edh13

My Feedback: (9)

I just had one of those guys call me from the field the other day. (He thinks I'm his buddy 'cause we were both stationed at the same base long ago). He was berating me for not flying often enough, taking too long to finish a couple different planes and letting me know what a great flying day I was missing. I told him "I know, I'm with my wife and kids at a spring training game". I couldn't quite tell on the phone but it sounded like he zipped up his pants and put away his ruler. I had won.

mechanizeddeath

Wow... I only have 1/10 electric cars, and some people give me crap about the level of safety I practice with them, considering the lower relative danger level. But I hope to learn to fly someday, (hence reading these threads) and stories like this are a very good reason to get and stay in the habit of proper safety at all levels and types of the RC hobby.

What happened to the person who didn't secure that plane?

Chris P. Bacon

My Feedback: (4)

+1!

I spent years working for a very large company that put a hughe empisis on safety. There was zero tolerence for safety infractions. Zero! It's in my blood and part of my life and I'm always looking for ways to do things safer. It's unfortunate there are so many careless individuals out there.

Safety is no accident!

hkyplr18

I bet you're a blast to fly with....... The last thing I want to hear about while trying to enjoy a day flying is someone cramming religion down my throat. i.e. aerofly0610 aka jesus freak

Fs one

Hi nitro i could not say it any better than you just said.There are some people out there that just don't get it.Safety is not in their vocabulary.People are getting hurt because of these individuals.And most of them don't care!They want to have fun but not follow the rules.These people are rule breakers and are usually that way in most things they do in life.

crossman

I guess the main thing that I am learning from this thread is that I fly with a pretty decent bunch. I'm sure a have a few know-it-alls and some that are a little opininated. But all-in-all, They all make the time spent at the field enjoyable. The only time that I can say I lefty angry was when my plane was still in a tree somewhere.

GerKonig

I left upset once:-) I met with a buddy, and we were the only 2 at the field. While getting all the stuff of my car, the key ring was bugging me, and I dopped it in the flight box. Yep, sure enough, after loading I slammed the trunk 1 second before remembering the keys were now INSIDE the sucker. It was an old Nissan Sentra w/o a way to open the trunck from inside the car. My friend drove me home to pick up the second key ring...

It never happened again:-)

Gderry

maukaonyx

This is a great thread. It seems like we all have some sort of annoying people at our fields. At our field, we have one particularly irritating know it all who chose me as one of his targets last year. Maybe I looked like I don't know what I am doing, or he can spot a lamb when he sees one, but I was one of his faves for offering advice that was not requested. Yup this guy would hop out of his truck every time I saw him, walk right up to me and my plane for the day, and start telling me what was wrong with it. Hmmm, the prop is too close to the cowl, this extension needs heat shrink tubing on it, a 15x8 would be better on that engine, or a smaller one for that plane the next week. On and on it went. At first I tried responding politely and explaining my own ideas. Didn't help. I finally just decided to get up and walk away whenever he was approaching my pit area. He can stare at my plane all he likes but can't talk to me if I am not there. This is one of those real old timers that never brings anything to fly when the field is busy during the weekend, stays 15-30 minutes to supervise where not needed, and then leaves. When he does bring a plane, it is only during the weekdays when almost nobody is there, as I have been there a few times when he has flown. And you got it, he can't even fly well and his planes are ugly. One thing good about the guy; he donated fencing material for us to create some pilot safety barriers this Winter, so he has some good heart in there. I am still polite, say hi and all, but I still walk away when he heads to see my latest plane, lol. I'm 58, been doing this hobby since a kid, and just want to see us all get along with each other, safely at the field.

Oh, we have a very small club of barely 40 members, and most of the guys are just plain funny and easy to get along with. Only about 4-8 guys fly on a busy weekend day at the field. We have a lot of older guys who we give lower dues to, and they hardly fly, if at all. All I can say is, bless them for helping to keep the club solvent. The more guys that want to join, pay dues, but not fly, it's all good by me. They get their fun staying in contact, building and not flying, and watching the rest of us do our thing...living vicariously through the rest of us, I guess. Jon

spiceflyer

This is why I bought acreage, so I can fly my ultralights and rc's with out having to deal with people.......Carl

Ardusv

I have been in clubs for years. Everything from airplane clubs to car clubs as far as R/C goes. There is always one or two that are like this. And it is true that if you do not think there are, then it is you. LOL Anyway the most annoying one I ever ran into was at a fly field. He came in out of nowhere with a hypothetical 20 years experience and could not adjust an engine properly. Every single time he would fly his first take-off would lean bog and have to dead stick over the fence and restart. his favorite saying was "It is a cold natured engine."

