Comment by mr_potatoface on 17/06/2024 at 14:41 UTC*

6618 upvotes, 52 direct replies (showing 25)

View submission: 2024 junior world champion launching his F1D, total flight time 22 minutes

I did this all the time as a kid and won a shitload of awards from it. F1D has a lot of limits, basically the plane has to weigh at LEAST 1.2g without the motor, and the motor has a maximum weight of 0.6g. Rubber band powered.

If you walked too fast on the sidelines or anywhere in the building they'd do an announcement telling you to slow down, you'd get kicked out of the building if it happened more than a few times. You'd probably get shot if you ran. I don't think I ever saw anyone run before. It didn't matter if you had the shits or whatever, you always slowly walked.

They have giant balloons attached to fishing poles to help retrieve planes that get stuck up in the rafters, but there's staff there if that doesn't work. Sometimes you don't want to do that because it will damage the plane.

You use special winders to wind up the rubbersbands, something like a 1:25 turn was common back 20 years ago. Every 1 turn gives you 25 twists of the rubberband, which will equal one prop rotation. Lubrication of the rubberbands was a huge key to success, sometimes the band would get knotted up and you'd end up losing a lot of energy as a result.

I can't stress how light these planes are. Even the heaviest planes are still extremely light. They are extremely fragile.

Always indoors, and in my experience they were always at football team fieldhouses. Apparently they are well insulated to outside air infiltration and unwanted air currents. I remember one time a host was bitching about the fieldhouse not following through with their agreement to not use certain HVAC units or something and it was causing trouble for everyone in a certain area of the field. We normally did it in the winter though so it was usually not an issue because heat/thermals are better than cold for these things, but the currents can mess up the ultra light ones. Also, Not running down the field is really fucking hard to resist.

Replies

Comment by ananasdanne at 17/06/2024 at 15:08 UTC

2591 upvotes, 17 direct replies

Reddit is an amazing place. A post about something I didn't even know existed, and still within minutes of it being posted there's an expert on this really obscure thing in the comments.

Comment by Breaghdragon at 17/06/2024 at 15:39 UTC

63 upvotes, 5 direct replies

how are they getting the rubber band to unwind so slowly? Is there some sort of gearbox thingy in that thing?

Comment by monjogard at 17/06/2024 at 15:21 UTC

40 upvotes, 3 direct replies

1,2 g, as in grams?? That’s crazy

Comment by OHotDawnThisIsMyJawn at 17/06/2024 at 16:50 UTC

33 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Also, Not running down the field is really fucking hard to resist.

Took me until this last sentence to realize that the ban on running is because it creates enough disturbance in the air to have a real effect.

Comment by WSBKingMackerel at 17/06/2024 at 14:50 UTC

59 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Appreciate the insight.

Comment by fartinmyhat at 17/06/2024 at 16:08 UTC

26 upvotes, 2 direct replies

What does F1D stand for? I remember when this kind of thing, also human powered flight gained a brief moment of popularity. Both things I was very interested in as a kid.

Comment by astralseat at 17/06/2024 at 15:58 UTC

13 upvotes, 1 direct replies

That's a crazy amount of focus for a fragile ass thing. As long as I'm in no way, shape, or form involved in this, it's pretty cool. Looks like a stressful hobby.

Comment by lohitcp87 at 17/06/2024 at 15:26 UTC

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Your comment and the plane are both amazing

Comment by hogroast at 17/06/2024 at 15:58 UTC

6 upvotes, 3 direct replies

It looks like there are multiple of the same design. Do people buy a specific kit for this, if so what sets apart people so much that you can have a champion?

Comment by Fernzero at 17/06/2024 at 16:04 UTC

3 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Awesome. I'm immediately reminded of the sky-bike "Dragonfly" in the book Rendezvous with Rama.

Comment by Gunsh0t at 17/06/2024 at 18:23 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I checked three times to make sure you weren’t u/shittymorph

Comment by cappy_barra_jesus at 17/06/2024 at 15:23 UTC

5 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Bro, no one is getting shot at the rubber band airplane competition.

Comment by FengSushi at 17/06/2024 at 15:35 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Thanks for sharing - very informative

Comment by LeviathansFatass at 17/06/2024 at 15:43 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

So an air bazooka would basically be terrorism

Comment by che_dima at 17/06/2024 at 15:47 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

And how they control these beasts?

Comment by stackens at 17/06/2024 at 15:50 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

so would a 22 minute flight time be considered very impressive?

Comment by omniron at 17/06/2024 at 16:19 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Has someone ever made one with flapping wings?

Comment by Neltech at 17/06/2024 at 16:26 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I remember last time I saw something like this posted someone was talking about how these people pay good money for these specific rubber bands that were a specific batch that work the best.

Comment by stirrednotshaken01 at 17/06/2024 at 16:34 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Why can’t you run?

Comment by o_g at 17/06/2024 at 16:36 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Are these the ones where people look for a certain lot # and date of manufacture of a certain brand of rubber band because they’re the “best”?

Comment by DrMobius0 at 17/06/2024 at 16:47 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies