Park Flying is dangerous - discuss

[Sieze2]

I have been flying my T-rex 450 at local "common land". It is basically 4 football pitches big, and apart from the obvious football goals couldn't be more suitable. However recently 3 incidents have occurred. The first, a dog went for the heli as it spooled up (it had run from the tree line). I shut it down and placed myself between the rotors and the dog. The owner apologised etc.

The second, 4 school boys though they would walk right under where the heli was flying. I even asked them if they thought that was a good idea, and all they said was "yup". I pulled it away to a safe distance and did a loop the size of a house give them a better respect for it.

Thirdly, yesterday a dog went mental for the heli. It was even jumping in the air to try and bite it. I basically had to walkover to the owners while flying the heli to talk to them. They were finding it very funny till I pointed out that my battery will run out in 4 minutes, and I expect their dog will be seriously injured during the landing. The worse case scenario came true, and the owner had no verbal control of any kind, and after apogising announced she would have to go and get the dog ie. walk under the heli to get the dog! It however never came to that, as a combination of stress, distraction, cross wind, and the heli being too far away, meant I crashed while in a tail in hover. This was ironinc as I was previously practicing inverted hovering. No one was hurt fortunately. Unsuprisingly the dog then started to try and bite the wreckage, but a swift kick resolved the situation. The owner was quite nice about it and philosophical really, admitting she had not control of her dogs etc.

There are a few issues here, which I will elaborate on, but as far as I am concerned it is simply not safe to fly heli's in a public environment (of any kind). Due to stupidity of humans and animals. I intend to join a club, or only fly on farmland. Flying in parks/football pitches is simply dangerous. I know others do it, but I wanted to share my experiences so others might learn from them.

[Gaza07]

From what you wrote it would seem you were flying alone if this is the case then i think this makes it far more dangerous, The club im in flys on a public park with football pitches but we have a rule there cannot be any flying alone there should always be some one to look out and keep stray people and there animals away,
The club has been at the site for over 20 years and we have a excellent safety record,
All you need to do is find another person to fly with at the park and marshall for each other as you fly

[Disc]

I cannot see any flying in Public parks are safe...

Our Local common even has a strip you land and take off from but not just people and Dogs you must contend with being stupid.

Horses do not care at all and go where they want...

Join a Club is always the best advice.

[jiberjaber]

I only fly on public accessable land if I have some one to watch for me be that the Mrs or a colleage. Not worth the hassle of decapitating someone or something other wise

[Taffage]

Not a total solution, but slap some night blades & EL wire on it and fly at night. We fly in the evenings/night at the local rugby club and at a proper flying feild on the weekends.

If you can hover inverted then you will have no issues flying at night.

[Raptornator]

I believe; although i may be wrong. Apart from safety issues ?
Is your BMFA cover and insurance void if you were to have a serious accident, being that you are flying were the public have full right of way. ?

[jamiesawyer28041978]

I had the same thing happen to me a number of years ago a stupid idiot of a dog had a go at my 30 nitro but i placed my self between it and the blades as it spooled down from engine chop but if it had tried to go for the camacazzie it would have been another story . Hence I always fly on farm land now instead of football pitch

[pxr5]

dogs are more dangerous. owners have no control over them or responsibility so you should do the same with your heli, we know you can control it but they don't so go on have some fun, go cut up some poodles and get some pics cheers.

[DbyMA]

dogs are more dangerous. owners have no control over them or responsibility so you should do the same with your heli, we know you can control it but they don't so go on have some fun, go cut up some poodles and get some pics cheers.

Urban Gorilla style!?!

[jamiem]

Like taff said, the only time i will fly on public ground is at night, and even then its on a rugby club field, so not really near any public right of ways. I have flown on a public park, and its far from ideal. Kids seem to appear from no-where, dog walkers seem to lose all their common sense and either walk towards them, or under them, or allow their dogs to "play" with them. Not good generally....

[p4ddy]

Hi All, Just joined a moment ago.

I fly my Trex in public parks preferbly with my other half or my daughters to shout "DOG!" & i land immediatly. This though means i can't allways fully relax when flying as i'm trying to watch for them myself aswell. Recently i had 3 students walk near to where i was flying & as it was flying one of them decided to kick his football at it. I just packed up & went home.

[Smoothound]

Hi All, Just joined a moment ago.

I fly my Trex in public parks preferbly with my other half or my daughters to shout "DOG!" & i land immediatly. This though means i can't allways fully relax when flying as i'm trying to watch for them myself aswell. Recently i had 3 students walk near to where i was flying & as it was flying one of them decided to kick his football at it. I just packed up & went home.

You have far too much restraint, least I'd have done would be to bot his ball to kingdom come

[Thomas]

dogs are more dangerous. owners have no control over them or responsibility so you should do the same with your heli, we know you can control it but they don't so go on have some fun, go cut up some poodles and get some pics cheers.

I don't often stick up for dog owners but.......

As the owner of a border collie who is extremely obedient and well trained I have two problems with her. One is the sea, she'll chase waves until she can hardly walk, the other is models, although I have trained her to avoid helis she will chase gliders and planks and no amount of calling will bring her back, she just goes deaf. Dogs have an instinct to chase things and unless they are trained otherwise they can't help it, how is the public going to know how dangerous models can be?

[Kwickkwack]

the other is models, although I have trained her to avoid helis she will chase gliders and planks and no amount of calling will bring her back,

Does that mean you have trained her to chase planks


Seriously
I used to fly on our local park, 11acre site, but sure as eggs are eggs as soon as i got there to fly, either dogs or children would appear, I got so frustrated there i gave up, and just fly at our club site

[Bubblefish777]

This is really rather pointless isn't it ?
For example we've all seen the YOUTube vids of morons at flight clubs, spectators at flight clubs....pilots at flight clubs.... flight clubs are no guarantee of safety ... as for dogs...dogs that cannot be controlled are just as dangerous to children as they are to Heli's....lost control and a hysterical dog is concern for everyone.

I don't think it matters where you fly.... idiots are idiots and ... there will *always* be accidents. You could be by yourself in a field miles from anywhere and have a radio faiure or a structural failure and a main blade fly off and lop your noggin off. People in the paper would remark you were an idiot for flying alone etc. etc. You imagine the scenario, then the accident and some smart arse is gonna find someone to blame. Hindsight is 20/20

Long live our nanny state.
Of course you could adopt a Darwinian view and allow your heli to remove those too stupid from the gene pool :P
I think I made a similar point in the pass when talking about having a 'A' Cert or not and then killing someone with a Heli.... somehow the old bill would hardly waive it off if you topped someone with your heli and you pointed out you did in fact have an A Cert so it's ok then ????? Common ground is for anyone and everyone. Flying should be done when you are happy to fly. A sharp word should suffice to keep people away and if it doesn't ...then so be it.