LMAO!

All good points - LOVE the chicken analogy!

I would never fly in hard rain...but I was considering flying in drizzle the other day..thats why i asked....the best part about that day was that an hour after i posted this question, the sky cleared and the sun came out....I flew for about two hours in some of the best weather this season....

I flew in down pour once. I had just hand launched my 1/2 Sure Flite Cessna with a TD051 engine and a 2 oz. tank, good for about 16 minutes. No sooner had the plane left my hand when the sky opened up. I ran for cover and stood under a covered walkway. With no throttle control I really had no choice but to keep flying. It flew pretty good for about 8 or 9 minutes and finally the rain was so hard that the engine started loosing power and I was able to belly in.

I also saw the same thing happen to a friend one time. BUt there was a severe gust front. The plane flew backwards away from us until we couldn't see it anymore. We spent hours looking for it. Found it over a mile away on the other side of an interstate.

I personally worry about water getting into the xmitter.

I did fly float planes for a few years. And they get wet now and then. The fuselages tend to warp, turn into bananas after a while.

i wouldent recomend it m8

If you add up all the replies, then divide by the number of replies.... square root of that times Pi.... aw, the heck with it.

As long as you have fun!

Back when I was a kid growing up in Norway, we would fly in the rain all the time. Of course, in Norway it could rain for weeks on end, so if you were waiting for sunny days not much flying would happend. Also, 99.9% of the time, it will rain in Norway without any lightning.

As mentioned above, we would put the transmitter in a plastic bag to protect it from the rain.

Now, living in Texas, I will land and pack up as soon as it starts to rain. Here 99.9% of the time rain means lightning as well[], and wait an hour or so and it will be sunny again

-tychoc

I did my solo in a light rain.

Used a shower cap with two holes in it for a transmitter "condom".

two holes in a condom wouldn't be a good thing

I've never headed out to the field with rain already coming down, but in FL it rains often this time of year like Seattle year 'round, and we get caught landing in rain anyway. A club member here flies in the rain on purpose with good results he says. He swears he's never had a problem, but his Monokote sure takes a beating. If there is a loose spot, it's coming off. Common sense would say not to do this, but his reply is "why do we have this roof cover over the picnic tables then?" I've read nothing in the AMA guidelines forbidding it, and scale planes fly in it routinely. With the wing on, the electronics stay dry in our case as they are mounted inside the plane, and most wrap their receivers anyway. If you use a mini van and don't have a covered area, under the raised tailgate is a dry spot to fly under so you don't get wet. You have to protect the transmitter, saran wrap it.

I'd like to know how Seattle pilots ever fly when it's NOT raining!

i never go flting on sundays is it is raining in the morning mayne if its light and is going 2 clear up later

Sundays is special to me. I always head down to the field short of super heavy wind/rain. We have a nice pot belly stove and a BBQ in the shed so if it gets really bad at least we can have a good meal and chat.

Occaisonally we have night fly-ins. These basically constitute flying in the dark under spot light. Believe it or not, and I checked, we actually comply with our local regulations doing this. In reality it's another excuse for a huge BBQ, some crazy night flying with electrics, and a few drinks (post flying). To make things civilised we run a genset to power the lighting in the shed. Some guys sleep over the night depending on how much they have had to drink.

Our last night fly in consisted of zero flying. The rain was pouring down (sidewards) and the wind was a gale. It got so bad we even closed the shed door which made it rather toasty inside (25C vs 5C).

The moral is: Within limits don't let the weather turn you away from going down to the field and having a social day with everyone else. Have a BBQ and do what flying you can. Rain and wind isn't an excuse if you keep it sensible.

Get professional help? RC Anonymous?

Yeah, I'm hooked on it. Several things are driving us at the moment:

1. The inevitable loss of our field at any time now. Fly while we can.
2. Poor weather. Fly whenever you can even if it's not perfect.
3. Trying to get my skills up for some new aircraft.
4. The insurance is a killer so you want to get your value out of it (fly as much as possible).
5. Work commitments. Never pass an opportunity to fly given points 1 & 2.

I think you will find that 80% of the content of methanol is water!

Now we're on fuel, and I'd like to know why my fuel fails to perform when I accidentally leave the cap off, assuming moisture has been absorbed in it, my engines don't run anymore, and I've got $14 of expensive weed killer and can't use the fuel anymore? If water mixes so well, and it's 80% water, why does it require a tight cap to prevent ruining it?

I'm not so sure on that one - CH3OH. Plus, we're not burning pure methanol - we have oil and nitro in there as well(and who knows what else), something in model fuel absorbes water, just not sure exactly what.

Alcohol is used as a dry gas for cars, I would assume similar properties in methanol is what gets contaminated quickly by it's molecular structure. Once you add water from the air, what does it become if it's not longer firing under compression and ignition?

I think that the scale planes that fly through rain routinely, don`t do it by choice, they too will try to fly, above, or around ,the bad weather when possible...BUT what about snow??? It`s such a dry ,kind of wet.. DAVE B.

i would not even think about flyin in the rain
that is why i have a sim for

Really smelly weed killer?

I'm no chemist, as long as it works in my engines, I'm happy.



DB,
LoL! "such a dry kind of wet..." Good one!

Inquiring minds,,need to know....SO ????? WHAT about BLINDING blizzards?? Shouldn`t effect the radio gear till spring, when the snow melts,and you thaw out .THE snow becomes a little less dry, and much more damp, at that time of year....YOU`VE got time to find the plane too,about 6 months, around here.

While we're all way off the subject, anyone have adverse results from desert heat and their computer radio displays? If flying in the rain is bad, what about the guys in AZ flying with heat stroke?

Yes. The screen(on a comp. radio) goes black. A few minutes in the shade or in the car with a/c does the trick, no biggie - it doesn't do any permanent damage that I know of. Water is pretty much required for the stick pusher. Actually, from what I hear, the monsoon (rain,wind and t-storms)has kicked up and cooled things off this year.

AZ isn't too bad.... it's darn near impossible during the day here in Kuwait. I've been flying at night when it's cooled off into the high 90s-low 100s, at least until I got "banned" from the flightline. [sm=bananahead.gif]

Edited for spellering.(twice)

What we are using for fuel is methanol or methyl alcohol, or wood alcohol which is CH3OH. Methanol is highly hygroscopic which means it absorbs water out of the air. This contaminates the fuel and makes it run lousy. That's why you should always keep the cap on it when not actually fueling . Here's a little fact. If you mix 1/2 gallon of methanol and 1/2 gallon of water you get about 3/4 gallon when combined. That's how much it likes water.

As far as Rosypa's remark about rain in Seattle. Dick it doesn't rain in Seattle all the time. We just say that to keep guys like you from coming up here. We get around 37 inches a year average which is less than Baltimore, Boston , Memphis, and Houston . A heck of a lot less than you guys get in Miami which gets an average of 57 inches per year. So when do YOU fly? It has been absolutely beautiful here the last three days and we are supposed to get another 4 or five nice days. It's February here.

I fly in the rain on a regular basis in the winter. When I was stationed in the Philippines we flew during monsoon which lasted for 4 months. Same in Japan during the rainy season. No problems if you kept the transmitter dry.