redbirdy

Well I haven't had any problems out of anyone anymore. A good sound cursing out is sometimes necessary and will work wonders. I get along with almost everyone at my field. I was a new member and sorta felt like I should't rock the boat with any retaliatory actions and let it slide for a while. Sometimes a person has to drive a point home. The thought of joining another club never entered my mind. I was there to stay because it was closer to my home. Overall my fellow club members are a good bunch of people.

Falcon Jet

redbirdy,

Yes your right, I'm the same way, I get along with just about anyone myself. I got along with about 90% of the club members, it was just those few who drove me away. A friend of mine and myself found another place to fly (non-AMA), and that's where we went. Always made it a point to ask the fellow fliers what their freq's were before flying. I definately learned my lesson over my mishap. I had a lot of good friends at the field who sided with me, but I had had enough, so I left, all because of a few who made it difficult. Anyway, I'm over it now, but thought I'd share my story anyway.

Chris.

Blackie

As I stated earlier in this thread if a said party shoots down another party, reimburses for the loss, then the said party should have claiming rights to the plane he just shot down including all itmes replaced, hence (damaged servos).

Am I right?

Blackie

Falcon Jet

Even though the circumstances of your plane getting shot down hurts, and you may have bitter feelings about it, if the person pays you for your plane and asks for it, then yes, you should hand it over. They are in effect "buying" your plane/parts. If your insurance totals your wrecked car, do you get the money and the car? I totally agree, however bad it hurts, you should let it go.

My input,
Chris.

âûñøåå îäíî

it pissed me off because yesterday i could have shot someone down. i was walking over to get my freq. clip and i flicked on my TX to make sure it had power with the ant. down, when I get to the board the clip is gone and someone had being flying with it

ifixairplanes

My Feedback: (9)

Why did that piss you off? You should have known to grab your clip then power up.

sean

Falcon Jet

Probably cause when he realized what he did, knowing what he could of done, was pissed at himself for doing something that he knew better of. Just guessing.

Chris.

âûñøåå îäíî

good guess

Jinkers

My Feedback: (1)

I found a new way to accedentally shoot someone down last weekend (though it didn't actaully result in a shoot down).

I arrived at the field and unloaded all my stuff and setup on a bench. I then walked over to the frequency board to grab my channel and noticed that it was gone. Not a big deal, one of the other club members flies on the same channel and I had seen him on the flight line. So I walked back to the bench and figured I would just fuel up and wait. It was at that time that I noticed that my TX was on[X(] Somewhere in the loading, trip to the field or unloading the switch had gotten bumped and turned on. Fortunately for me and the other pilot he wasn't trying to fly in the 5 minutes or so before I noticed it.

I've started removing my battery from the radio unless I have the pin.

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

Sorry, anyone who spends $20,000 on a toy airplane is a fool. I like RC as much as the next guy, but get real. One can buy a full scale plane for that kind of money. You shouldn't spend so much if you aren't comfortable loosing it all within the first 10 seconds of the first flight. Getting shot down is just a risk in this hobby, like it or not. I think some people loose sight of this fact.

xenomorph

I agree with tommygun. I fully expect my plane to die within 5 seconds of takeoff, anything more is bonus. If you are going to invest tens of thousands of dollars in your little hobby, you assume the sometimes large risks. Go fly out on the salt flats by yourself if you don't like it.

wahoo

My Feedback: (59)

Tommygun writes:

Ever hear of disposible income ?

Just because you can't afford too or choose not to spend these kind of funds SURELY does not make one willing to do so a fool.

