I got a Night Vapor for Christmas! That should be fun to fly come the first GFFF in January!

Jim

Originally Posted by Jim_Marconnet

I got a Night Vapor for Christmas! That should be fun to fly come the first GFFF in January!

Jim

Shoot Jim,
I have enough trouble flying with the lights on...... haha
Well, good for you with your new plane for christmas. You have been a good boy..

Is a TREX 250 appropriate for this venue and is it allowed?

See following posts for a rethink on this!

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Richard, I'm not sure I've met you yet.

We have flown Blade mCXs, mSRs, and 120 SRs there.

I looked up the specs on the Align T-Rex 250.

I see the main rotor diameter is 460 mm, about 18 inches.

I see the flying weight is 340 grams, about 5.22 ounces.

As far as I can tell, this sounds like an acceptable helicopter for this gym.

Since this is a family event, with children present, I'd suggest that you arrange a spotter person to be watching for hazzards while you fly.

When you come, please look me up and let me know when you will fly it there the first time so I can see it for myself. In fact, I'd like to be your spotter for the first flight!

Welcome!
Jim

I would empty the room before you fly a 250 in there...
T3chDad only hovered his once at the other gym. I don't think he wanted to do it again. Just saying

high head speed= flying cuisinart! but they are fun to watch in the hands of a good pilot.

Hmmmmmmm! It's good to have several minds available here to make smart decisions!

My best current guess is that Jeff and Keith are probably right and that 250 heli would be too dangerous for us to fly inside with kids present, probably with anyone present.

Jim

I guess it all depends on how good the 250 pilot is. I only hovered mine because it was basically a maiden. I was not comfortable with it. My heli piloting skills have come a long way since then, but having not flown something that small in a very long time, I cannot say if it's a good idea or not.

I would just keep in mind that the 250 can do considerable more damage to people and property than any other heli's I've seen indoors at your fun flys. There is that nice area out back that I was flying my 600 in...

Thanks, Bob, for sharing your insight.

I talked to Eric at R/C Hobbies today. What I walked away feeling from him was that anything larger than a Blade 120 SR or anything with a high headspeed, would involve significant risk indoors.

To put it another way, anything too large for their experts to fly indoors at R/C Hobbies would most likely be too risky to have an unknown expertise pilot fly in our gym.

Jim

For the latest decision on this, see post number 55

I started a new thread on Safe Limits for Indoor Planes and Helis: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1363618

It will be interesting to see what others do and suggest.
Happy (and Safe!) New Year!

Jim Marconnet

St. Mary's Parish Center isn't available for use tonight, January 3, due to a funeral dinner in there tomorrow.

Jim

Hi Jim,

I just sent you our January 2011 newsletter, which contains the Grace FFF announcement and schedule. For others that would like to read our newsletter, kindly point your browser to: http://narca.net/ and click on the Newsletter button.

It might be a little later before the January newsletter is posted, so if you don't see it right-away check back later...

I'll see if I can get over for your next session! Have fun!

Regards,
Kevin Reynolds
NARCA Newsletter Editor

Originally Posted by Jim_Marconnet

Thanks, Bob, for sharing your insight.

I talked to Eric at R/C Hobbies today. What I walked away feeling from him was that anything larger than a Blade 120 SR or anything with a high headspeed, would involve significant risk indoors.

To put it another way, anything too large for their experts to fly indoors at R/C Hobbies would most likely be too risky to have an unknown expertise pilot fly in our gym.

Jim

That is disappointing to hear! I have a T-Rex 250 that I've been flying for about 2 years now, and it has been utterly reliable, and has been flown in spaces MUCH smaller than a gymnasium! I had planned on being there January 9th with the 250 for some indoor flying, but if it is being deemed too dangerous then there's no point in my making the trip.

Edit: I guess I should make it clear that I've been flying helis for more than 2 years (as my comment above may seem to indicate). I've been flying R/C since 1976, and helis since 1982... it's just that I've had the T-Rex 250 for about 2 years now. I also have a T-Rex 450 Sport and a T-Rex 600 Nitro Pro, but obviously those two do not belong indoors!

bronicabill: Sorry, I did not mean to seem to question your piloting ability.

Even the very best pilots sometimes have mechanical or electronic failures and crash into something. We don't have much space between the flying space and the flight line and the spectators, much less safety netting or something like that. So we must err on the side of safety.

I've done some on-line searching about indoor flying rules and safety and such, and I started several threads asking for help on what's been found to be safe to fly inside. I learned a lot in the process, but I don't claim to be any sort of expert on it yet. I have learned that larger blade diameters, higher head speeds, and fibreglass or carbon fibre blades all are in the direction of less safe.

We've had a lot of fun the past two years with what we've flown, and nobody has gotten hurt, despite numerous crashes into people. So I know that it will happen!

Jim

That's okay, Jim, I didn't take it as you doubting my piloting abilities. I was just clarifying that I was not a beginning or inexperienced pilot as my original statement about my T-Rex 250 seemed to indicate (at least that's the way I read it after posting it).

I have a Blade mSR that I could bring, though after flying the T-Rex 600 Nitro it's hard to bring myself to even take it out of the box. If the 250 isn't going to be allowed, then I'll probably make a run to R/C Hobbies and pick up a BnF foamie suitable for indoor use so I can participate in future events.

Cheers!