As for the bearings supplied by SMB, I stripped both helicopters during the Winter to check for wear and tear.  These bearings are now over 2 years old and not a single one needed replacing which is fantastic.  

The rubber sealed bearings on the main mast bearing blocks are really holding up well as they are designed to keep dust and grit from entering the bearing.  I would like to say a big thank you to SMB Bearings for their continued support.  I travel to Belgium for the first competition next week to compete against some of the best F3C pilots in Europe, it’s going to a big challenge but I’ve got to start somewhere.  I will keep you updated".

Thanks Ian!  We very much appreciate the positive feedback on our precision EZO bearings & we hope that they continue to bring you good fortune.  We'd all like to wish you every success with your forthcoming competitions & with the Euro Heli Series.