Tommygun

My Feedback: (2)

You're right, it makes them a moron. Fool was too lightly worded. Unless you're Bill Gates, you are dumb for spending $20,000 on a TOY(!) airplane. Even with proper frequency control, the risk you run is someone could be just down the street in the Walmart parking lot with their GWS Tiger Moth on the same freq. And guess what? You'll probably never find them- not that they could ever be held accountable, nor should they be. Don't expect the average person at the field with a .40 sized whizbang something or other to pay for it when he turns on his TX and shoots you down either. I wouldn't- I'd give you the 300 bucks someone mentioned earlier. Or, buy some good insurance for your model. I bet the premium will only be $20,000 a year!

maxim_jd

I'm in the lucky boat here as I've never shot anyone down, nor been shot down yet (except a darn radio failure!). But I have witnessed one particularly bad incident:

Show up to fly relatively early one day. Mostly the old farts there as that's when they like to fly - before it gets too hot. One young guy shows up with a buddy and a .60 sized Extra. Goes to our frequency board and puts his marker on his channel. After the typical prep work/bs'ing he takes his bird up. Meanwhile another guy with his son take their smallish T6 (.25 sized I think) up for a flight. The following was mayhem: Both of them screaming I don't got it! and the like. The one guy's Extra ended up in the sticks way out there, the other guy's T6 pancaked hard on the runway. Both of them were steaming mad (of course). Come to find out, the guy with the little T6 had just put up a piece of paper on the pin for the same frequency as the guy with the Extra. Well, little problem, a slight wind gust had knocked it off and so the channel had appeared clear to Mr. Extra. The ugliest part to all of this is that the T6 guy was technically at fault and all of us thought so, but would not take the blame for it. So poor young Mr. Extra suffers a complete loss of a much more expensive plane and gets nothing. They proceed to have a yelling match but then both leave disgusted.

2 points to all this I guess:
1. Make darn sure your frequency is properly marked - if in doubt, ASK!
2. Take accountability for your actions!

I know I check our board periodically to make sure there aren't any problems as we do it on the honor system.

Sadly, from all of this, I don't see either guy at our field anymore....

Falcon Jet

I don't know, kind of have a problem with people calling RC planes "toys". Whether they cost $300.00 or $20,000.00, "toys" don't cut fingers off. Besides that, if someone chooses to spend that much money on a "toy", that's his business. Now if I shot him down, could I afford 20K? Hell no. I'd probably pay him the $300.00 or so. If someone chooses to spend that much money then they should accept the fact that no one could afford to pay the replacement cost if shot down and get insurance on it as you suggested.

Chris.

CrashPro

My Feedback: (1)

Was almost shot down last week......I arrived at the field early one day at the crack of dawn, get my flying in early, as it gets to be about 100 degrees by 9am here this time of year.....anyway.. I was the only one there..just took off,.. was flying my stik....and I heard someones car pulling in the park behind me. About 15 minutes later, landed my plane....killed the engine, picked it up and was walking back to my table when all of a sudden the ailerons and rudder started moving as if I was working my transmitter. I look over to the other end of the runway and the only other guy at the field is doing a range check on his plane.....same frequency as mine, and he didn't bother to check the board to see what frequency I was on. If he had turned on his radio just one minute sooner I would still have been in the air and maybe would have been shot down. Had a few words with the other fella,...he felt like a real doofus, (as he should have)...because he just assumed that there wasn't much of a chance that the only 2 guys at the field would be on the same frequency. Anyway, no harm done, and a lesson learned for him,.always, ALWAYS check the board first before turning on your transmitter.

mtomas

I have never shot anyone down, or been shot down myself, however, I did do a "bad radio thing" that could have ended in disaster. I was still a beginner when I did this (probably only a week or so after my first solo).

I had a high band futaba tx and a high band rx all through my training. Shortly after training, I purchased a brand new 6 channel computer radio. I never even thought to check what band it was. Turns out it was a low band tx. All I knew was that the tx and rx crystals had to match for the system to work correctly. I didn't know that futaba marks their equipment as "high" band and "low" band for a reason and I didn't know you weren't supposed to change the freq in the tx at all. In my ignorance, I took the high band crystal from my old high band tx and plugged it into my new low band tx, did a quick range check at home and headed off to the field. I made it through a full day at the field without crashing and without causing someone else to crash. However, I did notice that my plane would seem to occasionally not do what I had told it to - kind of glitch-like. I also had heard a few other pilots saying they were having similar problems throughout the day. A glitch at the wrong time can certainly ruin someone's day.

