CESSNA 421

My Feedback: (17)

I was at our club meeting last night and we had a discussion about proposed changes to our club's constitution regarding our frequency board and some one mentioned this: "Be advised that some other fields have ruled 72 Mhz equipment illegal, especially for flying events." Has anyone else heard of anything as ridiculous as this in their area? Actually it is of little importance to me since I fly only on the 6 meter band but to try and force people into buying 2.4ghz equipment or expect them to become a ham operator just to fly!!! If this is true then anyone favoring this is an idiot!!! What will be next no wooden props since someone thinks they may break???

MetallicaJunkie

yeah it's coming... Joe Nall started it all http://www.joenall.com/0pilotinformation.html

kenh3497

IMO, 72 Mhz is still a very viable platform. No need to kick it out the door just yet. Maybe a new pin board is needed and nobody wants to go to the trouble to build one for just a "few" that still fly 72Mhz.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

For local clubs to do that I think is pretty extreme. For large events, it removes a LOT of logistics as far as volunteer man hours.

Top Gun is 2.4 only so they dont have to schedule flight order around frequency conflicts.

IRCHA is all 2.4 except the vintage area where they have a pin board.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

Banning 72 at the Local Clubs for everyday flying is stupid; for Events not a bad idea; interesting though, with the entrance of 2.4 and a lot more people going that route, the incidence of frequency Conflict with 72 has decreased because less people are using 72, and there has been some concern/discussion that even 2.4 spectrum can get flooded at big events, not sure if this is possible or has happened.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Yes, some of the big events have gone to 2.4 only. The reason hasn't anything to due with safety, it simply eliminated the need for an impound area. My old club held the rally of Giants at the old Castle Air Base, 2.4 had just come out but there were very few of them at that point.{This was my last year working the event} Our impound required three people to be working there at all times during the event, usually more. For a local club it would dwell on the side of stupid to remove 72. As always it's up to the members themselves to use the pin board. I'm one of the few left at my field using 72 and I just walk the line checking just like I always have. Pin board first then walk the line just to be sure.

Oberst

TROLL ALERT!



Pete

KitBuilder

For contest yes.. only 2.4 . Eliminats all the headaches...
but 72 is welcome any other time at our field. heck they're still making them.

Mike

Tarasdad

Come fly with our club on a bust day and you'll see a ready mix of 2.4GHz and 72MHz on the flight line. Then again we're a small club where everyone knows who uses what frequency so it's easy to coordinate. Still, I can see the sense of restricting equipment at a big contest from a logistics standpoint. Heck, I remember how hard it was to get the frequency pin for my radios back in the day. Get a big enough group together and you'd have to assign time slots for folks to use their own radio!

Rubbernecker

My Feedback: (22)

With about 12 receivers, a Futaba 8U and a new to me Multiplex Royal Evo 9, it just dioesn't make sense to go to 2.4. Furthermore, with everyone flying 2.4, I find no problems getting the pin at the field. I don't fly in contests so no big deal.

John

Wayne Miller

Hi,

I am in the same boat with lots of 72Mhz receivers.

What I did was to buy an Aurora 9. This allows me to plug in a 2.4 or 72Mhz module and select any 72Mhz channel through Tx software. It also allows me to select positive (JR/Airtronics) or negative (Futaba/Hitec) shift through software - this means I can still use my old FM/PPM 72Mhz receivers as well as 2.4 just by plugging in the correct Tx module.

This allows me keep my old receivers while I slowly upgrade to 2.4. A bonus is the Hitec 2.4 Rx's are very reasonable.

Fly4Fun,

Wayne

LesUyeda

" Pin board first then walk the line just to be sure. "

As one of the old farts, I actually find that quite amusing, from the standpoint that it was what we used to HAVE to do, in the days before control, when you just backed your station wagon along side all the other cars/wagons/trucks; walked the line to see what was going on; made an agreement with anyone on your frequency, and flew.

Les

aerowoof

yep rememmber them also only had 6 freq to share on 72 band no one was on 27 a few were hams on 50 band .lucky to get in four flights all day

carrellh

CESSNA 421
If this is real I hope there are enough members in your club with common sense to vote it down. Our club has a handful on 2.4 and most 72.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Les, I do most of my flying on a dry lake bed, we have a pin board but these days I don't trust it a lot. I still put my pin on the board then walk the line. Once in a while there is another fellow on the same Ch. and we use a stick of wood we pass back and forth, no stick no touching the TX. Doesn't hapen often but it does happen. I'm doing a very slow change over to 2.4 but I have the module for my old 9-C, works very well I mite add.

