Wright Stuff C

[Airco2020]

We dislodge stuck airplanes from the ceiling with a 35 ft. extendable fiberglass pole. Never lost an airplane. Sometimes get some small damage dislodging, but always repairable.

Brian T

Brian

Where do you get a pole like that?

[bjt4888]

We dislodge stuck airplanes from the ceiling with a 35 ft. extendable fiberglass pole. Never lost an airplane. Sometimes get some small damage dislodging, but always repairable.

Brian T

Brian

Where do you get a pole like that?

Air coco,

This is the pole I have. Sorry, I remembered incorrectly it is 31 ft not 35 ft. This pole weighs 5 lbs and take a little strength to handle fully extended for very long. As an event supervisor, I’ve retrieved many airplanes with this. Freedom Flight models also sells a pole like this.

Carbon fiber poles like this are a little more expensive but are much lighter and probably better. Look for “extendable 35 ft carbon pole” on google.

Brian T



https://www.amazon.com/Jackite-Green-Fi ... 7935&psc=1

[Airco2020]

We dislodge stuck airplanes from the ceiling with a 35 ft. extendable fiberglass pole. Never lost an airplane. Sometimes get some small damage dislodging, but always repairable.

Brian T

Brian

Where do you get a pole like that?

Air coco,

This is the pole I have. Sorry, I remembered incorrectly it is 31 ft not 35 ft. This pole weighs 5 lbs and take a little strength to handle fully extended for very long. As an event supervisor, I’ve retrieved many airplanes with this. Freedom Flight models also sells a pole like this.

Carbon fiber poles like this are a little more expensive but are much lighter and probably better. Look for “extendable 35 ft carbon pole” on google.

Brian T



https://www.amazon.com/Jackite-Green-Fi ... 7935&psc=1

Thanks, going to show this to our coaches. We had 2 invites last year with planes stuck in the rafters and no way to get them down!

[PM2017]

Where do you get a pole like that?

Air coco,

This is the pole I have. Sorry, I remembered incorrectly it is 31 ft not 35 ft. This pole weighs 5 lbs and take a little strength to handle fully extended for very long. As an event supervisor, I’ve retrieved many airplanes with this. Freedom Flight models also sells a pole like this.

Carbon fiber poles like this are a little more expensive but are much lighter and probably better. Look for “extendable 35 ft carbon pole” on google.

Brian T



https://www.amazon.com/Jackite-Green-Fi ... 7935&psc=1

Thanks, going to show this to our coaches. We had 2 invites last year with planes stuck in the rafters and no way to get them down!

If you have any tent poles those have worked well for West iirc.

[coachchuckaahs]

For most HS gyms, a 20' pole (coupled with a 6-foot person) is sufficient, and much cheaper. We use a B&M BW6 Black Widow, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000B5A6WQ/, $27

Coach Chuck

[Airco2020]

So I finally got some gym time. I know everyone has said a gearbox is a waste of time but I'm kind of intrigued by the idea. So I built a concept plane to test the gearbox. I put the link to a video of the first flight. I started it late since I had to launch then record. It went for 59 seconds.

https://youtu.be/Xv4Y2T5OR4c

It uses a drone prop and 2g of .125 rubber. I wound to 1.2in and had to back off to .6 or I would hit the ceiling at about 20ft.

I think this is proof of concept? I have some ways to improve from here but curious what you think about it so far?

[lechassin]

Can you post a close-up picture of the gearbox? It sounds like a little work of art. Certainly the plane flies great!

If your plane is right at 8 grams, you only have to contend with losses in the gears and extra bushings (a few percent probably). If you remove the gearbox and use longer/thinner rubber, you'd need a longer/heavier motor stick to keep the rubber from falling off, and if the extra wood weighs more than the gearbox, you may be onto something.

My prediction is that a longer/heavier motor stick with longer/thinner rubber on direct drive will be lighter and more efficient than the setup you have now, but kudos for succeeding at it!

[scioly2345]

Anyone know where I can get more bearings (red beads) for the prop hook?

[Lorant]

What is meant by the phrase "mechanisms to actively change the blade diameter or angle" more specifically the part about angle? Rule 3. e.

[lechassin]

The rules allow the prop spars and/or blades to passively flex under differing torque conditions, and that's what we're calling a "flaring" prop. What they don't allow is any linkage setup that actively changes the prop specs over the course of the flight.

You could make a case for a prop with very long [efficient] blades that are folded back so the prop fits through an 8 cm circle with the blades at rest. The blades would be mounted on coiled pieces of music wire, and as soon as the prop spins, the blades would passively bend out to whatever diameter you want.

We haven't done that because there is Science Olympiad rule that gives event supervisors broad authority to disqualify anyone they think is violating the spirit of the event. In this case the spirit is an inefficient propeller.

As an aside, Luke got raised eyebrows at the first invitational for having three-bladed props. He was allowed to fly but AFAIK the assumption when the rules were written was that everyone would default to 2 blades. My point is that any deviation from what is "common" is a risk.