Helicopters B

[chalker7]

heres all i know
1st: 2:45
2nd: 2:27 (idk why jander said it was 2:25...)
3rd: 2:25
4th: 2:22
5th: 2:20 (yeay me!)
6th: 2:18
7th: 2:16
8th: 2:15
This is what i gathered from watching the event and asking other people so i think it is very close to the actual results. So very tight competition this year, much more competitive despite the decreased diameter. Last year i think 2:20 or so was sixth...

2nd place: 2:29.53 (Jeff said 2:25 because that is what I told him over dinner yesterday while I was extremely sick and not remembering the exact times....)
3rd: 2:27.27
4th: 2:26.17
5th: 2:20.35
6th: 2:19.91
7th: 2:18.06
8th: 2:14.86

Overall, 42 teams had times over 60 seconds, 20 over 90 and 12 over 120. I was very impressed with the overall times everyone was putting up, it is very clear you all have mastered this event.

I was somewhat surprised that no teams had actual single blade rotors that qualified for the bonus. I was expecting at least one or two teams to bring a normal 2-bladed rotor with only a single side covered to qualify for the bonus (as discussed in the FAQ's) but I guess the bonus just wasn't enough of an incentive.

[plaid suit guy2]

I had asked one of the AMA people out here about the single blade thing, and he immediately came up with an Archimedes Screw kind of thing. 100% legal, and no one did it.

[jander14indoor]

Probably because an Archimedes screw doesn't work as an aerodynamic device. And they only work well on water if they are in a tube so you 'trick' the water into flowing down hill all the time.

While we sometimes model or explain a propeller or rotor as an "air screw" its really a very bad model. They really are just wings flying in a tight circle.

There was also a FAQ that pretty much eliminated them.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[plaid suit guy2]

Our interpretation of that FAQ didn't eliminate it as an option, and it wasn't a true Archimedes Screw; we never built it, so it's hard to describe, but the device was the same lifting surface as the normal blades, but with a much deeper chord.

[scienceswimmer4]

I can support the statement that 42 teams got over 60 seconds.. because I was 43rd with a 59 second flight. (woo...) I'm amazingly glad that this isn't an event next year. we were almost tier 3 bc of a stupid building infraction.(25.1 cm)

[Bazinga+]

Yeah i saw a team that that happened to... might have been you. But the supevisor, chalker7, was all but harsh on specs. He tilted it slightly and let it qualify if he had to push a little to get the rotors in. The freedom flight models are specifically designed to be like 24.6 or a little more than that of a diameter, and we made it less than they told us to make it so we definitely would be in specs, so our rotors were like a centimeter smaller than the max, which is probably missing out on some time, but we still managed to place, so i guess that's ok. PS, were you the team that had like 4 or 5 different rotors, and you were trying to mix and match so that ur heli was in specs?

[scienceswimmer4]

Yes, Bazinga+, it may have been us. Although I don't recall switching up our rotors. Our 2 helicopters were opposite(because of a stupid mistake I made), so we couldn't. I remember he asked us to try and remove a small piece of Mylar that was on the side... trying to help us as much as he could. we pushed it a little bit, and I'm very thankful that he let us slide.

We were slotted at 9:00 and I think we flew at about 9:15... The coach that came with me and my partner met a very nice boy that I can't quite remember.. He was from a team that wore dark green shirts. Was that you by chance? And congratulations on your 5th place!

[Bazinga+]

LOLOL yeah we have dark green shirts with periodic tables on them. I dont remember which time block i was there at but i remember i came there like at the end of the 1st time block, and then we actually flew our heli in nthe middle of the 3rd time block. But for the 1sty ands second time blocks i was just watching peoples helicopters. I think it was me. Did you ha e like a ton of rotors in a box and like 3 bodies too?

[scienceswimmer4]

We did meet you! Yes, we were the ones with the box full of a bunch of rotors and bodys. Our team had grey shirts.

Originally, we had about 6 helicopters, 4 of which we left in Colorado. my partner and I have a bad habit of being too rough with that darn thing, so it was basically composed of tape and superglue. oops. unfortunately, as stated before, they were opposite so we really couldn't switch them around.

[Bazinga+]

i dont remember if it was your team, but i remember that a team that got about a minute and got super excited and was convinced that they would place top 3...