blikseme300

My Feedback: (118)

Alcoholics go to meetings, we are just drunks.

FireBee

My Feedback: (34)

Oberst, Bogbeagle, nice comments. .. on both Threads.

OK here is my admisssion.

I've been flying since I soloed my "Falcon 56" in 1979. After a couple of years flying, while in in my early twenties, I felt the need for speed and did 1/4 midget, then Formula 1 racers and some local pattern contests. We would have 1/2 beer to relax our nerves. Yes It was hard to sip 1/2 a can at 1000 am in the thin Colorado air. I picked this up from a fellow club hot shot pilot who kept winning the hardware with his super smooth flying.

Why, because we did not have EXPO!!!

Just a little beer sip would calm your nerves and take the edge off so when the natural adrenalin surge kicked in the heat of battle it kept you from doing "Dumb Thumbs" around the pylons. Funny in hind sight now, as we did wear helmets.

That's the last time I had a beer and flew. Now I use 20% expo at the field and save the beer for dinner.

warbird addict

To suggest that we need some kind of intervention in the form of a ruling or governing body to regulate our every move or authorize our involvement in this hobby is absolutely absurd.
Thats whats wrong with this country as a whole , the mindset of government is to make a misguided boiler plate rule to address every instance of stupidity.
So I suppose the people that feel we need that kind of supervision would also suggest that should the prevalance of people injuring themselves with a screwdriver, That someone should also step in and force the rest the of sane and sensible population to be regulated into using rubber screwdrivers to save us from ourselves, OMFG now I've heard it all

littlecrankshaf

My Feedback: (58)

Your post reminded me of something I had almost forgot. When I was a young adult I was an avid and very competitive billiards/pool player. I found that one beer before the tournaments helped me immensely. More than two during the tournaments would absolutely kill my game... thanks for prompting those memories.

wahoo

My Feedback: (59)

Thats too funny, I shot better stick and threw better darts the more I drank. Bowling too.

Rob2160

There were only limited options so I didn't vote..

Yes, I tried it once deliberately, just a Blade MSR Helicopter indoors, after a few too many wines...   It really made no difference, but I wasn't silly enough to try it with anything larger or more dangerous..

So my option for the vote would have been..  Yes, and it was no big deal..

bogbeagle

Isn't it ironic that an Englishman is arguing for personal liberty ... whilst some Americans argue against it?


Who could have ever foreseen that?

Firepower R/C

My Feedback: (10)

Imagine standing in line at a government building to get your model airplane operator's license... hee hee. SHHHH! Keep it quiet! We don't want the guys in the next line for bicycle, jogging, and ATV licenses to know. Maybe we could hire the stereotypical "overly grumpy guy that never flies his planes but tells everyone else how to fly" to be the examiner. It would be his dream job! Sorry, just thinking about it gave me a chuckle.

Drinking while flying R/C? Nah. I don't think I will, but to each his own.

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

Maybe there should be laws prohibiting drunk model flying... FUI (Flying Under Influence).... interesting notion, when you have a guy flying an aircraft around @ 60mph what could he possibly hit? I think it is better to drink at home if you are going to drink.

In the current situation, what law would be used if someone got hurt by an intoxicated flier? Public intoxication?

I think everyone should have individual liberties... when someone infringes my liberties by doing something stupid (drinking and flying) then it is they that should pay, not me.

Hibrass

My Feedback: (1)

Just what we need, laws for problems that don't exsist....

Vacaman

Once I flew after drinking a beer, never again. Also I have seen a couple of very drunk pilots flying at my field. Bad endings on both cases, was funny, but too risky. At that time the field directive was very light on rules. Now you can´t drink an fly, period.
Also we have a member that when flying is more dangerous than any drunk, and 80% of his flights end on a crash. You know when he is flying becouse all the other pilots land their planes and assume a defensive position. He is an great old member, so no one complains.
CHEERS!!!

Daniel-EL

My Feedback: (9)

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" Ben Franklin

"Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?" - Martin Luther

Am I recommending that we fly while intoxicated? Not at all. But I am certainly not recommending complete prohibition after the flying day is complete.

raptureboy

I voted but I'm staying out of this fight. Merry Christmas, yes I said it, now what?[X(]

RoyR

I was a pilot for 40 years and never flew after drinking, although I had plenty of opportunities. Likewise, I have not flown RC after drinking. And Yes I love to have a drink. or two. or more.
Clubs have rules, and I respect them enough to follow the rules. But I just don't want to waste an airplane flying with a buzz. I've flown the simulater while drinking, and if my real flying is like that I wouldn't have any airplanes left.


