Originally Posted by Jibri Wright (Post 1268790)

I think the idea of paper airplanes is pretty cool. This was my first time at Nationals and seeing all of the airplanes trying to make it onto the field gave our team a little bit of suspense between matches. Our team even got a few planes near the field (and wrote our team number on them :P). I personally didn't throw any airplanes when speakers or matches were going on cause i thought it was rude, but it is honestly something i'm going to remember about Nationals.

Originally Posted by runneals (Post 1268884)

It would be cool to have someone fly a RC plane overhead of the whole arena that has a camera on it's belly & take photos and stitch together an Ortho image of the arena. Wouldn't that be cool? I see a HamR or RC enthusiast doing something like this, since we have the spectrum that wouldn't disrupt the field WiFi.

de KD0SET

Originally Posted by EricH (Post 1268895)

No, it would NOT be cool. R/C aircraft--of any type--can be very dangerous. I actually have an R/C aircraft that would be perfect for flying in a dome (if it's repaired), and I wouldn't even THINK about flying over the stands, or Einstein, or any field that was being packed up--for that matter, over any field at all due to the overhead cables for the lights being a great target for stray planes, or the personnel on the fields risking being injured should something go wrong.

If I'm talking about my sub-1-lb ultramicro foamy not being safe to fly under FIRST competition conditions, then anything strong enough to carry a camera is going to be even worse--larger, heavier, more powerful, more likely to hit something or someone. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but if I was to endorse such an idea, I would A) call in a professional, or at least somebody with a ton more experience than I do, and B) clear as many people off of the floor as I could, and C) put flags on every cable so they were more visible to the pilot. Oh, and D) listen to the pro when he told me it wasn't safe to fly.

Also, I should remind you that R/C pilots fly on 2.4 GHz. The field can potentially (and sometimes does) operate on that bandwidth, though it's usually on 5 GHz, but an awful lot of other stuff operates there too. I wouldn't risk it.

Originally Posted by EricH (Post 1268895)

No, it would NOT be cool. R/C aircraft--of any type--can be very dangerous. I actually have an R/C aircraft that would be perfect for flying in a dome (if it's repaired), and I wouldn't even THINK about flying over the stands, or Einstein, or any field that was being packed up--for that matter, over any field at all due to the overhead cables for the lights being a great target for stray planes, or the personnel on the fields risking being injured should something go wrong.

If I'm talking about my sub-1-lb ultramicro foamy not being safe to fly under FIRST competition conditions, then anything strong enough to carry a camera is going to be even worse--larger, heavier, more powerful, more likely to hit something or someone. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but if I was to endorse such an idea, I would A) call in a professional, or at least somebody with a ton more experience than I do, and B) clear as many people off of the floor as I could, and C) put flags on every cable so they were more visible to the pilot. Oh, and D) listen to the pro when he told me it wasn't safe to fly.

Also, I should remind you that R/C pilots fly on 2.4 GHz. The field can potentially (and sometimes does) operate on that bandwidth, though it's usually on 5 GHz, but an awful lot of other stuff operates there too. I wouldn't risk it.

Originally Posted by seg9585 (Post 1268984)

Just to give an idea of the dome's average surface area of paper airplane coverage.

Originally Posted by EricH (Post 1268895)

No, it would NOT be cool. R/C aircraft--of any type--can be very dangerous. I actually have an R/C aircraft that would be perfect for flying in a dome (if it's repaired), and I wouldn't even THINK about flying over the stands, or Einstein, or any field that was being packed up--for that matter, over any field at all due to the overhead cables for the lights being a great target for stray planes, or the personnel on the fields risking being injured should something go wrong.

Originally Posted by Bongle (Post 1269012)

Compromise idea:
I think a good solution would be to make it an official thing. Say "the team that gets a plane the furthest during a designated throwing time (between matches when no-one is speaking) wins a prize". You have to write your team # on each plane. You could also have a prize for greatest mass of paper airplanes cleaned up (to help with the litter issue), but that would be harder to check.

This way, everyone knows that it's not ok to throw them nonstop, but doesn't completely squelch the fun that people have throwing them (I was there in 2011, it was great to watch). It's a mini-engineering challenge. It would also let people in the stands prepare for a deluge of planes so people are aware.

Originally Posted by Bongle (Post 1269012)

Compromise idea:
I think a good solution would be to make it an official thing. Say "the team that gets a plane the furthest during a designated throwing time (between matches when no-one is speaking) wins a prize". You have to write your team # on each plane. You could also have a prize for greatest mass of paper airplanes cleaned up (to help with the litter issue), but that would be harder to check.

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis (Post 1268769)

What's the easiest way to get a bunch of high school kids to want to do something... tell them they can't!

:deadhorse: Here is last year's thread on the same subject :deadhorse: