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The University of Illinois Armory building is a great place for indoor electric flying!

 Hobbico, headquartered in Champaign Illinois, is the largest distributor of hobby products in the world, so it's not hard to understand why they are the host for the E-FEST electric indoor RC event at the University of Illinois Armory building in Champaign Illinois! The big E-FEST event took place over this last weekend (Feb 9-10, 2013) and I made the 4-hour drive (each way) over there on Saturday with my 11 year old nephew Jaxon to check it all out. I figured any huge electric RC event would have to be interesting to see, and it didn't hurt that Scaled Composites had also sent Elliot Seguin to the event to conduct a forum and do a little Scaled engineer recruiting. And for Jaxon, who so far only has a peripheral interest in aviation, I figured some exposure to the world of foam and electric flying toys would have to be a good idea : )

 Btw, if you're an engineer looking for one of the coolest companies in the world to work for, I suggest you check out the Scaled careers page right now, this is a rare period of strong growth for the company.

 It was great to meet up with Elliot from Scaled, and, the electric RC flying on display was absolutely fantastic. In fact, the entire event was fantastic. It reminded me of the good ole days... lots of cool people doing cool stuff in a kind, gentle, and orderly fashion, with no need for pesky heavy-handed supervision. You just don't see Americans able to operate like this much any more, and it was extremely refreshing to me. Along with all that goodness, the changes and advancement in the world of RC in the last few years are just incredible. As my financial situation is finally showing signs of noticeable improvement, I can promise you that some affordable electric RC flying machines are in my future! If things continue to improve, I'll eventually graduate from RC back into full scale! (actually, you never really graduate from RC, you just add full size fun to the mix!)

 The star of the show for me was this little Gee Bee R-2 available from E-flite, which appears to have been out for a year or so but I sure wasn't aware of it. Given my general obsession with all things Gee Bee, the existence of this little critter is a big deal to me. With a small 20.1 inch wingspan and a flying weight of just 3.6 ounces, this Gee Bee would seem like it would have to be a handful to fly. It would be if it wasn't for some amazing technology called AS3X incorporated into the electronics. AS3X is a stability enhancing system that basically keeps the aircraft on whatever flight path you put it in, yet it doesn't prevent you from making the airplane do whatever you want it to. It compensates for aircraft instability and air turbulence, and creates both an easy to fly airplane and one that looks soooo real in flight. It takes a small and extremely twitchy design like the Gee Bee and makes it a fantastic flyer!

 Check out this E-flite Gee Bee video to learn more about the airplane and see it in the air. I can't emphasize enough how real and 'scale' the several Gee Bee's I saw at E-Fest looked when in the air. It's just stunning to see them fly. This little Gee Bee is on my short list for getting back into RC once again. They're essentially a ready-to-fly airplane and can be found for just $99 with motor, battery, and servos already installed. All you need to complete is a compatible transmitter that can be bought for as little as $59 (if you don't need anything fancy) or, a more expensive transmitter (about $159 to $250) makes more sense if you plan to expand your hangar of flying toys. Without a doubt, these little foam 'scale' aircraft, and systems like AS3X are transforming small model flying!

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My 11 year old nephew Jaxon building a freely-provided foam rubber-powered flyer