I landed at a little RC airport yesterday with my son so he could see the planes. Theres a guy there in a lawn chair with googles on and a remote control.

He has a TV next to him and he is flying his remote control plane miles away (and coincidentally by my house).

Anyway he brings it back and we go flying together (me and my son in the cub and him by remote)

So he sent me this video. Its better if u watch it in the HD setting.

After the first minute skip to the 9:30 mark that's when he really catches up.

Anyway i thought it was pretty amazing what that drone can do. He said the plane comes ready to fly for $100 but that all the camera gear and long range radia bumps it up to just over $1000 as a package seems amazing for the money

The video is shot over my house and he is flying the drone from 3 mile away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcJnC_6X ... e=youtu.be

On a side not he also had a 40% scale super cub with 14' wings and a 120CC motor that was pretty neat as well

Outstanding Video ! Interested where it was taken ? What type of electric motor? see the Go Pro sticker .I've flown R/C models for decades and never got that kind of view.

Nifty video, but...

It scares the shit outa me! How many of these things are up there? What'll a midair do to my 170 or my rv4? Have I got a chance of seeing them before I run 'em over?

Yikes. I'd thought rc guys were limited to 400 ft and in sight of the operator. Even if that's right, how's that get enforced?

Lot of shit to sort out.

--Tony

Hay Blu, reminds me of our video days at Mack Mesa. Very cool! Are you and Ladd coming out to the JC fly-in? Steve Wright 208-630-3881.

That's awesome!

TonyG wrote:Nifty video, but...

It scares the shit outa me! How many of these things are up there? What'll a midair do to my 170 or my rv4? Have I got a chance of seeing them before I run 'em over?

Yikes. I'd thought rc guys were limited to 400 ft and in sight of the operator. Even if that's right, how's that get enforced?

Lot of shit to sort out.

--Tony

You must not have birds or anything else to look out for in the skys where you fly. Everyone bitches about a few guys that fly RC this way, yet there are a shit ton more bird strikes that no one sees or hears about.

May as well Ban birds while your at it so you can have the sky to yourself..

I think the 400' is only for RC flying fields within 5 miles of an airport.

If RC were limited to 400', would you, as a BCP stay well above that 400' to remain clear of them at all times (other than landing) ?

akavidflyer wrote:I think the 400' is only for RC flying fields within 5 miles of an airport.

RC flying was a stepping stone to full scale flying for me. Our field was within 3 miles of KDPA and we were a bunch of by-the-book science nerds from Fermilab so we took the rules pretty seriously out of habit as well as safety concerns for the manned airplanes sharing our area.

From the AMA:

"Not fly higher than approximately 400 feet above ground level within three (3) miles of an airport, without notifying the airport operator"

BTW, the FAA disagrees with this. They say 400 ft *always*.

Also from the AMA:

"The pilot of a RC model aircraft shall:
(a) Maintain control during the entire flight, maintaining visual contact without enhancement other than by corrective lenses prescribed for the pilot."

So this guy is at least violating the line of sight rule, but we don't know if he was over 400ft. In this case the disagreement between the FAA and the AMA doesn't come into play because the gear he's using was reported to only have a one mile range. Therefore the entire flight took place within the three mile boundary in which the AMA and FAA agree.

One of the main reasons to join the AMA (IMO) is that your membership comes with liability insurance. If you deliberately ignore an important rule like 'line of sight' and your UAV crashes into a kid I wonder if they would still cover you.

no.. if you are flying well outside of the rules, they dont cover you. I have been AMA for over 30 yrs, and a CD for the last 20 yrs. I still fly RC ALOT and have ALOT more wrapped up in RC stuff then I do real planes. Our club airfield is 2 miles from a tower airport and there is an active NOTAM for RC model flying activities in the area.

When doing an IMAC contest the guys were routinely breaking 1200' and did not honestly realize it. As the size of the models have grown it is tough to stay under the 400'. A 40% model at 1200' "looks" about the same as a 40 size model at 300'

It is still a cool video!!

akavidflyer wrote:I have been AMA for over 30 yrs, and a CD for the last 20 yrs.

Have you been to Muncie? I've flown over the RC field couple times, but never did get around to stopping by, despite having been to Muncie literally a hundred time thanks to family in town.

rw2 wrote:

akavidflyer wrote:I have been AMA for over 30 yrs, and a CD for the last 20 yrs.

Have you been to Muncie? I've flown over the RC field couple times, but never did get around to stopping by, despite having been to Muncie literally a hundred time thanks to family in town.

No, I am another one of the guys that has paid forever to not get a damn thing out of AMA including any help when we were loosing our flying field.. Dave Brown was the pres at the time and was IMO the worst thing that ever happened to AMA. I still pay my dues every year, but I get nothing in return LOL

akavidflyer wrote:No, I am another one of the guys that has paid forever to not get a damn thing out of AMA including any help when we were loosing our flying field.. Dave Brown was the pres at the time and was IMO the worst thing that ever happened to AMA. I still pay my dues every year, but I get nothing in return LOL

Well, uh, at least the dues are cheap?

TonyG wrote:Nifty video, but...

It scares the shit outa me! How many of these things are up there? What'll a midair do to my 170 or my rv4? Have I got a chance of seeing them before I run 'em over?

Yikes. I'd thought rc guys were limited to 400 ft and in sight of the operator. Even if that's right, how's that get enforced?

Lot of shit to sort out.

--Tony

Ya they are hard to see and at 65 MPH when u do it will probably be to late

The good news this one was all styrofome and probably wieghed less than 1 1/2 pounds

The 40% cub was 27lbs so better not hit that but it was a lot bigger and easier to see.

I was mostly blown away by the amazing tech $1000 buys now days

Can't even imagine what a million dollar government drone can see..... or maybe i dont want too