Fly to build ratio

[Jon Laughton]

Here's a thought, (even though I am not sure how we could meaure it) - how much of the gross time we spend on our hobby (sport) is actually flying as opposed to designing / making components / assembling / intstalling equipment / covering / customising / repairing / maintaining / driving to the flying site / chatting at the club / cleaning the hangar(!) / going to the LMS/ surfing the web for related information etc etc?

Given that the ultimate objective is to put a flying machine into the air (safely) & return it to the ground in one piece I guess in my own case it is probably less than 5%....?

Jon

[Major]

In my case, almost 100% would be sitting in the workshop.

[Andrew767]

Yep......Same as you Jon.

Andrew

[WolstonFlyer]

At the moment with this weather, probably less than 3% spent actually flying

[IanR]

A bit like an athlete training for a 100 metre race.

[Les Littleton]

Flying, Is that what we used to do before the invention of weather ?

Edited By Les Littleton on 12/03/2013 18:09:05

[Chris Bott - Moderator]

What a great question Jon, except the answer is, I don't know.

The couple of years have been almost all in the workshop, shops and on the internet. Some flying has been done but it's a very low percentage.

This year, so far, there has been a bigger percentage of flying surprisingly, and the plan is to keep that up. We'll see.

What I have noticed, is that I've checked the same model(s) over ready to fly on more than one occasion, without actually flying those particular models at all. Now that really is frustrating.

[Bob Cotsford]

It used to be a lot more building than flying, but lately it's pretty even - not much of either! I blame it on the weather, it's sapped my mojo all round.

And Chris, you are not alone in prepping models that don't get flown.

[Martyn K]

I tend to spend about 10-15 hours per week building and about 2 hours (on average) per week at the flying field. However, I may get 4 flights at the field - says 30 minutes stick time. So, I spend one hour in about 30 actually flying, the ratio gets better in the summer, but worse in winter.

3.3%... I wish it was much more.

Martyn

[Barrie Dav 2]

Most of the time building........... much more. Have a couple of RTF's but it's not the same as building my own. Like our friends above, the airtime is not as great as it should be

[Nev]

I much prefer the building to flying and due to other commitments don’t get down to the field very often but I recon.

About 5 hours a week building and tinkering, usually when coronation street etc. is on and about 2 hours per month at the field.

So for the years modelling total, I make that about 92% of the time building and 8% flying. Not much really when you think of the effort you put in but if I didn’t fly em I would have the excuse to build em. Nev.

The 2 hours flying time by the way, includes about 1 1/2 hours chatting obviously !!

Edited By Nev on 13/03/2013 11:40:36

[001]

I am the same position as Nev I prefer building to flying (3 years ago I had 30+ models, not all ready to fly, now down to 3.

I find that cost of petrol and health issues have cut down on flying time recently, but it used to be about 90% building and researching, 3% chatting at the field. & 8% flying............ (no I can't count!)

[Rene Wallage]

Does sitting at work, scrolling through RC related forums count?

[Chuck Plains]

Er, where's the poll?

At the moment I have spent probably one minute of flying time compared to one hour workshop time. But that's because I have only just started flying longer than a few 'noob' seconds before stuffing it in. I include assembling ARTFs in 'workshop time'.

Hmm, Hahaha! Actually, because my living room is also my workshop, and if I'm not doing something 'RC' oriented, I'll have me feet up and still use tha same chair while surfing the interwebs looking for RC stuff and foruns and and and. You know what I'm sayin? So it's about a year since I bought my first plane and my total flying time has been probably 2 hrs total.

But I'm into gliding, so my flight times will increase exponentially!

[Chuck Plains]

Posted by Rene Wallage on 14/04/2013 07:00:56:

Does sitting at work, scrolling through RC related forums count?

 

I say, yes!!

Edited By Chuck Plains on 15/05/2013 21:07:21

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Its scary isn't it. If you only count the time you are actually airborne! If the weather is reasonable I fly Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday evening. Saturday and Sunday I'll propably get may 6-8 flights - maybe 4-6 on a Wednesday. So that's about 16-22 flights per week - when the weather is reasonable!

Assume a 50% loss rate on that for weather over the year - probably much more lately! - and you're left with an average of 8-11 flights per week. So allowing say 8 mins for a flight (wheels leave the ground to touch down) and that's 64 - 88 mins per week airborne.

I spend at least 25 hours a week on matters related to the hobby but not flying; building, on here, writting, model related shopping, So yes - Jon's estimate of 5% actual flying is about right for me too, As I say - scary!

BEB

[Chuck Plains]

I think Jon's question is definitely an interesting one to ask. But we're still playing with our planes when we're indoors repairing, building, painting, setting up and generally fettling them. So we have to count that as time spent on the hobby, enjoying ourselves. Even if you're building a rack on the wall for wings or whatever.

Heck, I will even include an hour I spent watching gulls slope soaring by the beach at Exmouth. The way they handle the air is inspirational, and confirmed my direction towards guiding gliders!

Edited By Chuck Plains on 16/05/2013 17:53:48

[Rich too]

Posted by Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 15/05/2013 21:38:10:

Its scary isn't it. If you only count the time you are actually airborne! If the weather is reasonable I fly Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday evening. Saturday and Sunday I'll propably get may 6-8 flights - maybe 4-6 on a Wednesday. So that's about 16-22 flights per week - when the weather is reasonable!

Assume a 50% loss rate on that for weather over the year - probably much more lately! - and you're left with an average of 8-11 flights per week. So allowing say 8 mins for a flight (wheels leave the ground to touch down) and that's 64 - 88 mins per week airborne.

I spend at least 25 hours a week on matters related to the hobby but not flying; building, on here, writting, model related shopping, So yes - Jon's estimate of 5% actual flying is about right for me too, As I say - scary!

BEB

25 hours per week - plus flying!!! That's practically a full time job I'm lucky to get a few hours per week - mostly flying at this time of year. Rich

[John Olsen 1]

Never mind the fly to build ratio, what about the time at the field compared to the time in the air? Our last session, that is my son and I on Mothers Day, we were at the field for about four hours. I did four flights, with the timer set on eight minutes. So that would be 8 minutes out of each 60 actually flying. Mind you, my son shares my transmitter with me, so I can't fly while he is. He did three flights, probably of much the same duration. So what did we do the rest of the time? Some of it would be preparation, some would be letting nerves settle after flights with the sun in a bad place, most of it would be just chatting with the guys.

John

[Rich too]

That's why I'm not in a club, maybe when I retire (yeah, like that will ever happen) I'll have the time Rich

[Martyn Johnston]

A friend of mine, who builds wonderful, large scale stuff, keeps a detailed diary of all of his build work, and a log of all of his flying. He said that for every 100 hours building, he gets about 7 minutes flying. That's when I decided never to keep such a build log !

Edited By Martyn Johnston on 17/05/2013 09:08:54

[Mowerman]

Currently about 1%

[Olly P]

Very small - not flown in far too long. Spend more time on here than building....

[Chuck Plains]

Posted by Olly P on 17/05/2013 16:21:32:

Very small - not flown in far too long. Spend more time on here than building....

If that's the case, you'll never get your shed finished!

[Doug Ireland]

I spend a lot of time building from plans either for myself or others as I do get a lot of pleasure out of it and the Long Haired One is a dab-hand at sanding stacks of wing ribs! I fly whenever I can but as I prefer to fly alone its not as often as I'd like.