Post by Rabbit on Apr 5, 2016 8:23:14 GMT
As some of you know, I fly these model helicopters (some quite big) but I am always aware of the dangers and never fly near people or objects like cars, houses etc. The blades spin pretty fast and a crash into someone would inflict a lot of damage; especially with a big one.
Here's a scary story of over confidence .....
One of my neighbours decided to get a drone with a camera. First, he learned to fly it and then started flying it up and down the road, past peoples' windows - with a camera on board. I advised him to stop. Either he'd hit a car or get done for being a snoop.
He decided to take the drone to a local field which was sensible but got a little bit over confident in his flying skills which are pretty poor to say the least. So he took this thing up and then a bit more and then even more. So his drone was a long way up in the sky and just a dot up there. The wind was different higher up (as often happens) and his drone shot off in another direction. He panicked as you can easily do in these circumstances and tried to get it back but got himself disorientated and made it worse. It was even higher and further away. The wind was now taking it like a steam train.
It got so far away that the controls stopped working and the motors went to full and stuck there. It went so high up, we could barely see it. I got my binoculars and could just see a speck in the distance. It was totally out of control, getting higher and higher and the wind was taking it away.
Those motors would go for about 15 minutes before they stopped and the whole thing would just drop out of the sky.
He lost it completely and phoned the police. They told him that it might have flown across the Gatwick landing path route and they were concerned.
The next day, he went looking for it since we're surrounded by sheep farms. I told him that a farmer might pull a gun on him if it came down and hit something and he presented himself.
Thank goodness, he never found it. He's a dangerous idiot since that drone probably dropped from a terrible height, hopefully onto a field somewhere. He's only gone and bought another one!!!!
I'm extremely cautious about flying the bigger ones especially and mine cut the motor if they get out of range so come down before going too high. I can fly perfectly high enough for my needs and don't ever fly too high because I'm aware of the dangers, but it did point out to me that although flying these models is great fun and is a real skill, too many people are now getting them with no flying skills whatsoever and taking them up in situations where even I wouldn't consider it and I can actually fly them!!
It is a bit worrying and I do think that for the bigger ones, perhaps a licence is needed before someone gets badly hurt. Or even worse, one hits a plane. (Although I don't think a commercial plane would notice too much) The little ones aren't a big deal but my bigger ones are nearly three feet long I guess. The props spin pretty fast so would cut badly.
I check every time I fly that things are ok, but these helis are becoming more common with people flying them who haven't a clue about how to control them or where they shouod fly them. Very worrying.
There are also two kinds of helis. Fixed pitch and collective pitch. Fixed pitch are easier to fly since lift is created just by the speed of the propellors. So if you want to go higher, you just speed the propellors up. Trouble is that the wind causes them to suddenly lift and there's not really a lot you can do about them. Not great for control. That's what this guy's drone was. Problem was that It got stuck on full throttle so it naturally went up and then the wind took it even further up.
The other type is the collective pitch, which flies more like a real helicopter. The lift is created by the speed of the props (which is kept constant once they reach speed) and the angle of the propellors. To create lift, we change the angle and the heli goes up. The beauty is that if there is a gust of wind up there and the heli lifts, you can change the angle of the props to actively push the heli down. So collective pitch is better for control in the wind but way more difficult to fly. I have both but prefer the collective pitch models by far. Trouble is, too many people can't be bothered to learn how to fly them so they gravitate towards the fixed pitch models. I don't think we shoukd be able to buy fixed pitch big models personally since the lack of control in the wind is so poor.
Here's a scary story of over confidence .....
One of my neighbours decided to get a drone with a camera. First, he learned to fly it and then started flying it up and down the road, past peoples' windows - with a camera on board. I advised him to stop. Either he'd hit a car or get done for being a snoop.
He decided to take the drone to a local field which was sensible but got a little bit over confident in his flying skills which are pretty poor to say the least. So he took this thing up and then a bit more and then even more. So his drone was a long way up in the sky and just a dot up there. The wind was different higher up (as often happens) and his drone shot off in another direction. He panicked as you can easily do in these circumstances and tried to get it back but got himself disorientated and made it worse. It was even higher and further away. The wind was now taking it like a steam train.
It got so far away that the controls stopped working and the motors went to full and stuck there. It went so high up, we could barely see it. I got my binoculars and could just see a speck in the distance. It was totally out of control, getting higher and higher and the wind was taking it away.
Those motors would go for about 15 minutes before they stopped and the whole thing would just drop out of the sky.
He lost it completely and phoned the police. They told him that it might have flown across the Gatwick landing path route and they were concerned.
The next day, he went looking for it since we're surrounded by sheep farms. I told him that a farmer might pull a gun on him if it came down and hit something and he presented himself.
Thank goodness, he never found it. He's a dangerous idiot since that drone probably dropped from a terrible height, hopefully onto a field somewhere. He's only gone and bought another one!!!!
I'm extremely cautious about flying the bigger ones especially and mine cut the motor if they get out of range so come down before going too high. I can fly perfectly high enough for my needs and don't ever fly too high because I'm aware of the dangers, but it did point out to me that although flying these models is great fun and is a real skill, too many people are now getting them with no flying skills whatsoever and taking them up in situations where even I wouldn't consider it and I can actually fly them!!
It is a bit worrying and I do think that for the bigger ones, perhaps a licence is needed before someone gets badly hurt. Or even worse, one hits a plane. (Although I don't think a commercial plane would notice too much) The little ones aren't a big deal but my bigger ones are nearly three feet long I guess. The props spin pretty fast so would cut badly.
I check every time I fly that things are ok, but these helis are becoming more common with people flying them who haven't a clue about how to control them or where they shouod fly them. Very worrying.
There are also two kinds of helis. Fixed pitch and collective pitch. Fixed pitch are easier to fly since lift is created just by the speed of the propellors. So if you want to go higher, you just speed the propellors up. Trouble is that the wind causes them to suddenly lift and there's not really a lot you can do about them. Not great for control. That's what this guy's drone was. Problem was that It got stuck on full throttle so it naturally went up and then the wind took it even further up.
The other type is the collective pitch, which flies more like a real helicopter. The lift is created by the speed of the props (which is kept constant once they reach speed) and the angle of the propellors. To create lift, we change the angle and the heli goes up. The beauty is that if there is a gust of wind up there and the heli lifts, you can change the angle of the props to actively push the heli down. So collective pitch is better for control in the wind but way more difficult to fly. I have both but prefer the collective pitch models by far. Trouble is, too many people can't be bothered to learn how to fly them so they gravitate towards the fixed pitch models. I don't think we shoukd be able to buy fixed pitch big models personally since the lack of control in the wind is so poor.