That is crazy... if his thumb slips (or if he gets his right-left or up-down crossed up, as is so easy to do with RCs coming and going at you) - that thing would easily decapitate someone.

I wonder when he says "that was close!!" near the end of the video if he was referring to a brush with the ground, or if it was a close call with the bystanders?

RCs are much tougher than flying the real thing because the controls reverse when it is coming at you vs. going away from you. That guy is an incredible flyer... but one slip and someone is dead as hammer!

That is crazy... if his thumb slips (or if he gets his right-left or up-down crossed up, as is so easy to do with RCs coming and going at you) - that thing would easily decapitate someone.

I wonder when he says "that was close!!" near the end of the video if he was referring to a brush with the ground, or if it was a close call with the bystanders?

RCs are much tougher than flying the real thing because the controls reverse when it is coming at you vs. going away from you. That guy is an incredible flyer... but one slip and someone is dead as hammer!

When someone said that was close, it was when the turn was a little too tight after it went by the people and it almost hit the cornice on the ridge.

I agree about the risk in this video. At the popular dynamic soaring sites in CA, they built some rock walls for protection. Here it looks like they're just relying on Ian's skill, which is considerable. He's in the top handful of people around the world who do this kind of flying. The thing is, in order to get a good radar measurement, the plane has to be flying right at the radar operator at some point. Some guys are working on some on-board radar guns for this that look promising. Here it looks like Steve calling out the radar, and the guy with the video camera, were huddled right next to Ian so that he has just one place he absolutely can't let the plane run into.

This kind of flying is harder than it looks, and it looks hard. Aside from the roll reversal when flying toward you, there's also the pitch reversal when flying inverted. And then there's the fact that humans aren't wired to anticipate the future path of something unless it's going in a straight line at a constant speed or on a ballistic trajectory. It takes a heck of a lot of practice to know where the plane is going to be 1/2 second from now when it's going in a circle at 300 mph and it's 90 degrees from your position a hundred yards away. That's when you have to decide how to adjust the control inputs. I've done a little bit of dynamic soaring with flying wings made of light foam and I've had to dive to the deck more than once when flying my own plane.

Earlier this summer I was RC flying a lot, but this fall I've just been doing rocketry again instead.

Somebody needs to tell these guys about AltusMetrum, or for that matter any reasonably high frequency GPS logger. Has to be a way to certify and doesn't require someone to stand in front of a flying guillotine.

Neat stuff for sure.

Somebody needs to tell these guys about AltusMetrum, or for that matter any reasonably high frequency GPS logger. Has to be a way to certify and doesn't require someone to stand in front of a flying guillotine.

Neat stuff for sure.

It turns out that those high-G turns prevent the GPS from locking onto a solution. I loaned a Raven altimeter to Spenser Lisenby before he set a world record of 468 mph. He installed it and measured 35 Gs on average and 90+ Gs peak. By the time the GPS receiver thinks that it found a solution in a particular direction and speed, then the plane is going fast in a totally different direction.