NEF NE Ohio Indoor Electric Festival (replaces HEF) MARCH 21-23 - AKRON OHIO

[Marc Stermer]

Geneva's "Holiday Electric Festival" is relocating to Akron this year!
This will become the NE Ohio Electric Festival.
You can call it "NEF" for short. It's coming soon - March 21-23.

We're very excited about the venue, the location, and the prospect of continuing what we started in a much bigger metropolitan area. It's also right in the FliteTest home turf. Lazertoyz is our main vendor and of course you can find all kinds of FT gear at Lazertoyz.

Here's a list of some key things to note:
Akron is about an hour closer for all of our friends to the south
Akron is very easy to get to, and isn't in the snow belt
The venue is on the University of Akron campus - college towns are exciting and there are a lot of restaurants & hotels around. Downtown Akron is minutes away.
The venue's GIGANTIC main flying area is just as big as the previous one (approx. 300 x 250 feet)
We'll still have separate flying areas set up for 3D, Micro, Helis, and our special F3P contest
The venue offers a few improvements that our pilots will appreciate:
--no wind currents from HVAC
--higher ceiling with painted ceiling beams (no "strobe" effect)
--beautiful smooth carpet everywhere

We'll have a good collection of our usual fun flying activities and several contests happening at the event, lots of pilot prizes, a fantastic raffle with a prize worth $2000 (A trip to the Reno Races!!), and there will be a F3P competition going on too. This will all happen two weeks before the Weak Signals' Toledo show.

This is an AMA-sanctioned event. MARCS is the host AMA club and a portion of the proceeds of this event will benefit cancer research. 100% of the main raffle proceeds will go to this cause! Please check out the event flyer (attached). NOTE: the full-size version can be downloaded on our website.
Our website is: www.ohioelectricfly.com Check the website for event info, pilot registration, vendor registration, "the rules", event information, and so on. Pilots can register on-line or at the door.
Check out our FACEBOOK page, you can find that under "NE Ohio Electric Festival". If you "Like" that page you will automatically receive updates as they're posted.

 

[Marc Stermer]

FLYING NIGHTS IN JANUARY

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

For a much-needed "warmup" for the main event, we'll have two indoor flying nights arranged at this venue during January and one in February!
This is for AMA pilots, cost is $15.00 per night.
If you register in advance on the NEF website you can get both nights for $25.00
Of course you can also pay at the door but the 2-night deal is only available on line.

That will be on Friday Jan 17th from 8-10pm, and Friday Jan 31st from 8-11pm
And also Friday Feb 14th, 8-10pm
Click here for Directions

If we get a decent turnout, we may be able to stay until 11pm but we'll have to wait and see!

LAZERTOYZ will be at the flying nights!!

This is just a fun-fly and no special events or contests are planned. We will have separate sections roped off for 3D and for F3P practice. As far as "rules" and limitations, please refer to the general guidelines here.

 

[Marc Stermer]

Heres a video, there's nothing particularly special about it video (its not high quality) but for any of you who haven't seen this place, it can give you an idea of what it's like. My B17 has an 8-foot wingspan. I can tell you that it is a LOT easier to fly in here, compared with other indoor venues such as the Columbus indoor. Reason being, it's a big space to fly in, there's a light background, there's no HVAC "breeze" and there is a smooth carpet.

Video flying inside the Stile Athletics house -this was shot from the corner of the field, the lower left corner of the "floor plan" drawing that's posted on the back side of our event flyer for those of you who are checking.

Here is another video, a collection of shots taken at our recent Jan 17th flying session.

 

[Marc Stermer]

Additional info -Friday flying nights

If you're able to come to the Friday night fun-fly sessions in Jan and Feb, please take note:

a) please bring your own table and chairs, if you want that. There won't be any set-up for pilots other than the flight stations.

b) Please refer to these rules and info

c) When you arrive, you will be at the "main parking lot" at the east side of the building. The building has "ROO TOWN" in large letters (see the attached picture). PLEASE NOTE: this is the BACK (WEST) side of the building and the main entrance for spectators is all the way around the other side, on the EAST side. You may park in this main lot. There isn't any parking in front of the main entrance but you can unload there.

Pilots and vendors (ONLY) will be allowed to use the loading dock entrance (right side of the picture in the corner) which is much more convenient than walking around the building.

 

[Flynn]

This is the one the FT guys were just talking about in the latest Podcast? #011?