And like the last poster, That's all I have to say about that. I'm staying out of this one.

DanMN

RCU should shut this whole alcohol thing down. If there is an issue in club, let the club deal with it. This thread is ridiculous. The question is ridiculous. No minds will be changed either way on this subject from a forum thread. I am pretty sure that an extremely small percentage of people would fly their $1k plane intoxicated. If you are one of them, please go get some help. Rock bottom isn't far away! To the poster that flies intoxicated miles out in a swamp with junk planes, have a great time. Your hurting no one, except possilby yourselves. That is a personal choice.

4u2nv-RCU

My Feedback: (28)

Must be getting cold up north! Everyones drinking!! At my age and in my condition just standing up looking up at an airplane gets me a bit dizzy!?!(kidding) There is a time and place for everything...and that place is college!!!

Peace!

DanMN

LOL! Now this made me laugh!!!!

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

Regarding impaired flying, I do remember an occasion about 12 years ago, where a guy shows up at the renegade field we were flying at driving a serial molester van. You know, a 70's van with porthole windows, painted black with stripes and mag wheels. Anyway, it was just myself and two others flying .46- .90 sized aircraft, until this guy rolls up and pulls out a Sportster .60. He seemed nice enough, but after each flight, went back to the van and starts "burning up." His flying got progressively worse, until finally he augers the plane in, straight in, full throttle. I don't think it clicked that he crashed his plane, as I looked over at him and he's just standing there holding his transmitter, all glassy-eyed and out of it. We went over and helped him pick up the wreckage, then the guy gets back in the creepy van, takes off, and we never saw him again. Wierd.

Airplanes400

My Feedback: (349)

To quote an old Dean Martin joke, "If the plane is fully loaded, why shouldn't the pilot be fully loaded too?"

NBCTANK

I guess it's just generalization or stereotyping people who drink alcohol or smoke the medicinal.
There's always exceptions to the rules.
I used to know a guy who worked at a hobby shop. Aircraft was his thing. He could fly a plane or heli as if Jerry Bruckhemer and Michael Bay wrote the script and directed the movie for it. He was a smoker. Heli 3-D, inverted, rolls whatever.
He would demo a ready to fly heli in the store, hover and land it on his head. He made it look so easy people would buy helis like it was hotcakes. A lot of crashed helis would come back because people think it was easy. He repaired and trained people to repair and fly.
Flying a Wing was another specialty. 100mph plus in a business area with trees.

I was a R/C car guy and feared flying because of cost of learning to fly and knowing how to fly without crashing. Inspired me to jump past any toy,beginner,rtr,coaxial, and buy and build a T-Rex 450 SE.

He smoked the Maui wowie and was the best flyer I've seen. Some people the same after a beer, best driver/flyer. It's all come down to the individual. We all know someone, stone cold sober, who can't do squat that requires coordination. Do we order them to sit while chewing gum?

4u2nv-RCU

My Feedback: (28)

Reminds me of the WKPR in Cincinatti episode where Dr Johnny Fever got faster and faster the more he drank. The smoke and alcohol both impair, it is just a testament to their given ability that they were still as capable under the influence!!

Mustangman40

My Feedback: (1)

I voted no, but I guess I have....
It was a cheap $29.99 Heli that my son had that I would fly in the house and mess withour dog.. One eve I had a few drinks after a long day at work and decided to mess with the pup.... Flying around the LR would drive him crazy, he would bark and jump at it non stop.... He was on the couch when i took off and jumped on to the coffee table and into the air grabbing it, it was like he planned it, looking back it was quite the move.. Well he bit the dang thing in half and I was off to the store the next morning to replace it before my son found out....

As far as RC stuff out at the clubs, no way.. We have a rule, you have a drink and your done flying for the day, no exceptions... Are fields are private and afterwe aredone flying, we might kick back and have a beer and shoot the bull, but never more then a couple, less your camper is set up and you are staying the night...

mlr53

My Feedback: (1)

No, but I have participated in a contest were we had to eat a pack of crackers, then whistle, then start your plane and take off. It was a timed event to see who could do it the fastest.

Murphey

My Feedback: (11)

I never fly under the affluence of incahol...but I know someone who does...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzAXb7qCCAo

M

Rickofaustin

Well of course I have and so have most of my flying buddies.......  At an airpark where we live the ice chest is used both to sit on while swapping batteries and for keeping the brew cold.