Helicopter Flight Times

[Bazinga+]

Feel free to share your helicopter flight times as well as any pictures or videos if you wish. Also giving the ceiling height would also help put the scores into perspective.

[AznPr0d1gy]

I don't test my helicopter outside of competition but I've gotten 105.3 seconds using 75% winds (didn't want the helicopter to get stuck on rafters so didn't go for 100%).

[calgoddard]

I am just curious, if you didn't test your helicopter how did you get 105 seconds? Was that an actual flight duration?

With all due respect, I am doubting that was an actual flight duration under the 2017 SciOly Helicopters rules using only 75% of max turns on the rubber motor.

To my knowledge, Stan Buddenbohm, holder of three world records in rubber powered helicopters, was not able to get a flight that long with his very well designed Mini-Pearl helicopter using very close to 100% of max turns on the rubber motor.

Also, to my knowledge, Dave Zeilger has also not achieved a flight that long with his well designed 2017 FFM helicopter.

On the other hand, an official score of 105 seconds could theoretically be achieved this year with the single bladed rotor bonus.

All that being said, please prove me wrong by posting a video of your 2017 rules-complaint helicopter flying longer than 90 seconds.

[Bazinga+]

I am just curious, if you didn't test your helicopter how did you get 105 seconds? Was that an actual flight duration?

With all due respect, I am doubting that was an actual flight duration under the 2017 SciOly Helicopters rules using only 75% of max turns on the rubber motor.

To my knowledge, Stan Buddenbohm, holder of three world records in rubber powered helicopters, was not able to get a flight that long with his very well designed Mini-Pearl helicopter using very close to 100% of max turns on the rubber motor.

Also, to my knowledge, Dave Zeilger has also not achieved a flight that long with his well designed 2017 FFM helicopter.

On the other hand, an official score of 105 seconds could theoretically be achieved this year with the single bladed rotor bonus.

All that being said, please prove me wrong by posting a video of your 2017 rules-complaint helicopter flying longer than 90 seconds.

I was able to get a 120 second flight with this year's specs using around 90% winds (and frankly this was a fairly badly built helicopter). This was done for a 8-9 meter ceiling. 105 second flight is certainly believable to me, but we need to know the height of the ceiling to get a good feel for the helicopter (I find that a meter adds up to 5 seconds of flight time for my heli). I am quite surprised that Dave Ziegler and Stan haven't gotten flights that long (thanks for that information though).
I will record my heli next time I test if you want a video (currently only have a video of my first flight which was around 1:20 on a 2 meter high ceiling).

[HandsFreeCookieDunk]

To my knowledge, Stan Buddenbohm, holder of three world records in rubber powered helicopters, was not able to get a flight that long with his very well designed Mini-Pearl helicopter using very close to 100% of max turns on the rubber motor.

Also, to my knowledge, Dave Zeilger has also not achieved a flight that long with his well designed 2017 FFM helicopter.

If you don't mind me asking, how do you know this? Do you know them personally, or have they posted results somewhere?

[calgoddard]

HandsFreeCookieDunk -

It is good of you to follow up and courteously question what has been posted. This type of rigorous examination will serve you well in SciOly, and in life.

Stan Buddenbohm is a friend of mine. I personally witnessed a good flight of his Mini-Pearl helicopter, which complies with the 2017 SciOly Helcopters rules.

I spoke with Dave Zeigler after he completed the development and testing of his 2017 FFM Helicopters kit. We discussed the flight times he was able to achieve with his 2017 FFM design. I have no reason not to believe what Dave told me. Maybe Dave has gotten some longer helicopter flights since we spoke to each other a few weeks ago. However, I doubt he has had much time to fly as he has been pretty busy assembling his helicopter and airplane kits and filling orders for the same.

Dave is a very knowledgeable designer, builder and flier. In my opinion, his 2017 FFM helicopter design will be very competitive this season.

