"Steve R." wrote in message
...
As a 22 year RC helicopter pilot, who can't do anything nearly as
aggressive as you see in the video :-o , I can tell you that Alan is one
of the better 3D pilots I've seen. A few other names to keep your eye out
for (for those on this forum that aren't into the RC side) are Curtis
Youngblood, Jason Kraus, Scott Grey, and I'm sure a few others that are
not coming to mind at the moment.

Hey bugger-lugs, don't forget Duncan Osbourne:-). At 14 years old he won the
Sportsmans 3D champs, and at 15 he won the Experts, then this year he just
got pipped into 3rd place in Masters behind Alan Jr.

These guys all do very aggressive 3D work and they do
it in a controlled manner.

Like I said somewhere else, "'Til something goes wrong" ;-)) Then they do
make a fast lawn dart:-)

A lot of pilots just do the ol "hold the sticks hard over and watch what
happens, then save it before it hits the ground" routine (sometimes!).
I'm impressed (to a degree) with these folks in that they can get
reoriented to the model and prevent the crash but the flight looks rough
and jerky and sometimes you're not exactly certain as to where it's going
to wind up. "Not" a good thing!

The guys mentioned above are pretty much professionals. I can't say for
certain with Alan and Scott but Curtis and Jason actually make their
living flying RC helicopters. They're that good!

Alan's dad was sponsored and now young Alan is. I think when Jason Krauss
left Min-Air, they took young Alan on.

Whatever it is he does for the money this hobby sucks up, good luck to him,
he's earned his kudos.

Beav