Tom has it right, this is NOT the place for official clarifications, those are only posted on the NSO website so they are available to all.
Also, I'm only one voice in these decisions, several others contributed to the final, published rules and they all get a voice in coming up with the official answers.
I can however quote the relevant portion of rule, 3.k "...Time Aloft ... stops when ... the rotors no longer support the weight of the helicopter..."
While the answer seems clear to me from that, I wrote it, thus the need for an official clarification. Especially since I'm supervising Robot Arm this year, not Helicopters, at the national contest.
--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Thomas" <parkreation@...> wrote:
>
> Not to dodge this issue, but this needs to be addressed first through SO Clarifications before a statement may be published. Even still, I would rather yield to Jeff A. on this anyway as this event is his creation. let me see what else I can uncover...
>
> Regards,
> Tom Sanders
> SO National Supr (Wright Stuff)
>
> --- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Bill Gowen" <wdgowen@> wrote:
> >
> > I'd be interested in hearing from Tom and Jeff on this subject.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: abcd4321
> > To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 6:16 PM
> > Subject: [Indoor_Construction] SO Helicopter
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi, my team recently won the NJ state Science Olympiad Tournament so we are going to nationals. We had a 2:12 helicopter flight wHich got us second place. I recently found out that it is possible to get much higher times if the top (free) rotor stops spinning once the copter reaches the ceiling and starts to spin again once the copter starts to come down. However Locking the rotor does not work as the motor stick still needs to spin. Essentially he rotor must get stuck to the ceiling under the lift generated solely by the lower rotor. We tried to just use tape which worked until it got stuck to tightly.
> >
> > I was hoping you guys could help out.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Sarath Jaladi
> >
>
Received on Wed Mar 30 2011 - 12:17:51 CEST