ORIGINAL: tuwood
For me, hovering close to the ground is considerably easier because you take a lot of the wind out of play & in general the closer you are to it the easier it is to control. Plus if you screw up you just chop the throttle & let it drop with very little or no damage (on my profile anyway)
I'm still relatively new to 3D, but I will routinely stand a few feet away from my foamies while hovering & torque rolling them & maybe it's psychological but it just seems so much easier when I'm closer. (plus the prop wash keeps you cool on a hot day)
Now, for my glow planes I also hover them right down to the deck but I don't walk anywhere near as close to them because of the meat grinder effect.
I will still walk out, but I leave myself plenty of room for mistakes & wind gusts. The foamy would still hurt & can injure but I'm not near as worried about it as I am a big 4 stroke coming at me.
Now, the foamy I can understand. You might end up with a stitch or two if the thing gets you, but I doubt you'd get seriously injured.
But, these big gassers with 100cc engines or even a 50cc engines hovering in your face? It just looks a bit maddening to me. That can kill you.
I'm not a safety nut, or one of those guys who is jealous because someone else can huck better than me. There's always somebody better than you--no matter what it is in life. Only a few guys are really "the best". I just don't understand why a guy needs to be only a couple feet away from a big plane like this. Maybe some day, I'll be good enough to hover down low, and only then will I realize the "cool factor" in standing so close.
Is it easier to see what the plane is doing? Easier to anticipate? Easier to keep ahead of it?