Flight Log

[chalker7]

When they ask for rubber size, do they mean the cross section or the diameter? I put diameter (sorry, I'm new to this!!)

Diameter? Do you mean loop length? In either case, the rules do not specify a dimension, so whatever you record will probably be fine, but I would double check with your local supervisor if you still are concerned.

[jander14indoor]

Usual comment, this isn't the place for official clarifications, opinion only, etc.

Understand the purpose of flight logs. They are there to help you perform well. This is a test and evaluation event, if you do not keep extensive data, you cannot do well, regardless of the penalty aspect in the rules. We added them to the rules because folks seem to miss that basic fact!!!

The six in the rules is an arbitrary minimum, if you want to do well you should have FAR more than six and the rule aspect will be purely secondary. If you are struggling to identify six, you are not going to get a good time and you don't understand!

Just a few to get you going: rotor size, pitch, diameter, area, top and bottom (that's six there) motor size, length, width, mass (need at least two to describe the motor fully) ceiling height, air conditions, temperature, room size, overall mass (yes you should be flying at minimum mass, but if not...), rotor seperation, center of mass, flight characteristics, time, height achieved, flight profile, max winds, backoff, winds at launch, winds at landing, launch height, flight behavior. And so on. ALL of these affect flight to a greater or lesser degree, if you don't record them, how can you know why your flight times improve or degrade from flight to flight?

This is science folks, TAKE DATA!! LOOK AT DATA!! As an event supervisor, I have a good feel for a teams success by glancing at the log without reading flight times. If I see multiple sheets with far more than the minimum six, short a disaster, they are medaling. I see 10 lines, 6 columns, not likely to be successful.

<SNIP>And my guess would be that you might be able to pass with that at your regionals, but probably not by states.<SNIP>

Real opinion here. Why would state vs regional be relevant. The rules don't distinguish. The only thing I've noted some supervisors don't like words as a parameter. I personally think they are wrong, but there it is...

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI