Just wanted to be the first to say it.
shouldn't first class be in the back of the plane?

But when there's turbulence the back of the plane is the bumpiest and they might spill their Chardonnay on their lobster.

R.h.i.p.
F.i.f.o.

OK, rank has it's privileges, and first in out. They also take off first, but they are the LAST to land.

Originally Posted by ISRDAN

Just wanted to be the first to say it.
shouldn't first class be in the back of the plane?

I'd take the low noise level at the front of the plane any day (and the big seat, the drinks and the food that's actually edible). If it crashes I think you are almost toast anyway.

There's something reassuring sitting in the top deck of the Jumbo in the row behind the pilot.

I guess the days of being able to take a shaped charge on the flight so you can cut your own exit hatch in an emergency are well gone. Cutting your way out with a plastic knife is going to take too long.

Mick

But what's up with the short range of the TX/RX?

If they just ran a remote antenna they should have gotten more range than the
short distance they talked about.

They did pretty good considering they're punching a 2.4Ghz signal through a metal shell.
Easy to talk about a remote antenna on the Rx, but not that easy to implement.
If you try to put 2.4Ghz through say 30 feet of RG-58 cable, you're losing at least 10dB
of signal strength. Much higher loss in the tiny coax cables of the average 2.4Ghz Rx.
And then you still have to figure out where to actually run the antenna to get it outside the plane
easily so it's not totally blocked as you move from one side to the other (as they did).

I'd have chosen something like a long range UHF control system (such as we use on FPV planes)
but they were clearly trying to keep the system as simple as possible.

ian

Originally Posted by tinkering

If it crashes I think you are almost toast anyway.

And if you do first class right you're already toasted so it might not be such a bad way to go.

The plane crashes?!! darnit! I recorded it but haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Thanks for ruining Plane Crash for me guys!

-hutch

Nobody tell him about the snakes...

They landed thousands of feet short of the runway and at over twice the rate of descent as planned. Sounds like me!
But really, what's their excuse? Depth perception?

Dave,
not proud of the rc piloting on this one

Originally Posted by Tick Point

They landed thousands of feet short of the runway and at over twice the rate of descent as planned.

Actually their target descent rate was 2000fpm, and they impacted at 1500fpm.
In the context of the short "landing" one of the guys in the case plane made a comment that they
wouldn't have had a problem if they'd had the faster chase plane. My interpretation there
was that they started the initial descent and the 727 started to pull away from the chase plane
(risking loss of control) so all they could do was cut the throttle to slow it down a bit and pretty
much let it drop where they were (short) instead of flying it under power to the runway.

ian

Dave- all they'd need would be a thicket of telephone poles to ding their LE's to really simulate the slope experience.

Seriously. . . they gambled millions of dollars and four years of prep work on an RC system that was only good for 50 yards?!? Then, to add insult to injury, they ended up using a chase plane that could just BARELY keep up with the 727. Slip out of that 50 yard range and it's all over. This had to be the most egregious newbie error I've ever seen on a project involving numerous scientists / engineers.

I won't even launch my slopers with less than a 75 yard range check. What the hell were they thinking? If 2.4GHz doesn't work, go back to a 72MHz system and use extendable whip antennas on both the Tx and Rx links. Unbelievable. . .

Solo

I couldn't agree more!
It would be interesting to hear what the explanation to that.

Also, If the range problem was caused by the fact the receiver was mounted inside the plane, why they didn't they just mounted it externally?

This is really unbelievable.

Originally Posted by HahnSolo

Seriously. . . they gambled millions of dollars and four years of prep work on an RC system that was only good for 50 yards?!? Then, to add insult to injury, they ended up using a chase plane that could just BARELY keep up with the 727. Slip out of that 50 yard range and it's all over. This had to be the most egregious newbie error I've ever seen on a project involving numerous scientists / engineers.

I won't even launch my slopers with less than a 75 yard range check. What the hell were they thinking? If 2.4GHz doesn't work, go back to a 72MHz system and use extendable whip antennas on both the Tx and Rx links. Unbelievable. . .

Solo