Height of flight

[new horizon]

Yeah that specific design that hovered well followed that trend, the rotors were balsa and rather narrow. The pitch wasn't extremely high but it was slightly overweight so when it hovered the time was around 28 or so seconds. For our competition, we used a different helicopter that didn't hover so well so we just calculated dewinds on our practice ceiling and did a few trim flights at competition to make sure it worked on the ceiling they had at competition. The max height it reached was just below the girders (which were nasty at that competition). It didn't really hover for a long time, maybe 3 or so seconds before coming down. The flight time was maybe 38 seconds if I remember correctly and that would've gotten us 3rd, I believe, at that competition on that flight alone.
Maybe that flight wasn't really a hover but it did accomplish its goal. Sure our flight time wasn't optimal but the our general strategy on our first runs worked pretty well.
At states, the event was held in a gym with widely space girders and therefore no one attempted hover flights. However, if the rafters were close together like regionals, I'm sure the top time would have been significantly less. But the girders affect everyone equally on the first run, assuming they all dewind to remove some launch torque to control the altitude. Even a very optimal helicopter would not do much better than 50 or so seconds at such conditions. On the second run, sure maybe luck is a factor but even if you're unlucky you'll have something to fall back on.