Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
 

Diary of a Flier

by B. Leonard Wise

B Leonard Wise has had a falling out with his neighbour. He has a wife Clarrissa and a son Crispin.

For my birthday as promised I received a Quadcopter. It is smaller than I expected. The four lots of Motors fit into an eight inch square. It is a cross of carbon rods with a motor at each corner. A very small battery fits under the centre which I guess affects the centre of gravity. I found that often all the Rotors did not go at the same speed so that it would not track straight. But if the plug between battery and control chip was pushed in hard it mostly went straight.

The Instructions tell me to try to fly it around the floor almost without leaving the ground to get the general idea. Once I did get it to nearly waist high but it seemed to be rather skittish so I quickly dropped it to ~e floor again.

There are four levels of flying from beginner to expert. The instructions say that it will fly outside in a ten mile an hour wind. With my experience of flying this I very much doubted. But being a highly skilled pilot I expect that I shall fly it to the maximum, or that was what I thought.

I had been too busy to do much flying, but Crispin was back at School and Clarissa was out and the weather for a change was mild and calm. I thought I would give it a go outside. I did well at first and cautiously got on the level two which sharpened up the controls. I got it to waist high again and flew it round in a circle. I felt that I was getting the hang of it and was enjoying flying it.

I would class myself as one of the better pilots. For reasons that I cannot understand my Son Crispin, quite an intelligent lad but not as bright as me, has just got his B Certificate. It was suggested that I was not quite ready for my B yet. I felt somewhat aggrieved. To show what I could do I put the Quadcopter on to the fourth click.

It certainly became lively the controls were at the limit of my considerable skill. I was trying the famous loop thing up it went. Just then there came a gust of wind which seemed to override the controls. It went up to about thirty feet and it drifted over next door. I was worried because that was the neighbour whose Car I had collided with in his drive. I turned it back to face me, and tried to get it back but it must have got to the end of the Battery because it sank down and down coming to rest on the roof of the neighbours Bungalow.

I am not easily beaten. I took my Tree Pruning Pole from the shed. It has a cutter on the end. I taped that up. I then took my steps and climbing the steps I reached out with the pole to retrieve my Copter. The Steps wobbled I slipped and went headfirst over the fence. Then it all went black.

Will he die? Can you wait ? ...to be continued.

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