Duration

[mrsteven]

I might know some people who will be timing, could ask them for their data... What are your duration expectations, given a 20ft gym, per say?

mhm.
This is an interesting idea. I'm going to start with a couple of things before I go into it. First, that I don't know anyone elses designs for chinooks. I have seen only my own and in IL there weren't any others except for mine. With that, I have no data or concept of how others' work or how well the average person with a working chinook has gotten it to.
With that, some of you have posted about some good times- the CA 2:30ish times and your 2:40ish time.
With this, I think I'll amend my prior guess of 2:40 being king pin to now ~3:00 pre bonus king pin. I think 20 seconds additional plus maybe some other team not on the forums with an extraordinary one to come in. Or simply improvement on your own 2:40 + descent time.

I'd really like to see that data.

Also, if the ceiling is bad (I don't know where its at exactly) I'm dropping that time back to 2:50. I know my design in a bad ceiling its a sure fire stuck situation, and I think many many of you are in the same hole I'd be in, and the unlucky of you won't get the descent time at all (or even total ascent time if you karma stinks)

god this is crazy. Last year the idea of a 3:00 helicopter COAXEL was insane ( I seem to remember 1 close to that at nats) now we're on the chinook thing, gosh how this escalates from year to year.

Thoughts from me... And I'm a little obsessed with helicopters... I'm now working on building f1d planes because I have all this knowledge about this sort of stuff, may as well improve on it and do some indoor free flight competitions. Wish we had wright stuff around...

[danyalukin]

god this is crazy. Last year the idea of a 3:00 helicopter COAXEL was insane ( I seem to remember 1 close to that at nats) now we're on the chinook thing, gosh how this escalates from year to year.

In terms of physics and assuming a heli is stable, a 4 gram 40 cm coaxial has little advantage over a 3.5g, 35cm chinook. That is, if we neglect the difficulty of construction. In other words, in a perfect world of physics, a chinook and a coaxial are identical and have no innate disadvantages over each other!
So.. a 3 minute chinook is definitely plausible.

[mrsteven]

god this is crazy. Last year the idea of a 3:00 helicopter COAXEL was insane ( I seem to remember 1 close to that at nats) now we're on the chinook thing, gosh how this escalates from year to year.

In terms of physics and assuming a heli is stable, a 4 gram 40 cm coaxial has little advantage over a 3.5g, 35cm chinook. That is, if we neglect the difficulty of construction. In other words, in a perfect world of physics, a chinook and a coaxial are identical and have no innate disadvantages over each other!
So.. a 3 minute chinook is definitely plausible.

Do you actually know that mathematically, or are you just assuming that with the scale factor, because I would think the 1/2 gram difference over a 5 cm difference in extra surface area is a much larger contender.
and thats assuming stability. I think what it comes down to the possibility is the freedom to use any mass of motor. I think that really is what made these flights possible. The extra freedom with that I think allows for more overkill designs to consume winds and still have more coming. Like I used well over the 2 grams from last year for my design this one, I think this is what it boils down to

[danyalukin]

I do know this mathematically. But here is to the cieling at nationals:

http://www.scienceolympiad2012.com/wp-c ... enue-2.jpg

Really?

[mrsteven]

.... 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...

[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