 

[Marc Stermer]

This is the one the FT guys were just talking about in the latest Podcast? #011?

hi there, yes that is correct, that was mentioned at about 1:37 on Podcast #11. Just waiting for the guys to make an official announcement, hopefully that will come soon.

 

[Flynn]

Anyone else going to this? I am making the trip.

 

[Marc Stermer]

Hey Flynn, you might want to also check on RCGroups, since this thread doesn't seem to have a great deal of activity. Its a long way from NJ and I appreciate that you've decided to come!

Click here for the other thread...

-Marc

 

[Marc Stermer]

For those of you who are making the trip from somewhere else, we have some useful information on our website, including:

Home page with downloadable flyer
Pilot Registration
Driving Directions
Hotel information
GOOGLE MAP of the venue showing the streets in downtown Akron

I hope that this will be helpful!!

 

[Team_Monkey]

I'll be there!

 

[Flynn]

Thanks for the info Marc. I just got my AMA card. Can't wait to take a break from work and this winter.

 

[Tjhogg]

Took my son to NEF today and met a few of the Flite test crew, they are a great and nice group of people. After seeing all their kids flying around we walked down to lasertoyz and finished the shopping list of my 8 year old son and got his nutball in the air after we got home Phoenix pays off he flew like a champ. It would have been great to pick everyone In the crews brain about stuff but their fame has draw backs and they stayed busy throughout the time we were their and it good to see them help push the hobby and I had a two hour drive back home

 

[Team_Monkey]

NEF was an absolute blast! I met alot of new folks and saw some old friends.
One of the B-17's in the FT facebook video is Marc's and it is a beauty!
I have a twin EDF Vulcan Bird of prey that has to be hand launched so I enlisted Alex and also Kevin from FT to launch it if I found them without a transmitter in their hand. Shared a couple veggie tale jokes with Josh B. too. Great guys all.

I hope someone got video of the combat round on Saturday. A 7 yr old pilot came in second but he had to fly 2/3 of the round with most of his horizontal and vertical stab's knocked loose or just plain missing. Little guy is a great pilot, I've seen him at events the past couple years with his dad.

For my part I learned to not bother building many planes out of Elmer's foam board. I had an Old speedster and an FT flyer, both tail heavy and over weight. Both built using a minimal amount of glue. Everything else flew fine but as usual I spent too much on vendor's row.

I hope this becomes an annual event.

 

[Flynn]

Great Time, Great People

Well, this was my very first AMA card holder event. I must say the NEF Crew are amazing. I walked in the wrong door, had no idea where to go and they were extremely nice in helping me out.

Meeting everyone from the Flitetest Family was one of the best times I've had in years. Also, meeting up with some of you guys on the forum was especially awesome! No one should ever worry about walking up and introducing yourselves, they are genuinely great people. I watched and kinda helped as Josh, Dave and Alex gave away a FT-Spitfire to a gentleman and then built it for him, all the while having fun. We later found out that he is having a terrible bout with cancer. He was moved that they took the time to built, setup and test fly it for him. Amazing what can be done, and who you can touch, with just a couple pieces of foamboard.

I really enjoyed myself flying, talking and making memories with everyone I met. I was just hoping for a chance to shake everyone's hand and say "Thank you", I had a better experience then I could have imagined. I look forward to seeing everyone at the Flitefest in July 2014!

Thank you everyone for making it much more then an flying event and making it more of a family event.

Kevin "Flynn"

 

[ttprigg]

Kevin-
You said it all, what a great time! As a complete noob to this sort of thing (it was also our first AMA event as well), the FT CREW really made us feel welcome and part of the extended FT family. It was also wonderful to talk with, and get to know you too. Making memories and connections; what a day.
BTY- I went to check on the plane I "landed" in the tree (before going to buy sections of pvc) and it was on the ground! I am sure I will use your retrieval trick in the future.
Regards,
Tim

 

[Flynn]

Kevin-
You said it all, what a great time! As a complete noob to this sort of thing (it was also our first AMA event as well), the FT CREW really made us feel welcome and part of the extended FT family. It was also wonderful to talk with, and get to know you too. Making memories and connections; what a day.
BTY- I went to check on the plane I "landed" in the tree (before going to buy sections of pvc) and it was on the ground! I am sure I will use your retrieval trick in the future.
Regards,
Tim

That's awesome Tim! And I'm sure to try the decal method that you have.

All the best!