RADIO CONTROL HELICOPTERS
Paul Tradelius, 4620 Barracuda Dr., Bradenton, FL 34208
Frequency Boards
The Cascade Model Helicopter Club of Everett, Washington is nice enough to include me in the mailing of their monthly club newsletter, Heli News. I always enjoy getting their newsletter to keep up with the events of the club, as well as for the interesting articles presented by their editor, Dick McKenna. In all fairness, I'm sure Dick gets a lot of help from others in the club.
One of the articles in the January Heli News is about frequency pins, and a problem the club had one day while trying to help a new flier. A second article by Calvin Mitchell in the same issue also dealt with frequency control, but with a little different twist. Since frequency control is a problem all clubs or groups of fliers have to contend with, I thought this would be a great subject for this month's column. The frequency pin article came from the AMA National Newsletter, and Dick was kind enough to let me present some of the other material that was in Heli News.
The frequency pin article has to do with a flier who was busy helping others during his normal flying session. Rather than leave the flying field for home as originally planned, he decided to stay for one last flight. As you can imagine, his mind was busy with other thoughts as he turned on his transmitter without having the required frequency pin. Unfortunately, it caused the crash of another airplane.
The second article was titled "Some Crashes Are Avoidable," and deals with a new flier taking the channel 26 pin when his real frequency was 29. It turned out he mistakenly turned the 9 upside down when he made his frequency flag, and his mistake was not caught until it caused an accident.
These two mishaps demonstrate the need for clubs and individual groups to refine their frequency control procedures. I've been flying airplanes and helicopters for more years than I care to admit, and I'm not sure we can ever come up with procedures to solve the "accidental turn-on" problem, but we should be ever mindful.
As for the person who turned the 9 upside down, he thought he was doing everything right at the field and was obeying all the frequency control procedures. However, from this incident one additional step your club should consider is to have a club member check the radio installation of any new helicopter at the field. And this should be for us old-time fliers as well as the new guys.
Although it has never happened to me (at least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it) I have seen an experienced flier take a helicopter up for the first flight, only to have a reversed servo, a bad battery, a wiring error, or some other minor problem cause a crash. He certainly had the experience and knowledge to keep the problem from happening, but somehow the mistake was made. However, if another person would have taken just a few minutes to inspect the helicopter prior to that first flight, those mistakes would have been uncovered.
This may seem unnecessary for experienced fliers, but I would be willing to bet that if it was made a club rule, and club records were kept, such inspections would save several mishaps a year.
Another way to prevent frequency control mishaps, such as the frequency pin one described above, is to have a better frequency control system. Although I haven't been to every club field, most of the ones I have seen use a similar frequency control system. This usually consists of a box that contains all the club frequency flags, and the first person at the field that day gets it ready for the rest of the fliers. This is usually accompanied by some sort of stand with slots for the cards, again displaying the frequency number so there will be no mistake what frequency is in use. Although this type of system works, with other variations to suit a particular club's needs, these types of frequency controls have inherent problems. The most common problem I see is that someone loses the frequency pin, or puts it in his box and drives home. In either case, the club is without that needed pin—maybe for several weeks.
The Mid-West Helicopter Association in Fort Worth, Texas had one of the best frequency control systems I have seen, and to the best of my knowledge we never had a frequency control problem in the many years I was a member of the club.
Our system consisted of a piece of metal angle iron about eight feet long. Six feet of the angle iron was painted white, and the top four feet were roughly marked off to represent all usable frequencies. The angle iron was then hammered into the ground at a central location.
Each member of the club had a regular wooden clothespin for each transmitter; the member's name and frequency were written on the pin with a ballpoint pen. The clothespin was then clipped to the transmitter antenna when not in use, and when he or she wanted to fly, the clothespin was simply attached to the angle-iron frequency board.
This system had several distinct advantages:
- Each club member had their own clothespin (or pins, for more than one transmitter).
- With the clothespin stored on the transmitter antenna, it was almost impossible to turn on the transmitter without seeing the clothespin. The flier was only cleared to turn on the transmitter by first placing the pin on the frequency board. If a pin was already there on his frequency, the flier would know who was using that frequency, since the person's name was on the pin.
- If the pin was forgotten after a day of flying, it would simply be placed on a lower, unused portion of the frequency board until the owner came to the field again.
- The system also allowed guest fliers to use our system by keeping extra clothespins on hand. The guest would fill out their name and frequency and participate as the rest of us.
Now there are no frequency pins, pin boxes, or other boards to keep at the flying field.
Although this system worked well for our club, I'm sure there are even better frequency control systems out there. If your club has a better way to keep from having frequency control mishaps, please let me know so that we may share your ideas with everyone. It doesn't make a lot of sense for every club to have to reinvent the wheel when so many of us have already tried systems that didn't work too well.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