I had seen him take giant scale P-51 and run it through the barbed wire fence 250 feet off the end of the runway and the plane was not even his. Unfortunately he had a lot of support and would hardly ever fly if more than 3-4 people were out at the field. He wound up being voted the president of the club 6 months after he joined. I quit the club and ran into some friends from the club about a year ago. They said they ran him off about 4 months after he became president. One asked if I knew how he was and I stated "yeap." They asked why I never told them and I told him that people need to learn thing like that on their own. If I would have pointed it out I would have been labeled the bad guy.

I still fly but my son is into racing cars. There are still a few around. But none that are in our club yet. I now tell people, "If he has 20 years experience, why can't he get his car to run?" and leave it at that.

hockeypilot

My Feedback: (4)

I"ve been in the "bigger is better" club, and the "ducted fans are the only real modelers", and the last one I joined was so far from the house it was impractical to go very often.

Having been in RC since 1981, I'm a little beyond being a joiner for the typical reasons.

However, at the new club (second season) I'm beginning to enjoy it much more.
I like a few of the weekday guys I've met and none offer more advice than requested..

I've turned into a weekday flier as I don't have the annoying full time career at the moment.
If I could afford to stay semi-retired I would. On weekends, I don't like waiting an hour between flights,and there seems to be no limit to how many guys want tobe in the air at the same time. Monday and Tuesday are best!

I feel like my enjoyment is always compromised when I have to worry about who's going to collide with me, the next guy or any others.

Imay offer to get new pilots up to speed as I remember how many times I crashed before I got a little help. And when you crash the kits we had in the 80's, you couldn't fix your problems by waving a credit card for a new ARF !

Otherwise, I've found a good conversation ender is to say" I have some things to do to get ready for my next flight and need to check messages (cell phone) before I fly"...

Have fun!

foodstick

Its funny reading these posts. and seeing some of the same issues spread across the globe !

I have been lucky in the fact that I can usually get along with about every group INSIDE the group !

Sometimes the abrasive guys make for the fondest stories you collect in the hobby, It may not seem that way at the time it happens!

I am one of the guys that hangs out more than flies, I have three modes of the hobby ...
1 I fly my small stuff a lot and am building ..
2 I just build, and hangout at the field (sometimes the building doesn't seem to involve ANYTHING being built) haha
3 I just walk away from it all , sometimes for a few years.

I really envy the guys that just thrive on the actual sticktime..they are the luckiest ones. I can't get airplanes out of my blood ..but I don't really get the thrill from flying that a lot of you guys do. It doesn't make sense to me either ?

Some of my friends say they would quit the second they can't fly there own planes.. Me personally, I might like the hobby more if I had a good pilot to show my stuff off at flyins, I like going to flyins
but I HATE flying at them.

In fact if I had my own field I wouldn't fly anywhere else..

There are so many ways to enjoy this hobby,so many angles of it to participate in don't involve flying at all. I try to keep that in mind when people don't understand my attitude about it, or theirs seems strange to me.

I do know the generation before me really fought some tough technical issues in the early years of the rc world, and fight more restrictive health issues, sight,balance,etc. So I try to cut them some slack when they are having a bad day..I have them too.

In the end its about the fun .....

Crash Campbell

[quote]ORIGINAL: GerKonig


Hear, Hear,

I'm lucky in that both of the clubs I fly at don't have any of the annoying, (to me anyway), members. Certainly no preachers or know it alls. However I can't say the same for other groups I belong to, but that's life and you have to "get over it/them" and enjoy the activity rather than focus on things and people that annoy you.

Cheers,

Colin

retransit

My Feedback: (18)

I sometimes get the idea that no one will listen to them at home, so they come out to the field or club meeting and and get diarrhea of the mouth to everyone's dismay.

Bob

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Hey I live alone so nobody listens to me at home anyway!

The guys I fly with are great! They are truely a great bunch and we do enjoy each others company! But I do know the type of people you are talking about, I use to race full scale cars and you always had the guy that wanted to tell you that you were doing everything wrong even though you were beating him on the track! I just told him one day hey I appreciate the fact that we have become such good freinds, And because we are such good freinds could I borrow 500.00 bucks? Funny how he stopped comming around after that! It has worked every time in my life when I am not to found of someone, ask them to barrow money and they tend to avoid you!

cordell staker

The only guy I try to impress at the field is the safety officer. I want him to know who I am, and I want to be on his good side. I have good planes, and good electornics. Never talk price or lie about how I fly. I like to show up at a field, prep out and be in the air in 15 minutes, fly a good first flight and land. Then I will chat around a bit, look over who and what is there. Make a note of who I don't want to be in the air with. I never fly someone else's mistakes, and give very little advice. I am a happy flier. I never want my club to become my church too....and I prefer to stay away from boasters. On my second flight for the day I usually do some things that let "posers" and braggers know that I am a good pilot with a little zip. And I don't swear, blame others for my mistakes, crashes, or the fact that I just have a lot of fun in my own flight world.