Well, after the day at the field, I came home and started browsing through RCU. In particular, I was looking for radio interference threads. Needless to say, I found several threads explaining the "high" and "low" bands and explaining why its bad to swap crystals in the tx. While I can't be certain that MY using the high band crystal in the low band tx was the cause of the glitchy day and I can't be certain that the other pilots experiencing problems were affected by me, I can be certain that I have not had any glitchy days since I corrected the situation.

Many thanks to all on RCU! Without this site, I may very well have crashed, caused someone else to crash, or even worse, caused someone to get hurt. These forums are an invaluable source of information! You all deserve a pat on the back!

biscuitslayer

My personal oppinion is that if you spend $1000's on a RC jet powered plane, you should get the entire airfield with some special considerations. I have seen videos of those things, and I can't imagine trying to keep a plane or heli in the air with one of those things breaking the sound barrier above my head. I wouldn't nessecarily agree that they aren't toys though. They are sophisticated flying machines that you wouldn't just hand over to a 7 year old albeit they are toys in a sense. I am not an AMA member and I don't go to a club, but if I was around someone that had an aircraft that was worth $1000's of dollars, I am not going to be flying my $300 Piper Cub until they are on the ground with all power to their bird and TX in the off posisitions.

I have never shot anyone down and no one has ever shot me down (probably because I don't belong to a club), but I wouldn't really be angry if someone made an honest (and stupid) mistake and then turned around and offered to give me money for their lesson.

Have to tell you guys though. Some of the storys that I am reading keep me laughing into the long hours of the night. The other thing is that I am learning from everyone else's mistakes. This has been an excellent thread Falcon. Hats off to you bother.

DrFun

My Feedback: (4)

I was almost going to be effected party of a shotdown yesterday.

Here is what happened guy A comes to field and there is no pin for his frequency, he walks arround asks me and everyone else their frequency, nobody has it and no one has his card in so he puts his card in place and notifies everyone in the flight line.

I took my plane to flight station and waiting for guy A to taxi back and then while he is taxing the plane goes full throttle and takes of 6-10 ft in fron of me eading staright to my head, it was a 91 4 stroke. I back up and duck. the plane makes a right turn and hits the netting infront of pilot station. the wing is damaged.

So here is what happend guy B flown his plane eralier on another day and he took the pin with him to home, he comes to field as he has the pin he turn his TX without checking the pin board. and at the same time I am doing running and ducking pilot.

It was my closest call to be hit by a plane. Apparently this is not guy B 1st frequency insidence he had shotdown guy A before where guy A had just started his engine and the plane goes to full throttle while he is infront of it. he barely saves his hand.

Guy A is pissed of guy B and I am pissed of guy B, guy B is a little old and nice guy so I did not say anything.

But I was lucky.

les2097

My Feedback: (508)

Can a Futaba TX shoot down a JR TX...?? or vice versa...???

norvelnut

I got my Ace Grasshopper shot down thios week---MY FT FAULT! I didn't go to the other flier (a newbie), and ask for the pin for my channel, as a result took off, made a half orbit, went in nose first. Luckily I didn't have much speed or altitude yet. Yikes!!!!

Norvelnut![]

KFalcon

My Feedback: (18)

I never have shot any one down or been shot down. I do think about it on every flight though.

Hill202

My Feedback: (24)

Yes!!

doggscube

My Feedback: (1)

There was a guy at the field on Saturday who didn't get his freq. pin from the board. We weren't up at the same time; in fact, he crashed due to catastrophic elevator separation. (I noticed flutter in his elevator shortly before his crash). He was hotdogging anyway, and seemed to have as much fun crashing as flying. But it did bother me that he just didn't seem too concerned about it. Maybe I missed him checking my frequency (we were the only ones flying at the time)....

-Jeff

redbirdy

If I'm already in the air with a 300.00 plane and someone wants to takeoff their 40% er then fine. I'm continuing with what I am doing. If I see the same guy practicing IMAC sequences, I will wait untill he lands before I go up and disrupt his routine. If I am ALREADY in the air, then he will need to dodge me as often as I have to dodge him. Ya can't just horn in.