Bobby's kinda like Rodney Dangerfield

"He don't get no respect"

Wow thanks for the kind words! It's one of those stories that I was lucky enough to be able to share. Just one of those moments.

Ah life balance - good question. We could do a show on it, but we'd all be sobbing at the end of it.

Hi Guys another great show. Really enjoyed Alex's story and everyones details about the fun fly. Alex is fun to listen to because he is so passionate about his topics. Chris props to you on the controversy I was following you, I'm a Fallon DVR guy as well.

I would like to attend a fun fly at some point seems like a blast. I normally solo in this hobby but lately seems like it would be cool to see others fly. Just a time issue with young children and more on the way.

Anyway, love the show, had me laughing out loud while sitting in traffic.

You have an excellent opportunity in a little over a week. The Aero Hobbies Fun Fly is October 31-November 1 at the 114th Aero Squadron field next to Grapevine Lake. It's a helicopter-only event and spectators are welcome. Bring the family along if they're amenable.

http://helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=652532

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Alan
Team Shannon (Only Fine Helis)
DT520E V2, Protos Max V2, Nighthawk 250 Pro FPV quadcopter
ParkZone P-51 BL, Hobby King Skipper

Thanks for the kind words Krea!

I'm there with you with the young children. It's a huge challenge. I have a 6 and 2 year old. The great thing about this hobby is that it has many ways to participate without taking away from the most important thing. Family time.

At Helifreak FF, there were a surprising number of families present. Even one amazing wife with a 3 month old and a 4 year old! She was walking around with them throughout the weekend. He rented a nice RV and just had a home away from home for the weekend. And I guess the wife was on board with this. Now with my wife - Never ever would this happen. She was an amazing trooper!

So to get to an event like this I booked a baby sitter for 2 nights while I was away to give her a break. I also spent all Sunday when I returned begging forgiveness. It's tough. But I did have one of the best times in recent memory, and I think it's all about trying to figure out that balance.

There was a question about telemetry or stabilizers (gyros) being allowed in pattern competition. Chris was correct when he said that there are limitations as far as telemetry allowed and gyros not being allowed at all.

The reasoning for certain types of telemetry is pretty obvious. This issue was addressed by the pattern flyers recently and I believe they were correct in the way that they approached it. Basically looking at it as, what kind of telemetry would be useful for safety reasons? Many radios come with receiver voltage telemetry as a standard feature now, and there isn't any advantage competition-wise to having it over not, but it definitely has overall flight safety implications.

Pretty much everything else is "nice to have" or could lead to a competitive advantage. Even before telemetry became widely available there has been a rule in the books to prevent any sort of real time feedback from the model. That is where these rules have their roots.

Capacity available/used would be nice and an argument could be made that there is a safety element to it's use. Problem is, some of the longer patterns require quite a bit of capacity to get through the pattern, and with high winds, you might be really close to the max your batteries can put out. Add in a possible heavy airplane (remember the 11 lb limit) and therefore smaller batteries... there could be an argument made that knowing how much "juice" you have left could give you an advantage over those that don't.

Also, you never know what might be available next year, or the year after, so it really just makes sense to allow strictly those types of telemetry streams that would solely assist in safety of flight.

There were discussions in the last couple of years about allowing 3 axis gyros (AS3X and the like) in the lower classes. There was a proposal to do so that was not passed, and I can see the argument for... There are some nice airplanes on the market that come with the capability and since participation is down, anything that might help bring people in is a good thing.

But in the end, I guess it was decided to keep it the way it is to keep it an even playing field. This probably will be revisited at some point due to the sheer number of receivers that are coming out with this type of stabilization. We aren't there yet though.

Tom M

Maybe they could implement a penalty for using gyros such as a percentage deducted from the points or something?

Kind of similar to the capacity rules in motor cylce racing where you were allowed double the capacity for 4 stroke over 2 stroke

I think it would help to get more people involved.

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Home of Burntwood RC

My understanding is that it's still not allowed for Sportsman by rule... However I could see a place for it in that class, and only that class. As it stand now, that is the only class where you are not subject to weight and size limitations, it a "fly what you got" class.

So, one guy could have an Eflight foamy T28, another guy could have a 100cc Extra 300. Obviously, in wind, the Extra would have an advantage.

A CD would have discretion with this, even today. But I would not go forward with something like that without talking to all the Sportsman contestants about it and leaving it up to them. Regardless how that discussion would go, if somebody showed up wanting to fly in the contest but had an AS3x equipped plane, we would find a way for them to fly... Pattern guys always want to get another pilot hooked, so somebody usually is willing to bend a bit for something like that, especially in Sportsman, or better yet would loan out a plane.

Tom M