Minimum Blimp Size For Outdoors Flying?

[WillowPtarmigan]

Is there a minimum size for RC blimps that can be flown outdoors?

[Guga]

Flying outdoors is not an easy task, and a minimum Mass is needed in order to compensate for mother nature weather nuances, type wind, thermals, and pressure changes.
With a small blimp as for example 18ft, you are going to realy work your self tru a lot of misshappens.
My experience tells me that a minimum size would be a 26ft envelope.
Down bellow some pictures of misshapps from a bad operator in Brazil.
This is not to frighten you but yes to advise you to studdy very well the matter before you invest or get involved with.
Learning to prevent Weather changes is a must.
First pictures are from take off and second is a crash landing, because of wind trifasic eletric wires, they do not mix. This happen in a a political event in São Paulo
The third picture is a take off in a soccer game in Rio and a power off "landing" Downtown Icaraí Rio, in Niteroi
Can you imagine how the adrenalin ?
This ship is a 10 mteter (30ft) and is powered by 2 brushless eletric motors, that turn a propeler size 20x11 each motor. has an autonomy of 50 min baterry time.
In other words there is no space for errors!

[bps]

Just the thought of that happening in the good ole US of A brings thoughts of looooooong days in court and HUGE lawsuits.

JEB :D

[WillowPtarmigan]

Flying outdoors is not an easy task, and a minimum Mass is needed in order to compensate for mother nature weather nuances, type wind, thermals, and pressure changes.
With a small blimp as for example 18ft, you are going to realy work your self tru a lot of misshappens.
My experience tells me that a minimum size would be a 26ft envelope.
Down bellow some pictures of misshapps in our operations in Brazil.
This is not to frighten you but yes to advise you to studdy very well the matter before you invest or get involved with.
Learning to prevent Weather changes is a must.
First pictures are from take off and second is a crash landing, because of wind trifasic eletric wires, they do not mix. This happen in a a political event in São Paulo
The third picture is a take off in a soccer game in Rio and a power off "landing" Downtown Icaraí Rio, in Niteroi
Can you imagine how the adrenalin was in our bodies?
This ship is a 10 mteter (30ft) and is powered by 2 brushless eletric motors, that turn a propeler size 20x11 each motor. has an autonomy of 50 min baterry time.
In other words there is no space for errors!

I saw someone fly 9 foot blimps outdoors. It was the Hyperblimp. Also, I remember seeing someone flying a 12 foot blimp outdoors with two speed 400 motors. There is a photo of it even. I believe I saw it on this forum. I read somewhere that if your RC blimp goes at least 15 mph or 24 km/h, it should be sufficient to fly outdoors. 26 foot is rather large. Then again, a blimp is portable, just deflate the thing. As for Brazil, it is rather interesting country. Learned a lot about that nation. Rio de Janeiro is one of the most beautiful city in the world. São Paulo is hustle and bustle. I've seen photos of it. Lots of buildings there. It is one the world's largest city and largest in South America and Latin America. You ever been to Argentina?
Hyperblimp (http://www.hyperblimp.com/)

[Guga]

bps
Yes, I can imagine this in USA, but I have participated in a event in Las Vegas, we even crashed in a restaurant with a 30ft blimp, obviously very seldom blimps cause damage to third persons or properties, so nothing hapenned, it is a risk, flying is calculated risk as I descovered in the many years of flying different types of equipment.

Willow,
Yes I have been to Argentina, and we have flown for a milk products company called "LA Serenissima", is some how company like Nestle from Spain.
Brasil is a very misterious country as a whole.

Regarding flying small blimps outdoor, I even flown my 2 meter blimp outdoors in a very special day when is foggy and the metereology is very stable you can fly any size outdoors.
But when you say about flying professionaly, the compny that is contracting you, faces a Marketing action as a act of war, and doesn´t want to hear escuses for not flying. And also they think that the "bigger the better", becaus it is going to call attention easier and other factors.
Obviously we have couter arguments like, "if its rayning nobody is going to be outside and look up to see a blimp" and other arguments.
I´m aquainted with the HypperBlimp (from Salt Lake) we have try to sell to our prospects, but one of the problem we encoutered is that client think they are too small.
I my self don´t think this way, but as you know "customers are always right".
Regards, Marcus

[WillowPtarmigan]

Willow,
Yes I have been to Argentina, and we have flown for a milk products company called "LA Serenissima", is some how company like Nestle from Spain.
Brasil is a very misterious country as a whole.

