Hello guys: During the early 80's I was involved with AMA altitude attempts. My son did set a AMA 2-M record (about 1800 ft) which held up for about 10 years - and then was only broken by a very small margin. We used triangulation with high quality serveying instuments. ***The only way that I will believe has any merit!***
If you fly DIRECTLY overhead then you will be about 2000 ft away, but most of us do not (we will swear we are at 90 degrees maybe 75-80 degrees) and therefore the plane is considerable farther away. The open class record was set using a full scale Replogle Baragraph that was calibrated, before and after record attempt, and STILL had an inherent error. If you wish to see just how lousy the $100 and $200 toys are, have it calibrated or go up in a full scale ship and compare! As far as I know these toy baragraphs do not compensate for temp - which will introduce considerable more error ON THE high side! I know my son had exceptional eyesight and the judges were using the telescopic serveying equipment, so go figure. I think the most telling fact is the "1/32 wire at 2 feet." If you want make that even more real, carve a little scale sailplane from the tip of the wire and then take a test with witnesses and also have a smoker near by for effect...... I have compared several modern toy altimeters against an educational pressure sensor calibrated against a standard and adjusted for real time temp. It is about half the size of a Replogle, but stills needs a Sailaire size fuse. Thermal air is several degrees warmer (and less pressure) than surroundings - which fools the toy altimeter into "thinking" it is much higher. .....sort of like standing a bridge with a friend and comparing how cold the water is to how deep it is... Jim Ealy Vintage Sailplaner On Fri, 03 Oct 2003 14:56:54, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 10/3/2003 2:07:51 PM Eastern Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > I have heard verified stories of scale ships being flown higher and > I can believe that, but I believe a 2m. would disappear at about 1500 to > 2000ft. > unless the light conditions were perfect...... > I've had my Omega 1.8m (with altimeter) over 2000 feet a few times. I think > my highest was around 2300 feet. Granted at that altitude it's a speck and is > on the verge of being lost. The conditions greatly affect how high you can > go. I've actually found that a low humidity deep blue sky is not very good for > seeing gliders at high altitude. The plane seems to just dissolve into the > sky. The best for me, is to get under a nice cumulus and try to stay under it > as you climb. With the cloud as a backdrop, you can see the glider at very > high altitudes. If you leave the cloud though, the model can easily disappear. > > Randy Jim Ealy Education by Demonstration RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
