Hah! Haven't you heard? It is the mean old man in the corner who wins.

We have 7-9 guys that fly choppers and not one fly the pattern that even a 40 size plank does. They fly back and forth in front of them selves, going maybe 75' out from where the took off from. Maybe some chopper pilots fly the pattern, but not at our field, or the other field I fly at. We all get along, but do so by not flying while these idiot chopper pilots are flying, as they do not, nor will not use the established flying pattern.

Taildragger,
Might I suggest the planks simply learn to fly the proper heli pattern? Back and forth about 75' out. Then everyone would be happy, right? At my busy field, there are planes AND helis in the air all the time. Nobody gets a chance to have center stage for themself. Luckily we have enough room to have separate flight lines for the two.

Tom

Taildrager:
Man you have some hatred there for heli pilots, myself and every other heli pilot I fly with or have flown with all fly the traffic pattern and I have flown with hundreds of heli pilots from all over the country. When the flight line is empty that is the time for center stage low 3D knee knocking stuff......... I will bet that when you make a low pass across the runway you do not let everyone know what your intensions are and how many time have you flown over the flight line or over the pits?
There is a hell of a lot more injuries from fixed wing aircraft then there is from rotary wing aircraft, and yes I understand that there are more pilots flying fixed wing. I can also say that your average heli pilot has more control over his aircraft and is aware of his surroundings than the average fixed wing pilot. I know that their are bad apples on both sides and it is up to us to correct them before it become the norm. Does not the AMA require that all pilots have a spotter with them during the length of the flight?

OK you get my point here, their are good and bad pilots from both arena's




Alan[>:]

I don't hate any one, just hate the idiot way the guys fly choppers at the fields I fly at. Sure there is some idiot plank flyers also that fly against the pattern and no we do not use spotters when sport flying, we just keep a eye out for out of controll choppers & planks.

Alan,
For the heli pilots that fly them like planes, I agree there is no conflict. The confusing part of your story is your claim that hundreds of heli pilots across the country fly the "pattern". I also travel extensively and visit RC fields all over the US. I almost never see helis flying the pattern. Obviously we don't go to the same fields and that is creating a lot of confusion in this discussion.

Tom

The better heli pilots near here fly them around the trafic pattern. Admittedly somewhat smaller than is typical of a .60 size Pattern model... but much larger than is typical of a 280 electric power model. That's still larger than the area flown in by a 3D fixed wing 1/3 scale modeler that is showing off...

As a heli pilot gets better at flying... he tends to fly the thing around the pattern more. But never low when any distance out... you can't "glide" a heli very far dead-stick. Its fear of dead-stick that keeps the helis in closer... because if you lose power and are far away you don't have a good chance of making a decent auto-rotation landing.

Beginner heli pilots tend to fly them in close and not move them much. (not on purpose anyway)

One of the hardest things to do with a heli is hold it stationary 5 ft off the ground. Unfortunately that is also one of the first things you have to learn how to do with the heli...

Close behind the stationary hover is learning to convert from forward flight back to stationary, and you have to learn to do that in order to land the things.

Right in that same group is the heli's version of dead-stick. Auto-rotation with a heli is MUCH harder to do correcly than a dead-stick with a fixed wing. You have to time the stick movements correctly or you end up with a twised pile of junk.

So, Heli pilots tend to do a lot of practice of thier form of take-off and landings. They lift the thing and set it back down. Then they move it around a bit and set it down. Then they take it high, flip the auto-rotation switch and do an auto-rotation landing.... This is about like a beginner fixed wing flyer doing a lot of touch-n-goes. It tends to be stuff that is close to the pilot's stations.

*********

It would be nice to convince everyone that flys a glow powered modelto keep it at least 25 ft from EVERY person... But try to get that to pass as a safety rule and watch the storm of complaints that will appear.

The rule at our field is 50' from the flight line, and of course the planks have no problem keeping that distance, but the choppers do not comply, as was said on another post as they like to stay close to see their chopper. So is a safety rule that the choppers will not comply with really worth trying to inforce on them, as the planks wait untill their flight is over any way, and the only one they are indangering is themselves & other heli guys when they crash and the chopper beats it self to death as parts fly every where. In fact the plank guys wager if a chopper will crash or not.

IS THIS WHERE YOU GET THE FREE JUICE DRINK? WHAT ABOUT A MOON PIE? OOOH ANGER IN HERE, AND NO MOON PIES..[>:][>:]