Golfers versus Model Airplane Flyers

In the light of recent tragic events in Hungary this would appear to be trivial but it indicates a trend which is of concern to us all ..... publicity of this kind is harmful to us all especially to tethered flight enthusiasts .... since in the eyes of the media a Model airplane is a Model airplane ...... I am fearful that things ain't quite how they used to be!

jonuck,

http://www.expressandstar.com/articles/news/es/article_90351.php

Sounds like the local RC club I fly with. We just lost a field due to careless flying. The guy who complained lives ~ 1/2 mile from the pilots stand, across a road. he complained several times about planes overflying his house and one trainer crashed through the roof of his garage. On the other end of the field planes were flying past a wide band of trees 1/4 mile from the runway and over houses also. Hard to figure why all the long distance flying. There is plenty of room on the field to easily fly planes up to 60-70 inches and 91's or better and keep them within bounds.

I think golfers, homeowners, or anybody in their right mind would complain if their neighbor is an RC field and they have a habit of crashing off site.

They'd complain a lot louder if they knew how much throw weight those toys pack.

Why does each side of model flyers throw continual dirt at each other! Here in Sydney, Australia we lost a perfectly good control line field which was used numerous times for our State Championships. WHY? Because an inconsiderate fellow control liner decided to "wake up the natives" at some early hour just because he thought it was his god given right to fly whenever he wanted to.

We can't fix the problems which these idiots ( Note: I'm not including the crash in Europe as I'm not clear on what went wrong with the equipment etc) have caused in the past as it's too late but maybe we can discipline ourselves to try and educate others to do the right thing no matter what dicipline we follow. After all, we like to think of ourselves as aeromodellers following our diciplines of choice.

How about us getting back on track with productive modelling posts

Grumpy old HH in OZ!

Hi Grumpy, have you built that KK Marquis yet?.........John

John

...but maybe we can discipline ourselves to try and educate others to do the right thing no matter what dicipline we follow...

Posting field rules, including hours of operation, should help. As well as banning those who won't follow the rules.

The noise issue is getting more and more sensitive. In built up areas electric may be the way to go??

I suppose the noise thing always irritates me a bit. It's OK to thump down the street, woofers blasting at 200db with screaming, profane rap music, run your chainsaw right next to my house at much louder than my model engine and all manner of nosie generated, but if I run an engine, it's noise pollution and the cops get called.

I'm planning to put in a field on my property. I'm absolutely certain this will generate complaints with my neighbors, though I'll be cautious about operating times and such. It's OK for my hot rodder neighbor to work on his cars, testing unmuffled engines at 11pm on weekends. I'm told by the local sherrif that this is well within the noise ordinance since he doesn't have to shut it down until midnight. Can't wait for the same guy to complain about the nosie when I'm flying at noon on Saturday.

Hey, I'm getting onery in my old age.

Actually, some folks are not real happy about golf courses either.
Enviromental wacko's feel too much water is being wasted in their view at least. Libs feel the land and money(if any public money is involved) should be used for low income housing.
Typically a town/city building or remodeling a golf course does so with some expectation of a retun. The only return likely on low income housing is an increase in crime/drugs/gangs, an instant slum, and falling property values.
Most courses now being built are so called upscale public courses, built with private funds by investors who belive they can make a profit from golf operations-this used to be called free enterprise. No profit is likely to occur if they are not maintained in prime conditon which means lots of water is used. The source of the water is usually from lakes built to catch runoff or occasionally wells on the course property drilled and powered at the owners expense.
Sorry, off the subject but just read an article on this which upset me.
Jim

Hi Randy,
Make a big hit and fly a Dyna-Jet with big ole fuel tank. Nothing says loud like a pulse Jet.

LAST EDITED ON May-18-06 AT 01:06 PM (CST)
 
>I suppose the noise thing always irritates me a bit. It's OK
>to thump down the street, woofers blasting at 200db with
>screaming, profane rap music, run your chainsaw right next
>to my house at much louder than my model engine and all
>manner of nosie generated, but if I run an engine, it's
>noise pollution and the cops get called.
>
>I'm planning to put in a field on my property. I'm
>absolutely certain this will generate complaints with my
>neighbors, though I'll be cautious about operating times and
>such. It's OK for my hot rodder neighbor to work on his
>cars, testing unmuffled engines at 11pm on weekends. I'm
>told by the local sherrif that this is well within the noise
>ordinance since he doesn't have to shut it down until
>midnight. Can't wait for the same guy to complain about the
>nosie when I'm flying at noon on Saturday.
>
>Hey, I'm getting onery in my old age.

I had a neighbor who complained incessantly about me occasionally running a motor in my drive way. He quit complaining after 6 weeks of lawnmowers, weedeaters and chainsaws at the earliest possible hour.

John (Vauxhall).

Haven't had much building time for a few months now. Too much work! Also, old mate Pete Tindal (UK) has also slowed me down a bit in September as he has "forced" me into another trip over there!

>Posting field rules, including hours of operation, should help. As well as banning those who won't follow the rules.<

Regarding posting field rules, most local councils here have done that for us............ All parks etc have a large sign with "NO Model Aeroplane Flying" posted!!

Our local R/C club has a cap on member numbers and we keep an eye on noise as well as where members fly in relationship to the town. Our field is only 800 metres from the edge of town as well as the local university which owns the land we fly from. Quite a nice patch of dirt so we don't want to lose it yet. However, we have some associate members who would love to change the way we opperate and increase the size of the club. That isn't an option as it would certainly be instant loss of the field.

Where's the circle?

Kim Elmore

On the right hand side of the pic there is enough room for a 140 ft circle where the large section between strips is mown. This pic was taken from around 500 ft. You don't think I'd miss out on that do you??

I wasn't throwing dirt at the RC folk, just outlining what happened. I belong the club. We've had plenty of discussions about this sort of thing, but for some reason this group has a hard time policing themselves. One time, before the field was closed, I was over there, just kibbitzing. Nice quiet evening. Almost everybody was flying way off to the left, into the setting sun, towards this guys house. A buddy and I said something about planes being hard to see over there, and maybe folks should fly more to the right, but nobody listened.

On the other hand, they have been very quick to curb dangerous CL flying. At the other field I was out flying RC. It was not busy, just me and another buddy flying RC who also flies control line too. A third controlliner showed up, with his wife and kid. We are all club members. After a bit, since nobody was flying and there were just the three of us, the third guy decided to put his wife on the handle and give her a couple of flights on a muffled Half A plane. While we were doing this a couple other guys showed up just to watch. At the next club meeting there was a bit of a discussion about how flying CL at that field was forbidden because it is dangerous and everybody should pitch in to police this "problem". ?????? The safety officer has time to complain about a non-existant problem(flying CL at the field when nobody is there to fly RC) but doesn't police people flying over the neighbors houses??

Beats me.

A friend of mine approached two local RC clubs about flying CL at their field. One club said, now way, CL is too dangerous. The other mowed two circles. Go figure!

Phil. I guess that's where I can have a bit if say over some matters in my club. I fly both R/C and C/L PLUS I am one of the safety officers and a founding member of the club. The only thing we will not allow in C/L on the field is noisy combat models and on the R/C side no general heli flying and NO PYLON models. A couple of members fly helis and there isn't a problem but the noise and speed of pylon models are just not compatible with the site.

Jim. Great to see both types mixing and having a good time.

Just thought I'd put a bit more of a reply on this one.

At present we are happily flying C/L at a field some 300 km north of Sydney at a "Veterans Gathering" which takes in all sorts of modelling.

Whilst being logged on, I noticed that someone sent a private message having a go at me as it looked like I was siding with the R/C side of things!

Fellows, I'm with you on the size getting out of hand and just getting rather big to be flown in some areas.

However, many of us do not hide behind an alias. If anyone sends private messages, how about being more friendly and sign a proper name!

>Just thought I'd put a bit more of a reply on this one.
>
>At present we are happily flying C/L at a field some 300 km
>north of Sydney at a "Veterans Gathering" which takes in all
>sorts of modelling.
>
>HH

Herb,

wasn't me! It was nice to see you there today, unfortunately I could only come up for saturday as I have a family function on in Sydney tomorrow. I spent the whole day flying and triming my collection of three ebenezers. Crashed and broke all three but just ca-ed them back together. All three are now sorted. See you at the states.

Will do Ray. Caught up with "Mr Taipan" Gordon Burford last night. Great meeting up with "the real old guys" who made it happen for us youngsters in the late 50s/early 60s. Confirmed for "Greggles" that the thread on the Tyro is a 10-32 UNF.

One model for next year is the "Wombat" but the ones I've seen fly are as good as the "road kill" on the Putty Road! I think it will be a Thunder Streak for me even though it's the later 50s.

LAST EDITED ON May-21-06 AT 02:33 AM (CST)
 
>Will do Ray. Caught up with "Mr Taipan" Gordon Burford last
>night. Great meeting up with "the real old guys" who made
>it happen for us youngsters in the late 50s/early 60s.
>Confirmed for "Greggles" that the thread on the Tyro is a
>10-32 UNF.
>
>
>One model for next year is the "Wombat" but the ones I've
>seen fly are as good as the "road kill" on the Putty Road!
>I think it will be a Thunder Streak for me even though it's
>the later 50s.
>
>HH

Herb,

10-32 unf stud is available from some of the model engineering catalogues.

There is a Gordon Burford day at KMAC (ST Ives) later in the year and I believe that he's invited. I have a Tiapan Blackhead 2.5cc TBR mark 13 with a horribly scored piston and a couple of clapped p/l sets. One piston won't go up one of the liners, so I'm looking to lap/hone them together to produce a runner for the event. How about a tutorial on the process. I now have a Myford ml-7, some red label diamond paste and a piece of 27 mm dia aluminum to turn into an expandable lap.

Any other suggestions beside the Wombat?