Comments on: Fierce Little Wings http://petej.com/blog/2007/12/16/fierce-little-wings/ Fresh stories and photos of radio-control flying in Northern California. Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:49:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: petej http://petej.com/blog/2007/12/16/fierce-little-wings/#comment-613 petej Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:43:53 +0000 /blog/2007/12/16/fierce-little-wings/#comment-613 I don’t know about this square-dance terminology, Dave. Here are the impact categories I can reconstruct, using alternate category names: <ul> <li>Head-on</li> <li>Passing Sideswipe</li> <li>Opposing Sideswipe</li> <li>Rear-End</li> <li>Smackdown</li> <li>Smackup</li> <li>Right-Angle</li> <li>Tick</li> </ul> The last four need a bit of explanation. A Smackdown is when one wing descends on another, pushing the target down. Smackup comes from below, going up. Right-Angle is like an egret spearing a gopher, the opponent coming nose-first and fast from above, below or either side of the target. A tick is a barely-noticeable momentary bump. I’ve seen all of these in our combat, except for sideways right angles. But I’ll bet I see those soon, too. :-) I don’t know about this square-dance terminology, Dave. Here are the impact categories I can reconstruct, using alternate category names:

  • Head-on
  • Passing Sideswipe
  • Opposing Sideswipe
  • Rear-End
  • Smackdown
  • Smackup
  • Right-Angle
  • Tick

The last four need a bit of explanation. A Smackdown is when one wing descends on another, pushing the target down. Smackup comes from below, going up. Right-Angle is like an egret spearing a gopher, the opponent coming nose-first and fast from above, below or either side of the target. A tick is a barely-noticeable momentary bump.

I’ve seen all of these in our combat, except for sideways right angles. But I’ll bet I see those soon, too. :-)

]]> By: Dave http://petej.com/blog/2007/12/16/fierce-little-wings/#comment-609 Dave Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:20:08 +0000 /blog/2007/12/16/fierce-little-wings/#comment-609 Reading this I realized there's at least an internal naming convention growing up around the various kinds of hits. And I'm a lousy square dance caller. Having nearly forgotten my high school education, I've been referring to the "tiplet hook" hit (where both planes hook their wing ends and go spinning off -- more common that you'd guess) as a do-si-do. But it's not: that would be closer to the near-miss lateral fly-bys. The tiplet hook is more properly an Allemande, which sounds cooler anyway. Today's invention was the "nose boink," a fairly rare event where one plane centerpunches the other and bounces off. Probably the most common is the acute-angle smack, which makes a satisfying slap. There are brush-bys, wing whacks and prop strikes. Technical note: I use a 5043 prop (five-inch diameter) and batteries from 460 MAH all the way up to 800 MAH, the latter being pigs that are really too big, but I use 'em if everything else is run down. Reading this I realized there’s at least an internal naming convention growing up around the various kinds of hits. And I’m a lousy square dance caller.

Having nearly forgotten my high school education, I’ve been referring to the “tiplet hook” hit (where both planes hook their wing ends and go spinning off — more common that you’d guess) as a do-si-do. But it’s not: that would be closer to the near-miss lateral fly-bys. The tiplet hook is more properly an Allemande, which sounds cooler anyway.

Today’s invention was the “nose boink,” a fairly rare event where one plane centerpunches the other and bounces off.

Probably the most common is the acute-angle smack, which makes a satisfying slap. There are brush-bys, wing whacks and prop strikes.

Technical note: I use a 5043 prop (five-inch diameter) and batteries from 460 MAH all the way up to 800 MAH, the latter being pigs that are really too big, but I use ‘em if everything else is run down.

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