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Hi All,
I have submitted a rules proposal OFF 11-20 to allow R/C motor kill in AMA events 160 and 161. This is kind of a tag along proposal to Dick Ivers who has submitted one for all of Free Flight.
The purpose of this proposal is to give us a back up plan to at least use R/C motor kill in the 160 and 161 even if the whole of Free Flight isn’t ready yet.
My hope is to enlist support from the flyers that visit this forum and encourage them to contact their district contest board member to support either Dicks or my proposal.
The safety aspect of R/C motor kill can not be overlooked.
Thanks in advance for your support.
From a safety aspect and taking a zero for the flight, I’d be OK with.
Not OK in lieu of a timer on-board.Thre’s nothing to stop you from using it now except your own unwillingness to lose the flight.
I think this idea sets a bad precedent and is only a step down the slippery path to total radio control.Cheers!
This is the exact wording at the end of Section 3.Q.2. of the present FAI F1Q rules:
F1Q models may use radio control only for irreversible actions to restrict the flight, that is motor
stop and/or dethermalisation. Any malfunction or unintended operation of these functions is
entirely at the risk of the competitor.It makes sense that a similar wording should be in the AMA Electric rules.
Thermals, Peter
So,
If auto rudder, bunt/VIT, wing unfold, or flaps were initiated by “motor stop”command from the ground, that would be O K ?Do you think that was the intent?
@Peter Brocks wrote:
This is the exact wording at the end of Section 3.Q.2. of the present FAI F1Q rules:
F1Q models may use radio control only for irreversible actions to restrict the flight, that is motor
stop and/or dethermalisation. Any malfunction or unintended operation of these functions is
entirely at the risk of the competitor.It makes sense that a similar wording should be in the AMA Electric rules.
Thermals, Peter
Then maybe A and B electric should be flown in discreet rounds with two attempts per flight, a la FAI events.
In my opinion there is no extra competative edge if Radio DT and Radio Motor control is used and adopted. The biggest factor of adding this proposal to the rules for all Electric Free Flight, and in my mind, all Free Flight, is safety. Safety for other contestants and spectators of Free Flight must, and needs, to be taken into consideration. In the extreme litigious society we live in now it would be a wise adoption into the rules of all our Free Flight classes.
The “Purists” will say, and do say, “Then it’s not Free Flight.” It’s still very free. My answer to those “Purists” is, make every flight an official flight in competition. Every one, no exception. The only abuses that have taken place using radio has been when a contestant can, and did, abort a flight in a very big contest by radio DTing before his flight could be deemed official. Many of you will remember that incident. Of course it takes place at smaller contests also. Make every flight in a competition official.
When some of our “big name fliers,” decided that radio DT could save their models from landing off the field in the corn, cemetary, or trees around Muncie, and at other competition sites, it became a popular concept and was adopted to the rules.
When the technology is available to save a fellow competitor or a spectator from very serious injury what is the issue? We’ve all been involved in the scramble when a model goes out of control when trimming a new model. I’ve had that happen and observed it happen when something changed in a/the already “trimmed” model. I try to catch anything by doing a complete and careful preflight check. I always do that pre-flight check, but even then things untoward can happen. Be honest, it’s happened to all of us. I was a full scale pilot and know the importance of the pre-flight inspection. However, once the airplane was in the air at least I had the opportunity to abort a flight immediately if an issue arose. My careful pre-flight inspection never mandated an aborted flight thankfully.
It seems that our Free Flight models can change overnight no matter how carefully we handle them, store them, and inspect them. There is no advantage to making availble the technology of radio engine/motor control and DT for all Free Flight model classes. None.
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