Personal Biography

Len Sabato

Background

My name is Len Sabato, and I am the Team JR Heli Manager, as well as the JR Product manager for Horizon Hobby. I am currently 38 years old, and have been flying Helis exclusively for the past 20 years. I was born and raised in New York, and moved to Champaign, Illinois in 1993 to be a part of the Horizon staff.

As some of you may already know, I am a “24/7 ” Heli modeler and Pilot. My home is based on a 2.5-acre site, complete with flying field and F3C hovering course known to our Team members as the “Heli Dude Ranch”. This arrangement allows me to continue my “24/7” habit, while still having time to spend with my wife Sandy.

My interest for RC Helicopters started at the age of 5 when my father (Len Sr.) designed and developed his first Heli, a Fixed Pitch RC Jet Ranger back in 1971. The model was manufactured during 1972 and 1973 by “RC Helicopters” of Brooklyn, New York, and the prototype model is currently on display at the AMA National Model Aviation Museum in Muncie, IN.

As I was restoring this model I was also finishing a JR Vigor CS with all the “Zoot” parts for the next years Contest Season. During the restoration and building of both models, I was amazed and reminded of the level of technology RC Helis has achieved in the past 30 years. It was a real eye opener for me, even though I watched it happen. I’m sure that the early Heli pioneers of the late 60’s and early 70’s never expected helicopters to advance their current levels.

My decision to move my interests towards Helicopters happened quite by accident when I was 17.

In 1981, My father and I started a hobby shop in New York called Lenco Hobbies. The shop specialty was of course, RC Helis, but at that time I had never flown a Heli. I decided that for the shop to be successful, I would need to learn to Hover so that I could set up and test fly our customer’s models. Although my interest at the time was purely” business related” the first several flights with my Kraft Gyro equipped Schluter Mini Boy was all it took to get me hooked permanently! This wasn’t just business, it was a blast! Since then, I have remained extremely active in RC Helis through both the industry, as well as competitions and Fun Fly events throughout the US.

Flying

I am currently both an FAI and Freestyle pilot, choosing FAI as my main discipline. I have competed in the FAI class at the 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 US Nations, placing 14^th, 9^th, 8^th, 7^th, 7^th, and 6^th respectively.

I have also competed at both the 1991 and 1999, 2001, and 2003 US F3C team trials, placing 14^th and 5^th, 5^th, and 3^rd respectively. I am currently a member of the 2003 USA F3C World Team, and we will be competing at the 2003 World Championships in Koto Japan, June 1st through 8th.

I have also had the good fortune to win the IRCHA Grand National Championship for the F3C class for 3 consecutive years (2000-2002).

I am also a regular attendee of the IRCHA Jamboree/Heli Internationals, and conduct yearly JR Radio seminars at this and other events.

Current Equipment

My Current Heli of choice is the new JR Vigor CS. For F3C competition, I am flying the CS with a self designed “Eclipse” fuselage, with retractable landing struts (see articles for information).

For my Freestyle/3D models, I also fly a virtually stock JR Vigor CS CCPM/Shaft Drive machine. For Freestyle/3D flying, I have found that the shaft driven tail rotor greatly improves the holding power of the tail, while making the model more predictable on this axis.

Both my F3C and Freestyle/3D models share the following equipment:

Radio: JR PCM 10X system with DS8411SA Digital servos

Gyro: JR G5000T Extreme Tail Lock Gyro with JR 8700G Tail Servo

Engine: YS 80^ST Heli Engine

Muffler: KSJ #883 HN-60 Type II

Main Blades: NHP Razor Pro, 700mm

Tail Blades: NHP1105 105mm

Flybar Paddles: KSJ330 Paddles

Current Projects

Currently, I am overhauling all 3 of my current F3C models in preparation for the World Championships next May. My 4^th Vigor CS is outfitted as a stock Pod and Boom model for Freestyle flying. Since my Contest and Freestyle/3D mechanical setup is nearly the same, a simple conversion from pod and boom to fuselage is basically all that is needed to convert one of my models from one style of flying to another.

Tips

There are several basic tips that most successful Heli pilots follow:

#1: “Take the time to build and setup and maintain your model correctly”: If you follow this rule, you are half way there. Even the best of pilots has difficulty flying a Heli that is either out of trim, or requires continued maintenance. Correct assembly and continued maintenance will most certainly also save several mechanically related crashes throughout your flying season.

#2: “ Burn Fuel, get stick time, practice, practice, practice”: Weather you spend time on a simulator or actual flying time, there is no replacement for stick time.

The next time you see one of the top 3D or contest pilots at an event, ask then how much fuel they burn in one season, and/or how much time they spend flying a simulator. I think that you find that they fly more than you would think. Personally, even with our short 6-7 month flying season, I burn on an average of 50-60 gallons of fuel to stay in practice and progress in my flying skills, with additional time spent each week flying the CSM V10 Simulator (when the weather is too poor to fly).

#3: “ Determine your head speed/engine setup, then build your radio/mechanical setup around it”: In many cases (especially with a tuned pipe), your main rotor RPM will be determined by at what RPM your engine runs its best. I generally determine where the engine wants to run, and then I adjust cyclic rate and collective pitch/sensitivity etc. to match this RPM.