Survey: Safety Fence You Use?

We have the orange constrution fence.Plastic. We don't even know what snow is down here in SE Texas so never heard of snow fence. It's for moderate accidents. A lot of club rules,AMA included are a lot of overkill. When we first started our club some of the old timers wanted so many rules that you couldn't even enjoy the hobby.

Usually the ones that complain the most are the ones that do the least.

Good luck

It doesn't.

It isn';t for either,.

However IF you have kids and girlfriends and stuff and a bucnch of macho pilots, its been shown that chain link fence is THE best at stopping cars from getting in the wrong places. It all acts like a giant net and tho the supports get ripped up, the fence is strong enough to absorb impact and slow the whole car down smoothly.

If I was going to do the job properly, I'd have 6-10ft high chainlink with a staggered walkway through it formed by overlapping a section with a 10 ft gap between inner and outer.

Plastc fencing is better than nothing though. And may be man enough to take a full power 'bird' strike. Maybe sacrificing a beat up old trainer to test it ain't bad.

Come to think of it, even woven nylon netting would proabably do the job.

We used pvc pipe and orange plastic snow/construction fence. They have been tested twice in the past year to my knowledge. We didn't want steel wire fence as they are hard on planes. Both times, the planes were on takeoff and ended up coming toward the pilot boxes. The props cut through the fence, but the planes were stopped. They did their job. I believe both pilot boxes were empty during the mishaps, but if they were occupied, the pilots would have been safe. They may have taken a couple of steps back, but the planes would not have hit them.

John VB

The fence is there only to trap you so it doesn't matter what it's made from. I've had close calls three times since I've been flying. All were from airborne planes landing against the wishes of the pilot. :-) All three times my spotter and I were able to move away from the target area before impact. Not one of those times would I have been so lucky if we were surrounded by a "safety" fence.

remove my-wife to reply :-)

In the trailer we have for the lights at the far end of the pylon course, we have chicken wire.

I have been in the cage when it has been hit full tilt and all that happens is you usually get splashed with a little fuel when then fuel tank disintegrates.

There is also the light pattering sound of 'balsa rain'. The plane is vaporized.

Just my opinion,

Andy

The "safety fence", or "barrier" as AMA terms it, is specifically intended to prevent _taxiing models_ trundling off into the pits or pilot stations.

The three clubs in which I hold membership use the plastic sort of fence.

I think chain link should be mandated, irrespective of the degree of shredding done to a model.

That's because I've 1) had an old seasoned model 'go nutz' once and head for the pits (didn't make it), and 2) I've saw what a wild .40 trainer model did to one gent.

Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

We tried the plastic fence and found that it just fell apart so quickly that it was a nuisance to keep repaired. We are on our second-generation heavy-duty wire fence, knee-high, anchored in concrete. We have models of all size on our field, including the biggies, and the fence is to protect the pilots and not the planes.

| So, now to put the questions to bed: | | 1. What does your club use for a fence? | | 2. Is the fence for: | (A) Moderate mishaps | (B) All-out crash bangers

Our club (HCAM, Austin, TX) has a fence in front of the pilot's stations with rebar sticking out of the ground about 4 feet up, and a rope-like/nylon fence with holes of about one inch.

It's really meant to stop planes from taxiing into pilot's shins, but it's really strong (and stretches a little), and I doubt doubt that it would stop a giant scale plane hitting it at 100 mph. The prop would immediately get tangled and die, and I don't see how anything more than the engine could possibly get through. The only way a plane would get through would be is if it pulled the fence off the rebar supports, so you'd have a big mass of fence + plane coming at you -- which wouldn't get far. Of course, it's only four foot high, so it's only going to get planes that are taxiing, or just taking off or landing.

One potential drawback to a chain link fence is that it could cause RF issues. Grounding it properly may help, but there's still room for problems.

A group of us installed new safety fences at the three pilot stations for our club field. Of course, a few members had to gripe that we used the "wrong" material.

Since the arrival of 42%ers and jets our club opted to go with welded rabbit wire about 36" high and far enough in front of the pilot stations to prevent antenna contact. We thought that initally there would a lot of crashes blamed on the new wire but there have not been any this year. We knew about the problems supposidly caused by chain link fence so we avoided it and those big planes just blew right through the orange plastic stuff. The 36" provides something to duck behind and it has proven itself several times.

Phil AMA609

Guy's like you hand me a laugh. Got $4-5k, IN YOUR POCKET, to pay for your "mandated fence"?

Yep. Thats the reason it was never used on roads. The pressed steel crash barriers are nuch cheaper and work by slicing into the bodywork and 'grabbing' the car. almost as good at less cost. Not sutable for planes sadly.

I still think nylon (fish) netting is probably the best compromise.

what about tennis nets???

The guys at the club I belong to came up with a solution that combines effectiveness with zero cost - the length of the runway has been fenced by old car tyres buried half into the ground - there is an overlapped offset section to allow access from the pits, and pilots are required to stand behind this 'fence' while flying.

Taxiing is not permitted on the pilot side of this barrier.

As a newcomer, I haven't been around long enough to see what happens when a plane hits the barrier. but I am pretty sure there is no way even a BIG plane can dislodge one of those tyres, and the fence itself being rubber will do minimum damage to the plane.

seems a damn good idea to me.

Can send a pic if anyone wants to see

David

Carrell wrote:

"welded" is the key! Chain link fence is mererly shaped pieces of galvanized wire that are woven together. Those "galvanized joints" can create some hellatious RF intereference by the creation of "diodes" that can rectify the RF and create some tremendous harmonics. Been there and done that trying to find intereference to my ham station several times.

David

The clubs in this part of Florida seem to have adopted PVC lattice on a frame of 1 1/2 schedule 40 PVC pipe. Barrier forms a "V" at the pilot station. Barriers are approximately 30" high. They do an effective job of warding off "ground incidents" as the some of the broken PVC sheets that have been replaced will attest.

-- Red Scholefield AMA 951 Flying Gators Inc., GNV FL

Dolts who think flying site safety is an area where they can scrimp "hand me a laugh".

Yes, I've got $4-5K IN MY POCKET, and I have that bit of money to spend as I see fit because I'm smart enough to know that a simple chain-link fence doesn't COST $4-5K.

You think a simple safety fence costs several thousand dollars and you think that's too much to spend on SAFETY ?

There's a term with which you should become familiar : liability. Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

We use the plastic orange construction fence strung between steel uprights and supported with a nylon string along the top. We have to replace it every year or so., or when a plane shreds a section of it. Only a needle nosed jet has made it all the way thru it so far - about 10+ years. We have 3 openings for taxiways and they each have a section of the same fencing infront of the pits.

So far, so good. Andy

We can make a box of wood.....FLY!!