Lost Drone

[kb2vxa]

Note he lives in "Bullitt County". That sounds very appropriate. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/

[n2ize]

All I can say is you are lucky. I have planted several RC planes in trees, got a couple back and lost one but even the ones I got back were toast. My only quad copter is a Blade Nano QX ( IZE will know what it is) and it is a lot of fun but I would never fly it around trees, I'm not that good at it. I plan to stick with fixed wing since I can fly them pretty well and I'll leave the head separators to you. We have a guy at our field who fly's a .90 glow heli. When he steps on the field I step behind my truck.

I actually started out as a kid with nitro powered control line planes. Mostly .049 planes that I built. In my 20's I started building larger control line planes. The largest one I built was a stunter with a.40 nitro engine and a racer with a .35 Fox combat engine with a pressurized tank. That plane was a real screamer, fast as hell. My first rc plane was a Sig Kadet Mark II trainer with a .40 engine and a Futaba radio system. I flew it only a few times. I still have it but it got wrecked in storage and would need extensive repairs.There are almost no local fields around here large enough to handle planes. The few there were have been developed or are usually too crowded. That's why I switched to helicopters. Vertical take off and landing capability and the ability to fly slow and/or hover makes them ideal for operation on smaller fields and limited space.

[ka4dpo]

I actually started out as a kid with nitro powered control line planes. Mostly .049 planes that I built. In my 20's I started building larger control line planes. The largest one I built was a stunter with a.40 nitro engine and a racer with a .35 Fox combat engine with a pressurized tank. That plane was a real screamer, fast as hell. My first rc plane was a Sig Kadet Mark II trainer with a .40 engine and a Futaba radio system. I flew it only a few times. I still have it but it got wrecked in storage and would need extensive repairs.There are almost no local fields around here large enough to handle planes. The few there were have been developed or are usually too crowded. That's why I switched to helicopters. Vertical take off and landing capability and the ability to fly slow and/or hover makes them ideal for operation on smaller fields and limited space.

I had a Sig Kadet Senorita, it was sweet. I ditched all of my glow stuff in 2000 and went electric, never looked back. Electric is vastly better in every way, cleaner, no expensive fuel, and less noise although a couple of my electrics have some pretty hairy prop noise. I recently managed 142 MPH with my Stinger fan jet and I'm trying to get a little more out of it if I don't fry it first. I can only fly it for about two minutes since it kills the batteries really fast (I'm pulling 100 amps out of a 1500 mah 6S battery) and it is also hard to stay focused at that speed. The FAA is probably going to lower the boom on quads after the latest incidents, get back into fixed wing. You can put a camera on a plane.

[K4PIH]

BTW the guy sounds like a perfect Teabagger. Note he said that the fed (i.e. Obama...hint...hint) is trampling his rights everyday. Note he lives in "Bullitt County". That sounds very appropriate.

I noticed tht, can't make this stuff up!

[n2ize]

I had a Sig Kadet Senorita, it was sweet. I ditched all of my glow stuff in 2000 and went electric, never looked back. Electric is vastly better in every way, cleaner, no expensive fuel, and less noise although a couple of my electrics have some pretty hairy prop noise. I recently managed 142 MPH with my Stinger fan jet and I'm trying to get a little more out of it if I don't fry it first. I can only fly it for about two minutes since it kills the batteries really fast (I'm pulling 100 amps out of a 1500 mah 6S battery) and it is also hard to stay focused at that speed. The FAA is probably going to lower the boom on quads after the latest incidents, get back into fixed wing. You can put a camera on a plane.

Like I said I would fly planes also but there aren't many fields large enough round here. VTOL aircraft are more practical in this near-urban jungle I am in. Besides I like helicopters, to me they are more interesting and far more challenging than quads. And I have put a camera on a helicopter. Not as stable as a quad but it does the job. As far as the electric versus nitro goes yeah, I agree. Electric is more practical, especially for me. Flying in a populated area electric means quieter and much more stealth. Less noise means fewer people attracted and no noise complaints. Although I do still like nitro. I decided that when I restore my old GMP Cricket I am going to keep it 100% nitro just for nostalgia's sake.

If you build larger planes or copters another cheap alternative to nitro is gas. It''s readily available, much cheaper than nitro fuel and all you have to do is make a 2-cycle mix and you're good to go. Another not so cheap but awesome alternative is to go turbojet. You run em on kerosene. Only problem is the mini turbojets are several thousand bucks apiece and by the time you install the starter, FADEC, etc. you have an aircraft worth thousands of dollars that can get lost or wrecked in a couple seconds.

I don;t know what is going to happen with quadcopters. Obviously they won;t dissapear as they are readily available on line and are hot sellers. The problem is they come RTF, are extremely easy to fly and thus any idiot can buy one and be in the air the next day. Like anything that is that easy a lot of people who lack common sense buy them and do stupid things with them like fly over crowds, fly over peoples heads, fly next to airports, etc. Sooner or later the FAA is going to have to enact restrictions on their use. The problem is that will the lawmakers differentiate between quads and regular planes and copters of will we all be facing restrictions, bans, special permits, licenses, etc. Only time will tell. Like many things whence they become too popular and too inexpensive and easy they end up in the hands of people short on brain cells and as a result they spoil it for everyone else.