Regarding flying small blimps outdoor, I even flown my 2 meter blimp outdoors in a very special day when is foggy and the metereology is very stable you can fly any size outdoors.
But when you say about flying professionaly, the compny that is contracting you, faces a Marketing action as a act of war, and doesn´t want to hear escuses for not flying. And also they think that the "bigger the better", becaus it is going to call attention easier and other factors.
Obviously we have couter arguments like, "if its rayning nobody is going to be outside and look up to see a blimp" and other arguments.
I´m aquainted with the HypperBlimp (from Salt Lake) we have try to sell to our prospects, but one of the problem we encoutered is that client think they are too small.
I my self don´t think this way, but as you know "customers are always right".
Regards, Marcus

Brazil is a rather large country. So is Argentina. I am interested in Latin American history. We do have foggy days that are calm, but that does not happen too often. The RC field I fly at is often windy. Funny thing is, sunny and clear days are often breezy. :( :mad: Well, I'll take your advice about RC blimps. I plan to make a RC blimp that looks like a zeppelin like the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg. Did you know that they had airship services to Brazil from Germany? I've seen photos of the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg in Brazil and sometimes they have services to Argentina.

[Guga]

Willow,
Now you´re talking, Rigid airships are another story, they can face much stronger winds than non rigid blimps.
Let us know what are your plans and wich model you chosen.
As regards to Brazil anything you need please feel free in asking questions on any doubts you may have,
Regards,
Guga

[WillowPtarmigan]

Willow,
Now you´re talking, Rigid airships are another story, they can face much stronger winds than non rigid blimps.
Let us know what are your plans and wich model you chosen.
As regards to Brazil anything you need please feel free in asking questions on any doubts you may have,
Regards,
Guga

Guga, I notice your RC blimp sort of looks like a rigid airship because the way you worked on the envelope. How did you work on your envelope for your blimp? Is it possible to make a RC dirigible smaller then 9 feet? I know larger is cheaper, but harder to store and transport. By the way, ptarmigan only lives in the Northern Hempisphere. They are very common in the Arctic and cold areas of the north.

[Guga]

Willow,
My RC Blimps Outdoor are all Non Rigid. They are made of Urethane film inside and the outter Skin is made of ripstop.
There is no way you are going to make a Outdoor with 9ft work well.
If you achive it please let me know.
I never seen a Ptarmigan. I woudld like to go to Alaska some time.

[drisok]

I own and operate a 30' gas powered outdoor blimp and absolutely love it. I can fly in gusts to 30mph and stay aloft for 3 hours at a time. Carry camera/lights/video and go all day. I would say that the most important thing is the size of the control surfaces. If it is too small then little or no control. Much the same for too big. Experiment and see which size and shape works best for you.

Mine too is non rigid. Consists of 1000 cu. ft of helium with an outer shell of rip-stop and an inner of polyurethane.

I carry $2 million in liability, just in case of an uh, oh.

[ericdeborde]

I made litle outdoor blimp (10" long / 60 km/h of speed)
see : www.media-zep.com

Galerie photo, video of the blimp and abord video !

[MisterZepp]

We bought 2 RC outdoor blimp to www.mediazepp.com

One 7' rc blimp (Good when there isno wind)
And one 14' rc blimp, nice outdoor evertime.

Price for 7' blimp ready to fly whitout RC is 650 €
Price for 14' RC outdoor blimp ready to fly without RC is 1450 €

Go to visite them.

MISTERZEPP

[powerblimp]

ha ha ha :)
mr zepp is owner of mediazepp!

i will say 5m is good (15 ft)

smaller is hard to fly in windy conditions
of course hyperblimps can be smaller but they fly more like planes