Five feet height guides.

[Charles Carter]

Check out this two minute video on these height guides I made to help a person focus on five feet height during level flight and during maneuvers.  These by the way do not automatically put your airplane at five feet, I am still working on putting or pointing the airplane there.  See YouTube video at:



Charles Carter

[Tim Wescott]

If it isn't already doing so, you may want to put the top & bottom of the height guide at the top & bottom of the allowable height band, the way the regulation FAI height markers do.

[Charles Carter]

The total measurement of the orange piece is 24 inches with the white strip in the middle.  So when I fly above the target I have exceeded 6 feet and when I am below the target I am below 4 feet.  Very often I am above the orange  .  Thanks for you comment it is appreciated.

Charles Carter

[PatRobinson]

Hi Charles,
your design works well if your flying circle is dead flat side to side, but if one side of a circle drops 1 or 2 feet like I have seen on various circles you would end up following the terrain but not flying level at all points of the circle. The answer is a marker that is height adjustable. have a pole in the center of the circle and tie on a string with a line level to set the markers height or use some kind of laser level on the center pole to do the same thing. What you don't want to do is practice following un-level terrain instead of practicing flying level.  Best wishes,
                                                                                                                                                       Pat Robinson

[Tim Wescott]

Da rulz say 4.9 foot center, 3.9ft to 5.9ft.

1.2 inches is probably not something to worry about, though.

[FLOYD CARTER]

For accuracy, the height gage should be on the downwind side, opposite the judges.  That would reduce parallax errors.

It might also help if the judges were slightly elevated, or else standing always.  It's much easier to estimate height if the judges' eyes are parallel to the ground.

Maybe that's getting a bit too picky!

[Lauri Malila]

I think just 2x2' white squares would be much better. Much more visible against a busy background than orange. And no need for a centerline.
And there should be 8 of them, one every 45 degrees.
It is really usefull to use them in practising, 45 degrees is surprisingly tight:)
L

[Brett Buck]

Da rulz say 4.9 foot center, 3.9ft to 5.9ft.

1.2 inches is probably not something to worry about, though.

  Right, glad you reminded me.  I was going to correct that to the proper 4 to 6 feet. The 3.9 to 5.9 is a mistake that was the result of converting to metric and then back when the FAI imported the AMA rules long ago.

   It makes absolutely no difference, as 1.2" is well within the tolerance of anyone being able to detect, but it is not correct. I will also remove the metric references entirely.

    Brett

[Charles Carter]

In a way the "Height Guides" are adjustable, I can loosen the pipe straps to raise or lower them if needed.  All white boards with no strip is also doable because the orange paint on the melamine surface comes off easy.   Bringing eight of them to the flying field to haul them around and installing them would require me to get into better physical shape. If I could leave all eight of  them in place at the 45 degree placements I would consider it.  Thanks for all these suggestions.

Charles Carter

[Keith Miller]

Hey Charles -
I think the size, shape, orientation and color you selected would work perfectly against any background. Great idea and well done!
Keith

[Motorman]

I was just going to use an old bean poll and tie a tee shirt to it.


MM

[Gerald Arana]

I was just going to use an old bean poll and tie a tee shirt to it.


MM

Works for me! 

Jerry

[EddyR]

Bill Rich and I used that many years ago and we also ran video for each flight. Later we looked at the video and used a marker on the monitor. It made hitting 5 ft automatic after getting use to the correct height. My 75 year old body has lost the automatic and gone into neutral .

[Bill Burton]

Great idea Charles.  Thank you for sharing it with us.  I like anything that is positive and helpful like this.
Bill