Meet Scott Mayo
The teenager F3C pilot in the United Kingdom

Scott Mayo is one of the known pilots of the British community. He attends almost all major events in the UK, and represents the country in other countries as well. Scott will be 18 in January.

Scott's father is Roger Mayo, team pilot at the Team F3C GBR and he is also mentor of Scott. Scott was kind to reply our questions. Let us introduce him at this time with the interview below we just made with him:

It looks obvious because your dad is also flying with RC helis, but when have you decided you want to fly RC helicopters, and why? Was it you at all?

I have always been into flying since a very young age and started flying on simulators as soon as my hands were big enough to fit a transmitter in. I finally set my eyes on helicopters after I had a surprise birthday lesson with a Pilot called Darren Hardy, I chose helicopters purely because I loved the challenge of just taking off and landing.

Do you remember your first solo flight?

Ahhhh my first solo flight, I remember it very well.

When was it? With which helicopter was it?

It would have been the end of winter in 2017, it was with my Align T-Rex 600ESP.

You are not the first telling that the first solo was a T-Rex 600. Wasn't it too terrifying?

I was definitely nervous throughout the whole flight, but before my flight my Dad said something to me that I always remember even in competition today... he said "if you mess up it doesn't matter, its all part of the practice".

This is why you remember your first crash probably. Don't you?

Yes, I remember, it was with my Rave Ballistic, I simply just lost orientation.

Did the crash affect your performance afterwards?

For a short while yes, for about a month and a half I was very scared to fly anything until one day we went to the field and I found my strength again.

You compete now in F3C mostly. Was it your decision or your dad led you?

Yes, I would say it was a bit of both really. when dad and I went to events I would always see the British F3C Team and for a long time I only watched F3C competitions and it made me fall in love with it. Plus it always helped as my dad flew F3C it was a no brainer to fly it as I could always get help when needed.

So he is still mentoring you. Who's better, who will be better in few years?

Yes! Every time we are at the field he always tells me things I need to improve on and change. Haha, at the moment me and my dad are still battling each other so we are at an equal skill level. In the future I have no idea, we both put in so much time and commitment into competing its impossible to know till the scores are in.

How much time can you spend with practicing in real and in simulator?

In real I would say I put in about 6 flights which is roughly 1 hour every time I go flying, on the simulator I easily spend 1 hour every night.

How many times can you go to fly in a week?

Due to dad working full time and not getting home till late we only go at weekends, so normally we go just once a week but if we're lucky we go both days.

And you are studying as well, what more this year is really important to you, if I'm right. Am I? You will finish the secondary school in this academic year.

Yes, I'm currently in my first year of A Levels (Year 12). This year I am going to try my best to balance out my hobby life and education life as best as possible. Fortunately the course that i'm studying is mainly revolved around online work so, this means that I can work when travelling to competitions.

This is what I was going to ask: how do you balance between the real life and the hobby? Do you have any other hobby which needs to be balanced? It's known you are flying multicopters as well.. Do you plan to do that more serious as well?

Thats a good question, I've never really thought about it really. I guess when I think about, when I know I have competitions coming up I will split my weekends in half, I'd spend one day with family or friends and the other practicing. Yes, I fly multirotors, its always interested me doing FPV Racing and seeing that people like Kenny Ko, Mirko Cesena and Dunkan Bossion doing FPV Racing and Helicopter flying has interested me even more.

Don't you think, the FPV takes priority over the helis in that case? Especially compared to F3C.

I think that FPV flying is very cool and its definitely a lot more well known globally but it depends on the pilot really I think, if they want to be known as like a celebrity or on live TV then I think they would change to just FPV flying but I think that something will always pull people into helicopters because of how awesome they are.

And if the RC heli hobby is in trouble, the situation of F3C is even worse: fewer and fewer people are doing it. What do you think, what should be done to make it more popular? To get people understanding how cool it is.

I think that events like Global 3D should run a joint competition with F3C to get everyone to see as global 3d attracts many people from around the world. personally I think that F3C for a lot of people is looked at as "too easy" or "boring" but its not until you actually go to an event and fly F3C that you realise how cool it is.

You are a sponsored pilot. Your sponsors are ATModels, 360RC Technologies, Azure Power, and you are also Align Field Representative. And probably this is why you are flying Align helicopters. Do you have a "dream" model?

My dream model would have to be a Trex 700X for sure!

You are also AccuRC fan. What's the reason?

Yes, I love how realistic it is in the setup and Physics of the simulator.

You attend many events throughout the year. Do you know rafly how many of them? Do you know how many miles you travel in a year?

Ummm, I try my best to attend as many as possible, this year I attended 8 events and we've done A LOT of miles!

What was the most memorable moment this year?

It would have to be my result at the FAI F3CN World Championships, 3rd Place Junior World Champion in F3C.

Let's move on the real life a bit. What will your profession be when you "grow" up?

This is something I am still struggling to figure out myself, I've decided though that I'd like to pursue something to do with cameras, e.g. Photographer, Cameraman, Aerial Photography/Filming.

And what about parties, girls etc, if I can ask you?

It's quite plain really, hahaha.

Finally: what's your advice to people considering to join the hobby now? Children or adults.

My best advice would be that a simulator is the best investment you could ever make and to always remember that even the world class pilots were at your level once.

Thank you very much.