Comments

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  Phil P November 3, 2013 at 4:57pm

  @ David: Ah man, I do enough driving as it is! Geelong, Melbourne, Ballarat, Clunes. The Jeep will clock over 200,000K's soon and it's not that old.

  @ Byron: Yes I am aware that I have to have Bronze Wings too. This didn't sound like it was too hard to achieve.
• Moderator

  David Anders November 3, 2013 at 4:48pm

  Byron, weren't you looking at a club closer to us too? 

  Or maybe we all just join up at Geelong?
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  Byron Gainger November 3, 2013 at 4:19pm

  Keep in mind Phil when you join a club you are covered by insurance at the facility when you hold the appropriate qualification. The first level is Bronze Wings which allows you to fly unsupervised. Until then yon can only fly under supervision. I have been a member of GMAA for a few years and it is a good club
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  Phil P November 3, 2013 at 3:54pm

  After a few successful flights to tune in the PIDs I was thinking of mostly flying over water. If it crashes, there is very little risk of damage to others property, no risk of fire.... and no chance of hitting terrain where the Google Maps elevation does not match the actual terrain.  Of course, there is one major down side for me if it crashes!
• Tim Wilkin November 3, 2013 at 3:50pm

  The risk aversion comes as a consequence of the litigation and insurance regime that clubs have to operate under... and such environments are selective for overly cautious individuals on their committees (who select for membership from this perspective as well ;) ).

  You've probably already seen/read this list, but in case you haven't, here's the  VMAA Inspectors List. As for another possible venue, when I was working with the Aerosonde team we did our flight testing at west Geelong, on the GMAA field. They were a friendly bunch and amenable to the larger aircraft. We even did vehicle launches in the neighbouring field. I'm not sure what they're like these days (it's been many years since I was there) but they might be supportive of having you there.
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  Phil P November 3, 2013 at 3:23pm

  I've gone to check out about 5 clubs so far. The first two didn't look interested at all. Very un-inviting. The third club was good but didn't have a heavy model inspector (which you need if the plane is over 7kg). So I went to another club, and the inspector said to move the rear landing gear further towards the COG and to change the tail plane from foam to balsa. So I did this, but he was still reluctant to fly it as the RC club has had two insurance claims recently, one where a heli hit a parked car, and another where a plane hit a building and broke a window. It's a small field and I didn't feel all that welcome so I went to yet another club. I'm trying a club at Melton now. I went there last Saturday expecting to fly it, but due to a miscommunication they didn't realise it was over 7kg. Which of course means it has to be certified..... The problem is that I only really have 1 day a week that I can work on it, and delays like this turn into months very quickly. I wanted to get the plane in the air about 2 months ago now, as I wanted to start working on the electronics for the Outback Joe Challenge. For the challenge, you need to show that you have insurance, even for test flights, and the only economical way to have insurance is to join an RC club. At this point I'm thinking of throwing in the towel for the comp and starting on building a whole new design, a 50cc flying wing. The aspect that interests me most is endurance flights of say 1 or more hours. The biggest problem with larger planes is the takeoff and landing area. I have looked around for some public roads that would be suitable, but I haven't really found anything I'm happy with. In terms of open land, there are heaps of potato farms out at Clunes, as far as the eye can see. I would design the flying wing to launch from my roof rack, and have parachute recovery so that runways are not needed. The wing would be another 1 year build though. I'll persist with the Melton club for now with the plane, but I'll see how it goes. I have found RC clubs to be extremely risk averse. I would have thought that they would have a go at flying a plane even if there was a risk of crashing it on the maiden flight. I'm wrong on that one! I appreciate that safety is important, but there has to be a common sense limit. I saw a Ringebu RC video where they take a broken propeller off a 60cc engine, glue it back together and fly the plane. I'm not saying that's acceptable either, but there has to be a middle ground. A couple of crashes here and there is all part of the fun!
• Tim Wilkin November 3, 2013 at 2:12pm

  Sorry...no rest for the wicked and no public holiday for me. 8(

  @David: Given my experience of modelling clubs and some of the prosaic attitudes that abound within them, I suspect that the problem with current powered flying clubs and multi-copters is that they see them as "not real model flying" and they would probably lump all multi-copter pilots into the same basket (irresponsible "kids" that buzz around the local park with "electric toys"). You "might" have some luck with a helicopter-friendly club... but then, they may also see multi-copters as toys and "not real helicopter flying".

  @Phil: What problems are you having with the inspection? Is it in finding an inspector, getting one to do the inspection, or problems with passing it?
• Moderator

  David Anders November 3, 2013 at 12:55pm

  Also - Tuesday (tomorrow) is meant to be a lovely day for flying.  Anyone keen to catch up and have a copter (or plane) 'Melbourne Cup'? (:

  Have some ideas in mind, but let's see how many 'starters' we get first. (:
• Moderator

  David Anders November 3, 2013 at 12:53pm

  Sorry to hear about yesterday mate.  In the city it wasn't too wet, but was too windy to do anything other than some fun flying.

  What are you experiencing with the model clubs?  I found problems trying to find somewhere that would accept multi-copters, and then when I mentioned I wanted to get my wings they pretty much balked and said that I would have to get my plane wings first.  This was a few months ago and I haven't really followed up since, but I would be surprised if anything had changed.

  Having said that though, if anyone knows of a place that is multi-copter / autopilot friendly, please let us know.
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  Phil P November 3, 2013 at 5:20am

  Ah the weather was poor. Wind and rain. Kept driving to Clunes. I'm also having issues having the petrol plane certified by a heavy model inspector, and I'm having bad luck with RC clubs in general. Never mind. The next design might be a car launched wing with parachute recovery. That would open up a lot more areas where i can fly. I guess that's the beauty of quad copters.