Parkflyers Etiquette guide

Congratulations on the purchase of your new aircraft. We would like you to spend a few moments of your time to read this before you take her down to the local park. We have recently established the NZ Parkflyers website to help the NZ parkflyers ease themselves into the hobby safely, as well as establishing a place where all parkflyers can get together as a collective voice.

If this is you first craft or you are still learning to fly I encourage you to read the following Parkflyers etiquette guide. The reason for this is simple we don't want to be kicked out of our local parks because someone was abusing the privilege of flying there.

= Parkflyers Etiquette Guide =


 * 1) Safety first, use your common sense. These planes although made from foam in most cases still can hit someone really hard causing serious injury.
 * 2) Ensure your batteries are fully charged both plane and transmitter.
 * 3) Ensure your plane has everything firmly attached.
 * 4) Ensure all your control surfaces are working correctly.
 * 5) Range check (Refer to your transmitter manual)
 * 6) Frequency check if you are not on a 2.4G system and there are other people flying. Just say hi what freq are you on? Good way of meeting more parkflyers.
 * 7) Ensure the park you are flying in is clear of people. If there is a cricket/rugby game on it is not cool to buzz them, it is actually illegal and expect to see a flashing light appear.
 * 8) Do not fly over houses. These lipo battery's have a habit of exploding when damaged and should you happened to crash into someone's roof and it does set fire by the time you get there a firetruck will be on its way and you will be liable.
 * 9) If the park has people floating around fly with a spotter. They can keep an eye out as to where people are on the ground while your attention is looking up. You never know when a servo might fail.
 * 10) If flying with other people stick together and let each other know what you are doing such as landing, taking off etc. Think air traffic control tower. If it is good enough for the big boys it is good enough for us.
 * 11) In the chance that someone does walk in front of your plane on landing approach and there is no way of safely avoiding them, sacrifice the plane. Nose it into the ground but do not shout at the person to get away and continue to hit them. It just takes one injury for the council to ban parkflyers from the park. It is a risk you have to be aware of when you fly at a local park.
 * 12) Give way to real aircraft. If for some reason a plane/heli decides to make a low pass or emergency landing and drop into your flying space they have the right of way.
 * 13) Do not fly within 5km's of an airport. It is illegal and not to mention dangerous. Again expect to see flashing lights.
 * 14) Do not exceed an altitude of 400 feet. You will battle to see the plane. I am sure you are curious as to how high it can go however this is a law you can not break.
 * 15) If you are learning try to find an experienced pilot in your area to help you. NZ Parkflyers has plenty of pilots willing to help you into this hobby with minimal damage to your plane, some even have buddy boxes. Another site to visit is the Model Flying NZ site as they are the parent body of all the RC flying in NZ. They will have a list of all the clubs should you wish to join one. They have a number of other benefits as well and I suggest you pay a visit to them as well.

Now go do some flying.