tom.laird

Hi,
My tuppenceworth is that they are great. My only concern is reaching past the prop to get to the transmitter. The sides could do with coming forward so your arm moves away from the prop. Is a tough call - you can't take your eyes off the model.
br
Tom Laird
Scotland, UK

GAP-RCU

Our club is a short drive from Edwin's and we too have a half dozen or so of these benches. Like them a lot too. They were built a couple of years ago with pressure treated lumber and deck screws; not rickity at all to this day. I do all the mowing at our field and have found them to be easy to flip over to mow under.

With only about 15 club members, our member-to-bench ratio is just right!

Gary

vertigo72480

The field I fly from sits on a flood plane, and the field floods probably once a year. We also have around 10 of these benches on our pit line. We love them. Last year two of them were swept about 300 yards off the pit line and the only damage was to one shelf on one bench. These are made of pressure treated lumber and are very, very stable. I would recommend these for any field.

d_bodary

My Feedback: (85)

We have them at our field to and they get alot of use. I have seen more cuts with them. due to not having much clearance around the prop glow ignitor etc. Not to mention planes falling off them due to the wind. I've been starting my planes on the ground for so long now. Just don't want to try and break my routine of startup. But alot of people use them.

Interesting point is at the AMA flying site in Muncie. I never saw any of these stands

Dennis

3drc tim

My Feedback: (6)

After having a couple of planes in our club start-up backwards and move backwards on the AMA benches, one of the guys in our club came up with an interesting idea. We installed cross 2 X 4's (maybe 24" long) located behind the landing gear. These boards are adjustable with long bolts and wing nuts. They generally do not have to be moved but can easily be adjusted. They keep the planes from moving back and dropping off the gear or on the ground. These benches really are the greatest.

Tim

3drc tim

My Feedback: (6)

You can see the cross-board in my previous posting with the picture.

Tim

3drc tim

My Feedback: (6)

BTW, you can see the cross-board in my previous posting with the picture.

Tim

rcmiket

We have 3 on each side of the taxiway and everyone loves them. One of the guys has a bussiness dealing with a bunch of wood. He donated the wood and we slapped them togther in no time. The club rented a hole digger and we cemented them in. Whats not to like. Sure at first some were gunshy but they came around quick. Get it done you won't be sorry. Mike

Dave Holmes

Resurrecting an old thread.

In an earlier post I commented that I wished my club had some of these benches.

Well, I retired, moved out of the city, and now belong to three clubs, two of which have these benches. (Or Geezer Stands as they are referred to at one of the clubs!) We would not be without them. I made an additional one with moveable pipes covered with pool noodles for restraints and a wider, somewhat lower deck to accommodate larger and multi-engined planes. It gets used the most! I even have one at home for testing engines, etc.

Best thing since sliced bread!

LesUyeda

Like handling guns, there is NO substitute for a responsible operator.

Les

KW_Counter

TexasAirBoss,

I think your problem is they are being used as storage rather than for starting.
We have 5 (I built all of them and there are two different styles) at our club,
two at each end of the pits and one in the back for break-in.
It has also been made very clear they are not for storage.
Unless you have situations where more than four people are starting & flying at once
you don't need any more.
I agree, 12 of them would look like clutter.

Good Luck,

KW_Counter

Villa

This is an old post, but the subject is very current. Our club built about 6 of the Engine Starting Safety Stands shown in the first post. After 2-3 years many of the stands required rework; they were falling apart. After another 2-3 years we had to rework them again, which we did. But this time I decided to study the design of the stand to determine why it was falling apart. The first thing I realized is that we were rolling the stands over to move them every time we mowed the grass. I then realized that the stands needed wheels on the front two legs. I also saw that the strength of the stand would be much greater with some small design changes. My new design is free and can be downloaded from our club website at http://www.wilsonrc.org/news.php . Just click on DOWNLOAD. We only use Treated Lumber, and screws for Treated Lumber. The drawings show all of the pieces nested together to minimize the lumber required. Our first stand to the new design is about 10 years old and has required no rework. We have four others to the new design, all about 5 years old, and all are doing great; no rework required. If you have never started a plane on the ground and had the throttle wide open, you have been lucky. It has happend to me twice in my 40 years of R/C flying. I consider the Engine Starting Safety Stands to be the best safety item our club has ever participated in. Comments and questions are welcomed.

k3 valley flyer

My Feedback: (18)

N/A

aspeed

Our club has a tiedown rule, so I always use the stands if I can scare one up. It is at a nice height to work on for mounting the wing etc too. I don't like having a wet knee and a sore ankle. Ours are getting a bit wobbly from being dragged around, One has a broken post. I don't think a plane motor was that powerful? I am sure it will be fixed soon (even if I have to) we have the technology. Like it said before, "responsible operator" (If something goes wrong I am always responsible)