sandyrod

My Feedback: (3)

The field I fly at has a club but the field is owned and operated by the county and open to the public. A lot of the club members are standoffish and territorial. I am one of the few guys that brings my two young sons with me (they are both good pilots) and usually my wife. I can tell it bothers some of the members. I had a guy get in my grill because he crashed his large scale 33% aerobatic airplane and he swore my son pulled his frequency clip off the board. When he found out it was one of his club buddies who pulled his tag by mistake I didn't even get an apology and it was suddenly just a mistake. I have started doing what a lot of flyers at the field do; wait until the club guys have left. Yes it is windy and yes the sun is in your eyes but it is a better atmosphere. These people don't realize that they are strangling there own organization by driving away new members and the hobby in general by not welcoming kids and families. The club members at Prado Dam on the other hand are really a bunch of nice guys and go out of their way to welcome families. Maybe I should stop being so lazy and drive the extra twenty minutes.

fly24-7

I'm not suggesting that an instructor can make every save in every situation. But, you shouldn't suggest to your student that the instruction process is a crap shoot and it's likely their equipment won't survive.

I've never had someone I've instructed loose a plane because I've never let a situation degrade to the point where a recovery would be dicey.

I-fly-any-and-all

My Feedback: (1)

lot of pr**ks in my club as well. some guy who only flys a 1/4 scale cub in big slow circles wants to ***ch and wine all the time.

ram3500-RCU

My Feedback: (221)

Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the h..............l good is an instructor that lets you get into trouble he can't get you out of. That kind of 'tough love' has no place in instruction. That is why the trainer cord, IMO, was the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread.

Just because a guy is willing and has the time to be an 'instructor', doesn't mean he should be one. And not all great pilots make great instructors / teachers either.

Building confidence in a person, while protecting them from themselves, is some what of an art. I was fortunate to have such a person to instruct me in full scale. I try to apply those same qualities to RC instruction. A perfect safety record is the result. It can be done.

Ardusv

I agree a perfect record can be accomplished. It is very hard but the instructor should always check the plane with his student. The best way to avoid an equipment malfunction is to catch it on the ground. I have taught dozens of people how to fly. Including my son when he was only 6 years old. None of them have had an accident. And yes I did ground a few planes until repairs were made. nothign worse than thinking that a loose aileron is ok to fly on and crash a plane. Not for a 10-15 minute fix. Also a big problem with instructors I find is that they believe they can fly in higher winds than they should and try to give a lesson in winds the student should not be flying in.

I have had student crash, do not get me wrong. But they did so after they performed their solo flight. Most times the crash was a result of faulty equipment that could have been caught at ground inspection. Safety procedures are put into place for good reason. Students and instructor need to follow them and how is a student to learn without the instructor teaching them?

MetallicaJunkie

yeah but its usually about the same crap over and over..... jeezuz freak

aerofly0610

I don't want religion crammed down my throat either. I think its stupid when people do that (and no I'm not doing it to any of you). I'm only saying don't be selfish and think the field is only for your enjoyment. Other people pay to be in the club so they have every right to be there. If other people want to sit off the the side and shoot the breeze about their beliefs... well America is a free country isn't it? I served in the military 4 years to help keep that freedom and I prefer that it doesn't turn into an anti religion or anti free speech police state.

Like I said just be respectful of other people. I don't want to hear people at the field talking about their drinking habits or womanizing, but as long as they stay respectful I just ignore them. Really how self centered can we be? I allow you at "my" field as long as you don't annoy me? I allow you at "my" field if you think the way I do. That is just sad.

Srewinkel

I like the ones that always ask you, "when you going to buy "x"" just because that is what they like to fly.  There is always someone in a group of people that is a "know it all", or talks to much.  If you can't get away from them, just sit back and listen, and just tell your self that "this guy/gal is a moron".  I like to fly alone. don't need to worry about other planes in the air, and I can fly where and how i want, without the "your flying the worng direction, Land east to west, etc.."  As I don't belong to a club, and have no desire to join one. 
Not saying there are no benefits to a club, just have realized over the years that there are greater disadvantages than advantages to a club. Don't need to pay money for people to tell me how I need to fly and what to fly.

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

I take my 5 year old with me all the time. I overheard one of the old guys tell my son to "get outta here" when he was simply asking him about his helicopter. I asked him "what's wrong with you, is this how you treat your own grand-kids". He turned about 3 shades of red and packed up and left.
Hopefully this thread can turn into a "What Not to Do at the Field Guide"
Red.