hand eye

[W.D. Roland]

as i get older(or lazier)the hand eye thingie seems to be leaving.
found what may be a cure(or atleast help)and a relife from winter time blues.
wandering around wall mart looking at the neat r/c toys that i wish i had as a kid and found a helicopter.
the little bugger has about a 6in rotor span and was less than $30.00 so what the heck!
on the way home thinking no way this thing can realy work!
so i sit down in the den(about 12x12ft)and charge it up
set it on floor and hit the power-WOW!bounced off ceiling in blink of the eye!
ok-try agin-now its hovering and is very sensintive to control and repeatedly bounced it off wall/ceiling/tv/wife/self and everything else.squirly squirly
added nose weight to help foward flight and trimed for right hand circle
now its getting slightly controlable
have been playing with it for about a week and 1/2 now and have moved to flying it in the shop(more room)
and now can fly straight lines(sorta)and land kinda where i want to.
dont know if its gona help with my flying but after about 3 day of playing with it i found that it help me to be more on top of the race car and what was going on with it--almost as good as it was 20years ago!(had a race this last weekend)
in the shop i have bounced it off(acidently)some of the airplanes hanging on wall and so far has not even damaged 30year old tissue covering!
for 30bucks its the best therapy and fun i have ever found!
does cut into the building time though.

David

[Scott Jenkins]

David,
As much as I hate to say it video games will definitely help the eye hand coordination. Its true, I have a 12 & 9 yr. old that kick my butt on a regular basis.  I even went so far as to buy and learn how to play the game before I ever let them see it. I had to make sure it was Ok for young boys to play.    Inside of 15 minutes they had it down pat and commenced to leave me in the dirt. Believe it or not they keep me young, very tired, but feeling younger.

Scott (one of the 59 year old fathers going on 35) 

[Eric Viglione]

Excuse me while I ramble a bit...

I do find certain video arcade type games helpful for reflexes, true enough, but the biggest problem I found at least for me is insomnia. Along with just physical reflexes, I think another very important aspect of CL Stunt is concentration. I've found that nothing screws up my reflexes & concentration like a solid week of 4 hr night sleep times. On an unusually good week, if I get 6 or 7hrs a night, I find the planes so much easier to fly it's almost like cheating (in comparison).

You know, when you can actually feel like you are not just banging a corner as a single event, but actually controlling the entry & exit of the corners, and seeing the shape etc of the whole maneuver as you fly it, making corrections as you go. That's when your really on in both reflex and concentration, and you can feel it.

Unfortunately, I'd bet many of us at contests are pretty well road weary. This is where arriving a day early can help, but even then, if you don't like the mattress, etc. and dont get good quality sack time in the hotel you can still be off your game. This is probably the biggest home field advantage, aside from familiarity with the flying site. I think the one saving grace is the body's ability to generate and use adrenalin to hype us up a bit.

This has been something I've been working on for a while, and am glad to see the topic here. I look forward to seeing others responses and how they deal with the situation.

EricV

[Steve Helmick]

What EricV said, no doubt about it. Flying tired is risky business. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!  Steve

[W.D. Roland]

good sleep is very nessary
not havig to work on planes/cars(preperation)is also
i like to get to track day before and unload car ect so that next morning i check tire press put on suite and drive.
sometimes it works that way!
when we flew out of town contest my dad would take us(4-5 of us and girl friends)in the motor home and a popup camper and get there the day before--i think it gave us an edge that we never even realised as kids(adolesent brats hippies and hoodlems)

posting link to other site for more of this discussion---if dis aint cool Robert delete da link please


    http://www.clstunt.com/htdocs/dc/dcboard.php

  David