I thought I would share my first impressions of SEFF...
I had been to Mac Hodges field before, for a Dawn Patrol fly-in last Fall, so I wasn't surprised by how large and how nice the facilities were. What did surprise me was the turnout for the event!
I arrived late Wednesday night and showed up at the field on Thursday morning, the first official day of the event. There were already tons of people set up in the pit and camping areas and as it turns out they had been there already for several days. Some of them had arrived the previous weekend!
They had four flying areas set up along the length of the huge golf green runway:
1) Sport planes - more than 2 lbs or faster than 60 mph (6 pilot stations)
2) Park flyers - no more than 2 lbs and slower than 60 mph (10 pilot stations)
3) 3D flyers - 3D aircraft that were larger than park flyers (about 6 pilot stations)
4) Helicopters - A small area for helicopters (only 2 pilot stations)
The flight area for the sport planes was angled to help reduce possible collisions with the park flyers. They had cones at each end of the park flyer area to help separate the aircraft types. I think there were cones between 3D and helis too.
I don't remember how long the runway is, but it is HUGE. I did a LOT of walking during the event. Every time I went down to fly in the park flyer area, I took enough planes/batteries to fly at least twice!
There were OVER 500 registered pilots at the event, but the flight lines were never really that busy. Most times you could just walk up to an empty station and start flying. It did get busier in the evening when the winds calmed, but the wait wasn't nearly as long as the lines at E-Fest.
The noon time demos were neat, but they did chew up a lot of flight time. Absent this year was Mac Hodges B-29 (w/Bell X-1). I think it went in last summer when one wing came off in flight.
Hobby Lobby had a lot of new BIG old general aviation aircraft - classics like the Champ, Cub, etc. They also had a cool new Russian vectored thrust jet (SU-34) with dual ducted fans and functional vectored thrust!
Horizon had its fleet there. I liked the LARGE WWII warbird flight. They had 10-12 up at once - very impressive.
WOW planes was also there. They do WWII bombers and they seemed to fly well.
There were very few mid-airs during the event - except during the combat segment after the Saturday demos. Gene and I both participated. There were about 60 pilots total in the event. I've done several indoor full-contact combat events, but this was the first outdoor event. Gene's motor wouldn't spool up after he tossed it, so he didn't even get into the fray. I bumped into several planes, but a prop strike killed my motor and it wouldn't restart, so I was done. There didn't seem to be quite as much carnage as at the indoor events, probably due to the fact that there was more room.
The most spectacular crash occurred during the Saturday demos. It was an 88" Extra 300 3D plane. While it was flying knife edge, it disappeared into the trees and exploded! You can see the video here:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1043829There were LOTS of very nice models at the event. One guy had a twin-motored Vickers Wellington bomber, probably 8-10 foot span. He also had a Handley Page Halifax (4 motors) that was even larger! He flew both of them and they looked GREAT in the air!
I did take my camera, but didn't get a single photo. Too busy flying and too tired when I wasn't to take photos.
Would I do SEFF again? YOU BETCHA!!!
Maybe Gene and I can talk some of the other Indy folks into going down next year?
