How High Is Up?

[reg2putt]

How high can an RC airplane fly? I had heard that the operator had to maintain eye contact with his/her plane to maintain control of it and
RC flying fields located near airports have height limitations. I found a group in England who have mounted an RC Flight Challenge (http://www.scale-modelers-handbook.com/rc-flight-challenge.html) trying to
eclipse the 30,000 foot level. I don't know who they are challenging. Is anyone else trying to reach such height with a radio controlled plane?
What is the highest you've reached? Let me know here (http://www.scale-modelers-handbook.com/contact.html).

[Leo L]

The practical limits are the range of your radio equipment and your ability to see the plane. My largest plane has a 5ft. wingspan and I've had it up so high that you had to strain to spot it. My best guess is that it was up around 1,200ft. I've also had it fly in and out of clouds, but at a slightly lower altitude, say 1,000ft.

[aeajr]

My typical plane is a 10 foot wing span sailplane. I don't have an altimiter in it but I would guess about 1500 feet up and about 4000 feet out.

I had a 2M sailplane up on Saturday for about 33 minutes, riding a thermal, that was getting so high I put up the spoilers to slow down its climb. It was getting pretty small at that point, so I would guess about 1200 feet.

If you have a "full range" reciever set-up, you can have control of the plane further than you can see it to control it. My receivers are rated for 1 mile plus.

[tallflyer]

Here are a few pictures I took with my GWS Slow Stick and a digital and a digital camera over Mission Valley In San Diego,CA

[Mark R]

Nice pictures tallflyer, what is your setup on the digital camera, a servo to take the picture?

[tallflyer]

Here are some pictures of my High Tech Digital Camera Setup

[Mark R]

Very slick! Hey whatever does the job, your pictures came out great.

[aeajr]

Going for height to set a record is one thing. But most people flying small electric planes will likely be under 1000 feet.

Glider/sailplane pilots regularly fly above this range when working thermals. That is one reason these planes tend to have wider wing spans, because you can see them further up and further out.

[Chuck Swisher]

I built a Sig LT40 plane an put a .48 K+B on it I also built an 8ft. flat bottom wing for it, it would take off in about 4ft. I had it in the clouds lots of times I had a 2mm sailplane with a .10. it also was in the clouds. Have a great day Chuck

[mred]

I may be wrong about this because it's been a LONG time, but Mr Hill set a record at a little over 33,000 ft. How high is high, about as high as you want to go and still see the plane.

Ed

[Deerslayer]

A few years ago, I taped a GPS to my 6-ft, "drainpipe" SPAD and did an experiment. This was not to see how high I could fly, but you can certainly get good, reasonably accurate results that way.

One reason I did this is to prove that some of the claims by flyers about how high and/or far various models might be flying were questionable, at best.

Fasten the GPS onto, or tuck it into, the aircraft and turn it on and then go flying. After you fly, simply download your track into your computer and ask for the plots of track and altitude. At least, my old GPS V will graph this stuff very nicely. As you fly, remember that quick turns, etc., will not likely show up on the plot, as the GPS sampling rate will probably be of longer duration than the maneuver itself. Likewise, some of the speeds you may see can look rather strange, as it calculates a speed data point by dividing the distance between two positional readings by the elapsed time.

I did a number of patterns and boxes, etc., to demonstrate where 99% or greater of my flying, and that of any others I have observed at our field, takes place. I had scratched out a rough map of the area, to make sure I did all the things I had ever seen or tried - different patterns approaches, both close in and far out, typical ranges and heights, etc., some quick maneuvers to see what the GPS would record, etc.


The distances and heights involved are a lot less than most pilots would believe!

I have a .PDF write-up, complete with pictures, flight plan, graphs, results and conclusions, but cannot post it here due to attachment restrictions.

It was a fun exercise, worth trying for yourself.

[mred]

You may not be able to post the whole graph, but you should be able to post a summery about the flight. It would be interesting to see what you came up with.

Ed