Duration

[chalker7]

.... why not just fly outside while we're at it? I do not understand the people who choose where they hold helicopters... not one bit...

mhm interesting. I'll have to do the calculations, I just inferred...

The people who choose where the locations for individual events are held are the local nationals tournament staff who are generally knowledgable about the events. However, there are numerous considerations that need to be taken into account, including accessibility for spectators, control over environmental factors (being able to turn A/C on or off for us, other considerations for other events,) rental costs (usually the university charges SO either by the building or the room for what they need to use for the day, and that can 100% dictate what space they get,) and simply what is available. Not being from Orlando nor have ever visited UCF, I do not know if there is a better space for the competition or not. Of course, I would prefer it if we were able to compete in a 100ft smooth ceiling site with dead calm air, but we will take what we can get and try to make the best of it. At minimum, we will try to minimize any variance in the conditions from one team to the next to make the competition as fair as possible.

[eta150]

At PA states today, there was a 1:33 chinook. It was pretty incredible, and needless to say it won handily.

[Maletitas]

We got a 1:50 chinook time in the backyard today. Our gears are made of coconut shells...seemed like a random idea but the juices from the coconuts help lubricate the gears.

[danyalukin]

We got a 1:50 chinook time in the backyard today. Our gears are made of coconut shells...seemed like a random idea but the juices from the coconuts help lubricate the gears.

Hahaha gears? Shells? XD
I'm not sure if I should take it as a joke or inquire impatiently on what your design is

[jander14indoor]

Official results from the MI state tournament. Straight from the event supervisors mouth.

Top three awards went to Chinooks, top time, NO multiplier 1 min 48 seconds. Final score 324 seconds or 5 min 24 seconds.
Top coax helicopter 2 min 30 seconds.
I heard from the top team that their coax could beat 3 minutes (unverified) but the Chinook with the triple bonus blew that away so they didn't fly it.

I'm promised pictures, but won't post till after nationals. I understand the winning copter was, um, unusual.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Maletitas]

My partner just tried making gears out of different kinds of plastic and wood so that we could make a chinook that only used one piece of rubber. I don't know how he came up with using coconut shells though but the idea was genius!!! You can see our design at nationals. Hopefully we place in the top 3

[mrsteven]

My partner just tried making gears out of different kinds of plastic and wood so that we could make a chinook that only used one piece of rubber. I don't know how he came up with using coconut shells though but the idea was genius!!! You can see our design at nationals. Hopefully we place in the top 3

... I need to see a picture of this. I cannot believe you actually were able to make gears out a cocoanut shell... let alone something significantly geared flying lol but I would actually love to see it fly; cutos if this isn't a troll (which I'm not totally convinced of... yet)

[Maletitas]

My partner just tried making gears out of different kinds of plastic and wood so that we could make a chinook that only used one piece of rubber. I don't know how he came up with using coconut shells though but the idea was genius!!! You can see our design at nationals. Hopefully we place in the top 3

... I need to see a picture of this. I cannot believe you actually were able to make gears out a cocoanut shell... let alone something significantly geared flying lol but I would actually love to see it fly; cutos if this isn't a troll (which I'm not totally convinced of... yet)

Sorry we aren't going to release pictures until after nationals. We don't want people copying our design because it took many failed attempts before we could make a helicopter with working gears that weren't too heavy. We finally got it down to 3.5 using the coconut shell idea for the gears. You can see the helicopter flying at nationals.

[chalker7]

Official results from the MI state tournament. Straight from the event supervisors mouth.

Top three awards went to Chinooks, top time, NO multiplier 1 min 48 seconds. Final score 324 seconds or 5 min 24 seconds.
Top coax helicopter 2 min 30 seconds.
I heard from the top team that their coax could beat 3 minutes (unverified) but the Chinook with the triple bonus blew that away so they didn't fly it.

I'm promised pictures, but won't post till after nationals. I understand the winning copter was, um, unusual.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

I'm really looking forward to seeing all of the designs at nationals this year!

[lucwilder42]

Official results from the MI state tournament. Straight from the event supervisors mouth.

Top three awards went to Chinooks, top time, NO multiplier 1 min 48 seconds. Final score 324 seconds or 5 min 24 seconds.
Top coax helicopter 2 min 30 seconds.
I heard from the top team that their coax could beat 3 minutes (unverified) but the Chinook with the triple bonus blew that away so they didn't fly it.

I'm promised pictures, but won't post till after nationals. I understand the winning copter was, um, unusual.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

Thanks for not posting the pics. However, the part about a three minute coax is rightfully unverified, not sure who told you that...