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Main Discussion > Heli Pilot Ratios???

Mike99
Veteran
Location: Canal Winchester, OH

In your club - what is the heli to plank only pilot ratio? I know there are considerably more plank only pilots but the heli numbers are growing.)
In our club there are 110 members, with 10 heli / plank flyers, and no heli only pilots. BTW if I counted "pilots at the field" on a regular basis there would be about five heli, and about fifteen plank only, so you can see the heli guys do get in the air more often on a straight percentage basis.

Mike99

11-14-2001 Over year old.

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BladeRunner
Elite Veteran
Location: Ontario Canada. Member of "some sort" s

Heli Pilot Ratios???

Actually there are no "heli only" guys at our club, there were two but they recently started to fly planes as well. I have been flying only helis except for the occational plank flight, I have several unbuilt airplanes in the works(sort of

) I also have three new helis to build so I'm looking at a busy winter, oh ya-the helis certainly have priority!

-------BladeRunner.

11-14-2001 Over year old.

Greg Takacs
Veteran
Location: Fort Worth, TX

Our field has about 150 registered members, and there are about 15 heli pilots. Most of the heli pilots only fly helis, there are some who fly planes too, but not many. Most of heli guys are out every weekend and in the summer we meet up on Wednesday afternoons as well.

11-14-2001 Over year old.

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RappyTappy
Elite Veteran
Location: Las Vegas, NV

At our field, us helicopter guys have basically laid claim to tables at one end of the field. I've haven't seen an airplane in our area for a while, its our silently declared spot.

Most heli guys at our field come out in the evening. In the morning, a lot of times, I am usually the only heli guy out there. Its kind of fun, but I feel so unsafe with all those scary airplane guys staring at me with fire in their eyes. I think its my computer radio, they must think its voodoo or something.

I'm a heli only guy, although I have flown planes. The most fun I have had with flying plane is with a Zagi. I prefer helis big time and I don't see myself buying a plane anytime soon. I just got heli's in my blood. I think my blood cells are shaped like heli blades and I'm running on pure 30% nitro

Chris
Rex 500
Burning them electrons :D

Forever Brothers
Mickey Tylo

11-14-2001 Over year old.

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SkyKing
Senior Heliman
Location: Belvidere, Ill

At our Club we have 58 heli pilots and 58 members that is 100%!!
We do have a lot of dual rated pilots but our field is a heli only field, no runway. the club is out of Chicago Il and its name is
Northern ILL R/C Helicopter Association. We are currently looking for new members so come on down you won't have to worry about plank pilots and air time.
Terry King President

11-14-2001 Over year old.

RappyTappy
Elite Veteran
Location: Las Vegas, NV

While I love heli only fields, sometimes I have to step back and think. If we have heli only fields then maybe we shouldn't gripe about airplane only fields. I just try to be fair and I respect any type of R/C. We are all here for fun and having confrontations is hopefully not why we came into this hobby.

Chris
Rex 500
Burning them electrons :D

Forever Brothers
Mickey Tylo

11-14-2001 Over year old.

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ErgoNut
Senior Heliman
Location: Auburn, NY (Syracuse Heli Group)

my local flying club has approx. 25-30 members on the roster, including 2 full time heli pilots and 1 planker/heli guy. However, the vast majority of the plankers NEVER fly so we heli guys get plenty of air time.

11-14-2001 Over year old.

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Jetset
Senior Heliman
Location: Picton, Ontario Canada

Ratios

ErgoNut, I can relate to what you said about the plankers never flying.
We have 35 members in our club of which only I ever see about 3 or 4 including myself who fly regularly! Can you believe that!?
So you can see that you can fly anything just about anytime there as you please!

As for the question at hand, there is 1 pilot who only flies helis and then there will be me who flies both (after I learn helis!)
One thing that is a shame, is that we fly at an airport that used to belong to the military years ago. It's now the Picton Flying Club's airport and we have access to it.

Myles

Howzitgoin' eh? Goin' fast in the "Great White North"

11-14-2001 Over year old.

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WyoHeli
Heliman
Location: Riverton, Wyoming

In our club, there are about 37 members, only one heli only pilot and then me who has flown power planks, but now only wanting to fly heli's and soaring planks.

I just moved here, they have a new field that is really nice. It still is a work in progress but it is way better then the field that I used to fly at.

At the club where I used to live, I was the only guy under 50. There were only about 15 members and 6 of those flew on a regular basis. The only guy there (about 60 years old) who had a heli, had a 46 size concept (I think). He had the weirdest habit. Anytime he had a hard landing or a minor crash with a plank he would walk over to it and STOMP the crap out of it.
Well I happened to catch him out at the field one day when he was hovering and he decided to go nose in. Well it came right at him obviously scaring the tar out of him. He was only 3 or 4 feet off the ground and he landed it before anything happened. However, he walked over to it, stopped the head from spinning and you guessed it, he proceeded to stomp the crap out of his heli. Proclaiming "This thing is dangerous as hell!" I think I stood there in shock for about 5 or 10 minutes.

He then picked up the pieces and put it in his truck and took it home and tossed it all in the trash.

I was warned by one of the other members that if you ever see him stomp an aircraft, don't ask if you can have the parts, or else you'll get the biggest lecture on safety and all the reasons he thinks you shouldn't have it. Unbelievable.

Fortunately I never had to deal with the GOM syndrome. They were all pretty nice guys and really easy going. As long as no one got hurt they didn't care who did what. Although, GOM against GOM is a great sight to behold.

The new club I am in seems to be pretty good, a lot more structured, but so far I haven't been there long enough to experience any problems.

Mike

11-14-2001 Over year old.

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Rotorhead
Senior Heliman
Location: Spokane, WA

Too Funny !!

Yeah, some of the oldsters can have some real "issues" while others are so easy going. Can't believe someone could actually stomp on a heli. I'm the only heli flyer in my club currently, and luckily the plank boys are hardly ever there when I am. When one may show up, I watch (out for) them and they watch me

11-14-2001 Over year old.

Augusto
rrAdvertiser
Location: San Diego, CA

In mine we have about 400 members and about 45 heli pilots. Most of them are beginners since we opened the field to heli pilots very recently. The club also bought a rappy trainer and it's building a special heli area.

Avant Aurora Ultimate

11-14-2001 Over year old.

RappyTappy
Elite Veteran
Location: Las Vegas, NV

I've heard about a guy who stomped his wrecked helis. Those guys need a simulator, but I guess if the crashed on the sim, they would trash their computer!

Yikes!

Chris
Rex 500
Burning them electrons :D

Forever Brothers
Mickey Tylo

11-14-2001 Over year old.

HOMEPAGE

BladeRunner
Elite Veteran
Location: Ontario Canada. Member of "some sort" s

Heli Pilot Ratios??

Hey RappyTappy, I've heard of that sort of behaviour, they don't need simulators-they need professional help!!

Childish behaviour? Nope-just nuts!

-------BladeRunner.
BTW, this has jogged my memory, many years ago we used to fly off of a water resevous, the closed in kind, there was a guy that used to show up every couple of weeks( this place wasn't a club it was just a place where RC'ers used to gather) and he would have these really nice stand-off scale planes, he must have been buying them cause there is no way he had time to build them. Well he would crash over and over, it was "always" the equipment and not his flying-ya right, anyway he even tried adding more wire to his receiver antenna "to make the range better" He had GALLONS of 5 min. epoxy and still he wiped out more airplanes than I had ever seen at that time. Sure enough he would get really Pi**ed off and actually stomp the planes into airplane heaven-he even burned a few right there on the field! Definately a nutjob, I guess it takes all kinds.

--------BladeRunner.

11-14-2001 Over year old.

Dave_D
Key Veteran
Location: Philippines

In our field, helis outnumber the plankers around 2:1. This is because there's more shops tailoring to helis than planes. Besides, our country is a bit cramped so it's a stretch to find a field that planes can take off from.

11-15-2001 Over year old.

omurru
Veteran
Location: Australia

At our field the plane guys outnumber us regular heli pilots 10:1 but all of us heli pilots also fly planes, me only recentley

but still and if you took into account that my club is a glider club then the glider guys outnumber us about 50:1!

11-15-2001 Over year old.

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Optech
Key Veteran
Location: Vista/Oceanside, CA.

The club I fly at has about 140 or so members. Of that there are about 6 regular heli fliers and 2 others that have helis but rarely bring them out. Of the 9 helis only 1 is a heli-only pilot. However, one of the members recently gave him an old plank trainer and engine to fix up. The next town over has a bunch of heli pilots but we rarely get together.

The number of heli pilots has doubled in the last year! We are now starting to hear grumbles from the plank only fliers but we are doing things to keep them and us happy. Our field is pretty unique in that of the 140 or so members about 110 of them leave for the summer. 2 of those that leave are the two rare heli fliers. Its hog heaven for heli flying in the summer time. Right now we basically mark our territory and are forcing the plankers to fly with us. Once they see that the helis are not the eminent body slicers they first appear to be they don't mind being in the air at the same time as us. I will say that we have worked hard to open communication and to have spotters to call landings and such. If there are plankers flying we try to operate the same as a plank. Sometimes its hard to do but if you just call out what you're doing it goes a long way to calm their nerves. We just recently got approved to build an FAI size hovering pad off to the side so that we can practice hovering/3d without tying up the runway. Most of these old winter visitor guys also let us locals have the field pretty much on the weekends as they know we have to work and only have the weekends to fly.

11-15-2001 Over year old.

SkyKing
Senior Heliman
Location: Belvidere, Ill

RappyTappy
The field we use is a County park they have designated it as a heli only field because it would not be able to support plank takeoff and landings? They also have a plank field too. It works and that is what counts. by the way the downside is you have to purchase a permit to fly planks or helis at any of the county fields. To get the permit you have to be a AMA member or be able to provide finanicial responsibility, insurance reasons.
Terry

11-15-2001 Over year old.

Thumbpilot
Senior Heliman
Location: Navan, Ireland

We have approx. 100 members at my club with 10 heli pilots. I believe I am the only heli only pilot.

There is a guy with a plank that hovers - the most unnatural thing I've ever seen.

11-15-2001 Over year old.

Mike99
Veteran
Location: Canal Winchester, OH

Ratio so Far??

I see why we are considered a minority (oh the opression I feel.... ha ha ) Results so far are
Club Plank Pilots - 1143
Plank / Heli - 34 or 3%
Heli Only - 162 or 14%
BladeRunner, RappyTappy, and Rotorhead - give me some numbers, I think I'll post the sheet on my web site. The rest of you keep on reporting. Where is that club with five plankers and 120 heli guys???

Mike99

11-15-2001 Over year old.

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