Duration

[Maletitas]

I'm not from Troy,
but I think their score was less than 3:00.
I heard that their copter got stuck?

you're right...their helicopter only flew around 30 seconds and placed 12th overall at states...i also remember hearing that their gears were stuck so maybe that was what caused the 30 second flight time. my guess is that sometime between states and nationals they figured out a better way to lubricate their gears, like the coconut juice idea.

[DLiu]

I'm not from Troy,
but I think their score was less than 3:00.
I heard that their copter got stuck?

you're right...their helicopter only flew around 30 seconds and placed 12th overall at states...i also remember hearing that their gears were stuck so maybe that was what caused the 30 second flight time. my guess is that sometime between states and nationals they figured out a better way to lubricate their gears, like the coconut juice idea.

Yeah on the first flight, our helicopter got stuck in the lights and one of the teeth of the gears broke. That's why the teeth slipped and the propellers spun backwards which meant we only got 11 seconds on the second run. The lubricant we used originally seemed to be weakening our gears and causing them to break. However, we never had this problem when we used the coconut juice. It felt great for our time to improve a full 3 minutes from state to nationals.

2012 Helicopters State - 12th place
2012 Helicopters Nationals Champions - 3:11 x 3 = 9:33

[mrsteven]

Well I think anyone would take the national champ over state champ any day!
With helicopters gone my time has no filler :/

[twototwenty]

Does anyone who had a sucessful chinook want to post pictures in the gallery? I am still extremely interested in seeing how people got them to work.

[baker]

Does anyone who had a sucessful chinook want to post pictures in the gallery? I am still extremely interested in seeing how people got them to work.

check out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWWpXVMFwWw

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy31Wc-44CA&feature=plcp

[mrsteven]

I liked how that second one flew. It briefly turned on its side and I thought it was going to do a plane thing. I was excited because I tried to make a chinook that actually flew sideways up like a plane with a wing span but I didn't spend too much time on it since the other design I was working with was much more fruitful on its initial creation.

Roys was interesting. I'm surprised it worked as well as it did, must be extremely well balanced for that to fly in that manner

[lucwilder42]

I was standing next to the guy filming Roy's design was awesome, he totally bypassed a gear transmission by using really thin wire spinning in a very thin curved aluminum tube. It wasn't even close to optimized though.

[chia]

Hmmm... my design looked essentially like the North Carolina team's copter, but I didn't put nearly enough effort into it since I didn't think it was going anywhere... so serious props to them for getting it stable, let alone medal-worthy
(I sort of got the impression from earlier discussions that covering the frame with mylar might not be legal because it would provide lift if the copter were to start airplaning - not that theirs did - which is why I didn't use it, but I guess not...? Eh well)

[jander14indoor]

Again, this is not clarification, etc.

But, I think the rules are pretty tight. If the thing went on its side an a horizontal surface provided lift it would be either DQ'ed or time stopped if the event supervisor was following rules closely.

Of course, how MUCH on it sides is a little open to interpretation.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Luo]

Oh, and to avoid confusion, expect the name for Helicopter Egg Drop to change, but not the substance.

The event table released today on soinc.org lists the event as "Rotor Egg Drop."