Rcpilot32-RCU

Just curious, what is your club's policy on someone shooting down another person's ship due to stupidity like turning on a radio without the proper frequency pin? Does the guilty party have to compensate the victim? Again, I'm just wondering thats it. Thanks for your input guys and gals.

LQUAN

My Feedback: (17)

As far back as I can remember. We never had such incident at our club. Not to mention we don't even enforce pilots to put their radios at the impound tables when not in use. This is how it works: when the pilot who is inflight suspect that somebody turns on his radio, he just yell his channel number out loud and the other guy will turn off his radio. It seems to work every time. The reason why we don't enforce pilots to impound their radio is because the impound table is out under the HOT sun. Some pilots complain that their radios work funny after half an hour under California sun. If you have a computerized radio with large LCD, and leave it under the hot sun for a while, it will not work properly.

It is customary to the pilots at our field to greet the other pilots on the same channel that he is going to be on when he arrives at the field. That way, we all know who beat up when we got shot down! (just kidding about the beat up part)

pinball-RCU

I don't think either of the clubs I belong to have an official policy as far as compensation.

LQUAN, I would assume you don't have too many newbies at your club? If you do, I'd be interested in how you keep them from turning their radios on.

Dago Red

My Feedback: (11)

In our club, you have to have a pin to fly on that frequency, if you are flying , you have the pin, and another member turns their radio on, shooting your plane down. They must buy your plane.

Flyfalcons

Pinball, my clue does have a fair amount of newbies, especially towards the end of the summers. Although we don't enforce the radio-in-impound rule if one has the frequency to himself, we do ask that people follow that rule if they are sharing the frequency. To keep newbies from turning on their radios, we go over the club rules before beginning flight training, and emphasize about every five minutes or so the importance of frequency control. If you just pound it into their heads from the beginning, it becomes automatic.

Roby

As I understand it, (but I've never seen it written anywhere)
It's a code of honor type of thing . EXAMPLE: If you screw up and turn on a transmitter that blows someone out of the sky, you
are the guilty party and are responsible to make good on the
damaged items. This doesn't mean that you have to build an
airplane , just supply the kit,(less fittings)repair engine ,radio,etc.

In my many years in this hobby I have seen this happen several
times and the equipment was replaced ,but remember,not
everyone is an honorable person . Trying to find someone who
will take responsibility for their actions is getting scarce these
days. It seems like when ever something "bad" happens it's
always someone else's fault.

One more point, If someone is flying and didn't use the freq
board correctly,(posted the wrong # or not at all)then if
another flier turns on ...........too bad . The guilty party is the
flier who posted the wrong # or failed to use the freq board.

Remember this is a honer thing

Regards
Roby

Rcpilot32-RCU

Thanks for the replies guys. I can of had and idea, but just wanted to see what others thought. When I started back in '89 the rule at the field was the if you shoot someone down and it's your fault, you need to fess up to it and pay up too. Again, thanks for your thoughts.

LQUAN

My Feedback: (17)

We do have a few newbies every-now-and-then. Like Flyfalcons said, the club trainers will beat the club rules into the newbies' heads at the beginning, and they all seem to learn the rules pretty well. We issue frequency badges to everyone at flying at the field. When we first arrive, we must look at the frequency board and go say "hello" to the pilots who have the same frequencies as we.

I always let the other guy(s) knows when I am going to fly. They also let me know when they are going to fly.

Most newbies always bring electric park-fliers and attempt to fly on their own. We always stop people with electric park-flier who we don't recognize and ask them for frequency badge.

smokingcrater

Am I the only one that actually turns on their plane first? (And I fly at a field that I have to share maybe once or twice a month...) If you turn on your plane and it moves, find out why before putting it up...

Cyclic Hardover

My Feedback: (3)

Small Claims Court works well.

Flyfalcons

rkramer, turning on your plane and seeing the controls move doesn't prove much, since without any organized frequency for the receiver to listen for, it will pick up anything and the servos will start moving accordingly. I have seen planes look like they are picking up interference, but when the person turns his radio on first and do a range check, everything is okay.

LQUAN

My Feedback: (17)

If such incident happen to your plane or you happen to get blame for shooting down someone else plane, it is better that you go make peace with the other guy. If you get blame and you think that you didn't do it, go help the poor guy out by, first, asking him to checkout his equipment. Try to show him what he did wrong to make his plane go down. Or if you accidentally shot down his plane, compensate him with a plane that has been collecting dust in your garage! I found that it is better that you make peace and make a new friend than having an enemy at the field. Remember, he still have the weapon to shoot down your plane from the bush or parking lot!!!

rc.hackmaster

My Feedback: (4)

i have shot some ones plane down! ok heres the deal. i was flying and plane glitched so i landed, one of the guys was helping me check range etc. turnes out the guys dad was turning on this other guys plane and causing me interference, other guy on same channel (47). he took off and was flying, i didnt notice since i was checking out my plane. i raised my antenna and some one started screaming, my plane, my plane. it spiraled to the ground. the guy flying turned and asked me if my radio was on with a disgusted look on his face (like it was MY fault). i said yeah! and i showed him the channel 47 feq pin on my radio, all he could do is drop his head in shear horror that i had the pin. so make sure if YOU turn on YOUR radio, YOU MUST HAVE THE FREQUENCY PIN!
the guy that this happened to is on this board and when he reads this he will remember this. its just one example why you should have your freq pin b4 you turn on any radio. no offence to anybody but this is just an example. thanks doug

Vince

My Feedback: (1)

It's pretty much an unwritten rule (some clubs have it in writing) that if you do not have the pin in possession and turn on your radio and shoot someone down, it's your responsibility to make up the damages.

If the guilty party refuses to make good on the damages, the executive members of the club should meet to consider the expulsion of the offending club member. I would insist on this if it happened to me.

This example can usually only be applied at a non meet flying session. When you have 50 or 60 pilots and hundreds of R/C enthusiast spectators at an event, it is next to impossible to tag someone with this unless it's witnessed.

Vince

Dago Red

My Feedback: (11)

Vince, have you ever been to any of our funflys at orange, cant say I reconize you, lets say at the toys for tots fun fly I was the kid that had the wing come off a citabria and flew a fast yellow V tail. maybe we talked?

rcmodeller324

My Feedback: (3)

I have been in several clubs over the years. None have a formal written policy stating who is responsible, however, it has always been assumed that the person without the pin pays for any damages. If they refuse, most clubs would vote them out of the membership.
Bob Mason
AMA 2640

graham7762

About 3 years ago I was shot down by a RC hand lanch glider of all things the young fellow felt pretty bad and suppied another kit and crankcase but I still had to build it about six months work.But he leant a valuable lesson and I bet he got the peg from now on

CHassan

My Feedback: (13)

I've never belonged to a sanctioned club. We never had a rule book, nor written rules. In the 20+ years I have flown I have only seen 1 person shot down. A young kid that lived near by thought he could teach himself to fly in his back yard, he lived at the far end of our grass strip (3030'). He was trying to get his plane started on the ground. He really didn't have a clue, so he had his radio on for quite some time before the guy went up. He didn't get much more than 15' or so and went inverted and staight in. We walked around and looked at all the radios, no ones was left on. About 30 min later the kid came back and asked for help starting his plane, told us how long he had been trying and when asked told us his channel number.......Bingo found the guilty party. He was given a pretty good lesson in why he should not fly at his house when we fly just down the way. He did agree to pay the guy for his plane, think he even built it up for him.

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

i always turn the plane on first, theres a big diffrence betwene background interference ( only get it on some RX's anyway ) and a plane flying, glitches cant make a plane look like its flying.
theres no rules about what to do if you do shoot someone down, its happened a couple of times, i've flown ( with the peg ) while someone was checking their plane in the pits and didnt notice a thing, got lucky.

Dago Red

My Feedback: (11)

at a funfly , we had a transmiter impound, i took a plane up and noticed it was flying somewhat funny, after i landed, took the radio to the impound, i was asked to watch over it, so i did, I looked at my other transmiter, on the same frequency, and it was on too, but with the aentena down it wasnt affecting me so bad,its bad when you almost shoot yourself down.