Oberst

In other words they are lazy.

The AMA does not endorse any club or event that is bias towards 72mHz usage and forces 2.4GHz only rule. If you don't believe me ask someone high up in Muncie. I belong to a very large AMA Club and we hold many events. We are well known and some of the AMA office holders in Muncie have come from our club. 2 were entered in the Hall of Fame in 2011.

In our club all radios are welcome. Thank God because I love my 72mHz radios!

Pete

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Pete, if you've ever been to an event like Joe Nall you would understand why only 2.4 is allowed. Look at the picture below. There are 5 separate flightlines. It takes 15 minutes to drive from one end to the other in a golf cart. The seaplane flightline alone (in red) is so long that freq control would be a nightmare. Add four more flighlines on top of that and you can see why they don't allow 72MHz.

KitBuilder

72 is fine at clubs... Those eliminating are thinking it through.... the two i still have i use anytime .. the board may have 2 users Just doesnt make sense to worry about 72 at contests though. There is absolutely no reason not to mandate 2.4. They have been out a number of years now and you lose the human error condition of having a plane shot down due to possible error with 72 freq mis-managemnet.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Thank you for the photo Mike. I had no idea it was that big and spread out. A perfect reason to do away with 72. I can't even see myself having to work the impound area before the advent of 2.4. Yet it was done and done very well. The only problem we encountered at the Castle IMAA event was one fellow checked out his radio to work on a plane then decided to take a nap in his motor home. We didn't have the parking place number and couldn't find him so that channel was closed until he woke up and returned his radio. Our impound was run perfectly and we never had a problem that I can recall but it really took a lot of work to do the job. Holding a large event is so much more work then anyone not involved would ever understand. To spectators and registered pilots an event is something that just happens. It took my club 9 months to organize the event with 6 weeks of running around like headless chickens before the event. Just removing the need for the impound area is a huge time savings and frees up a dozen people.
As for a club removing 72 that would just be stupid. It poses no problem at all for the club or rank and file members. If we can do it on an unregulated dry lake bed without problems there is no reason for a club to worry about it anymore then they did in the past.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

I'm not sure what you mean by "not endorsing", they certainly sanction large events like the IRCHA Jamboree, SEFF, Nall, and Top Gun where pilot counts in some case are near or exceed 1000 (not sure about SEFF but its several hundred, and the scheduling nightmare for Top Gun has been well documented)

As for lazy, we all know that 10 percent of the people do 90 percent of the work at most clubs, so if you can relieve the burden of 3 or 4 people running a freqency impound for a full time event, conservatively thats in the 200 man hours range.

My club welcomes all radios as well, even for our events.

landeck

My Feedback: (1)

Pete, the AMA leaves it up to the event CD to set the restrictions that he feels are appropriate for his contest, e.g., whether or not it is to be a 2.4 GHz only event. Also, an AMA chartered club has the right to ban 72 MHz radios at their flying field if they so choose. I even know of clubs that ban all radios - control line clubs. OBTW, one of my flying buddies with whom I fly every week is in the AMA Hall of Fame so obviously I must be knowledgeable on the subject.



Bruce

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Here you go Gene, I thought you might get a kick out of seeing the video we shot of driving from one end of Joe Nall to the other:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP06mqiL8Xo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

That was a fun ride, even enjoyed CJ singing along with you.
A photo of the opening morning of the Castle IMAA Rally of Giants in 05. I had just opened up the inspection area to get the event started. In the background you can see we already had four people in the impound getting it ready for the rush. 3 or 4 was the norm for impound personal but to see 6 people working in there was nothing strange. There would be around 200 TXs in impound every year and day one and two you always saw a line there. We had 5 flight stations and they were always full with the next pilot waiting behind.
We used volunteers from other clubs to help us run the event for 4 days. Day number 4 was always slow with people pulling out to try to beat the rush traffic but the first three days was always busy and a big bunch of fun. We had two complete rows of vender's so there were always some good deals to be had.
This was the fun event of the season in Calif. and it has started up again the last couple of years and getting bigger and bigger. We had lost the venue for a while but it's back!

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

I know of one club in this area that does not permit 72 MHz. They are a new club that is located close to a long-existing club. By restricting their members to 2.4 GHz they avoided the potential interference issue on 72 MHz.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

That's a smart thing to do and I'm betting it was discussed with the other club before your new club got started. That would be a thinking set of founders and officers.