Maxists The Baddist
03-10-2007, 07:31 PM
..with the heli flying? Is that just tradition?
DavidH
03-10-2007, 08:27 PM
AMA Class I, starts the heli in the start box and carries it out to the contest box. They do not hover it out while walking.
AMA Class II, and III and also FAI F3C. The heli is started and test hovered in the start box. There is a 5 min total preparation time to do this. Then when the pilot is ready he hovers the heli with skids at eye level while he walks behind it to one side. Now his contest time starts when he leaves the start box with the heli. So it is important to get to the contest area and get started as soon as possible.
The start box is usually about 20 meters to the side and about 20 meters back from the contest box.
David
ErichF
03-11-2007, 09:35 PM
Yeah, when done by the book, the start box is a good walk away from the central pad. With only 8 minutes to complete your flight, you have to walk briskly out to the pad.
The idea is to not distract judges and pilots on the line, while testing your machine. In a busy contest (which is rare these days), you have to get the next guy up and running when the guy flying is starting his second to last manuever. Otherwise, you can run out of daylight. Out of consideration, however, we usually don't crank until the guy ahead is on the deck.