Stan is pretty much unbeatable in any flying event. Granted, he designed a simpler helicopter for high school students. If he was seeking a world record under these rules Stan would use a much more sophisticated design including carbon fiber tow on the motor stick. Stan has come up with an excellent design in the form of his Mini-Pearl helicopter, one which I think will be competitive with the 2017 Helicopters FFM kit. This is confirmed by the similar max times reported to me by both gentlemen.

Do you believe the 105 second and 120 second flight times reported above? It's hard for me to accept that these two folks can beat both Stan and Dave but I am not ruling this out. Let's just say that I am skeptical. We'll see if they post any videos. In addition, I would like to see a picture of each helicopter sitting on a digital scale indicating the weight of the same and with a metric scale ruler adjacent to the digital scale. I want to make sure that these two helicopters are not underweight and/or that they do not exceed the maximum allowable rotor dimensions.

[Bazinga+]

HandsFreeCookieDunk -

It is good of you to follow up and courteously question what has been posted. This type of rigorous examination will serve you well in SciOly, and in life.

Stan Buddenbohm is a friend of mine. I personally witnessed a good flight of his Mini-Pearl helicopter, which complies with the 2017 SciOly Helcopters rules.

I spoke with Dave Zeigler after he completed the development and testing of his 2017 FFM Helicopters kit. We discussed the flight times he was able to achieve with his 2017 FFM design. I have no reason not to believe what Dave told me. Maybe Dave has gotten some longer helicopter flights since we spoke to each other a few weeks ago. However, I doubt he has had much time to fly as he has been pretty busy assembling his helicopter and airplane kits and filling orders for the same.

Dave is a very knowledgeable designer, builder and flier. In my opinion, his 2017 FFM helicopter design will be very competitive this season.

Stan is pretty much unbeatable in any flying event. Granted, he designed a simpler helicopter for high school students. If he was seeking a world record under these rules Stan would use a much more sophisticated design including carbon fiber tow on the motor stick. Stan has come up with an excellent design in the form of his Mini-Pearl helicopter, one which I think will be competitive with the 2017 Helicopters FFM kit. This is confirmed by the similar max times reported to me by both gentlemen.

Do you believe the 105 second and 120 second flight times reported above? It's hard for me to accept that these two folks can beat both Stan and Dave but I am not ruling this out. Let's just say that I am skeptical. We'll see if they post any videos. In addition, I would like to see a picture of each helicopter sitting on a digital scale indicating the weight of the same and with a metric scale ruler adjacent to the digital scale. I want to make sure that these two helicopters are not underweight and/or that they do not exceed the maximum allowable rotor dimensions.

Here are the requested pictures of my helicopter: Image 1 and Image 2

I do not currently have a video of it getting 2 minutes, but here's my first flight which was 1:25 (my dad started filming 5 seconds in) on a 2 meter high ceiling (Since then I started using different rubber and testing on a higher ceiling). Ill send a vid of a 2 minute flight as soon as I get a chance to test it again.
Video: drive.google.com/file/d/0B1aWKuLx2azAejhpNTU4cjNkTHc/view

[AznPr0d1gy]

I got 105 seconds using 102 winds on a .109 rubber band weighing 2.17 grams before lubricant on my helicopter based one of the 2014 helicopter national designs weighing 2.51 grams in a room about 25 feet high. I was not using the updated kits, but the old 2014 kits which I heavily modified. I also swapped the motor stick with a thin balsa wood tube using 3D printed front hooks I designed to lower the mass to the absolute minimum.

I didnt use single bladed rotors (imo those are bad ideas) so my actual flight time was 105 seconds. I will upload a video of the helicopter at max winds the next time I go to competition. If you're fine with my helicopter score sheet from UT invitational I will upload that instead.

[Bazinga+]

Pretty odd that the kit designers aren't getting such high times with so many people getting over 90 sec.

[calgoddard]

Bazinga+ -

Thanks for the link to the video.

The still images you posted cannot be viewed.