Hypothetical

[3Thumbflyer]

This is quite a bit late. April 1st was about 3 months ago.

 

[Thomas B]

This is quite a bit late. April 1st was about 3 months ago.

Thread was started about 10:30 yesterday.

 

[Sandwich]

Thank you all for the feedback, and keep it coming. Questions and skepticism are beneficial, and makes me look at problems that I need to overcome. I’m good with that. The fact that it’s 90% negative would make the average sailor keep land insight to prevent falling off the end of the ocean. But, I’m retired, I have nothing to do but make a few memories. And if I can make those with my Grandson, that even better.

 

[TheWolfen]

As a fairly new grandfather myself (my first grandchild is just over 14 months old), I say go for it! If some of the comments here are correct, at the very least it will make a terrific physics experiment to help teach him about mass vs weight, inertia, etc.

 

[Thomas B]

As a fairly new grandfather myself (my first grandchild is just over 14 months old), I say go for it! If some of the comments here are correct, at the very least it will make a terrific physics experiment to help teach him about mass vs weight, inertia, etc.

Also put the child in a bicycle helmet.

 

[Sandwich]

As a fairly new grandfather myself (my first grandchild is just over 14 months old), I say go for it! If some of the comments here are correct, at the very least it will make a terrific physics experiment to help teach him about mass vs weight, inertia, etc.

I agree. Plus it will show him how to do something different, overcome obstacles and find solutions. We have time and the end event is not the only accomplishment.
Or...he could play a video game

 

[Sandwich]

Also put the child in a bicycle helmet.

Will do. Thanks

 

[DrDrew3]

My Grandson weighs about 75% less, and we will not attempt a flight in wind.

I was hoping you were just trolling us. Most responses (including mine) reflect that.

I still hope you aren’t serious. Child endangerment laws were devised kids so can’t consent from this kind of threats.

 

[Sandwich]

I was hoping you were just trolling us. Most responses (including mine) reflect that.

I still hope you aren’t serious. Child endangerment laws were devised kids so can’t consent from this kind of threats.

He’ll be no higher than the top bunk of a bunk bed. His velocity will be no greater than a slow walk. If those two things are considered a danger, then he will be in danger.
And...his parents already allow jets weighing tons to fly over his head at hundreds of miles per hour.

 

[¬Nomad]

Just get him on a dirt bike, he will learn physics, biology self confidence, mechanics and pain management also it will be much-much more fun than hanging a couple feet in the air while dad tries to move him with his toy drone.

 

[Rogerc]

Also a grandparent here... GO FOR IT.
We need more risktakers not more pansies. Better than playing video games. It will be great for memories. And you will learn problem-solving. I did stuff like this all the time as a kid with my friends. We all survived and became successful because of our drive and learned to overcome obstacles.

 

[Lets Fly]

The weight shifts, the balloons shift, the drone tilts hits the balloons and 58 lbs. of grandson come crashing to the ground. I can just see the news reports about drones with that one.

 

[Sandwich]

Also a grandparent here... GO FOR IT.
We need more risktakers not more pansies. Better than playing video games. It will be great for memories. And you will learn problem-solving. I did stuff like this all the time as a kid with my friends. We all survived and became successful because of our drive and learned to overcome obstacles.

Thanks. I have always found that risk and reward are proportional. And failure, it’s a learning event. I could do something much safer and easier with my Grandson, but I want him to experience an unusual challenge. And for a kid to fly at 8 years old makes a good start.
His Dad, my Son flew airplanes at 12, flew a helicopter at 17. Now, a Marine who has excelled, trained Naval Academy Cadets last summer, and was chosen for Division Staff, being the youngest Marine on Staff. He didn’t achieve that from playing it safe.
I’ll do my homework, build a scaled prototype, and make it work. He will fly.

 

[Smokieflies]

I would also be concern with strings or ropes catching blade of the UAV and blade fragments hitting child

 

[Chip]

Remember when Larry Walters went up in a lawn chair tied to weather balloons? The FAA was ticked off as I recall. But he went a lot higher than 6 feet AGL!

Excerpt Taken From: 5 Flights of Lawn Chair Balloonists
BY ERIK VAN RHEENEN JUNE 26, 2013
#1 : “Lawnchair Larry” Walters (1982)

Poor eyesight kept Larry Walters, a North Hollywood truck driver, from enlisting in the Air Force as a pilot. So Walters picked up 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store and tethered them to his “extremely comfortable” aluminum Sears lawn chair—a project that cost about 4000 bucks. With a pellet gun, some sandwiches, and a bottle of Miller Lite in tow, Lawnchair Larry cut ties with his anchor, expecting to spend a few lazy hours floating 30 feet over his backyard.

Instead, Walters rocketed to 16,000 feet, startling airline pilots. After shooting a few balloons, the balloonist landed in a tangle of power lines, blacking out Long Beach for 20 minutes. Once safely grounded, he was promptly arrested by the LAPD. He’d later give the lawn chair away to neighborhood children, but when a reporter asked Walters why he did it, the handcuffed lawnchair balloonist deadpanned, “A man can’t just sit around.”

 

[Sandwich]

I would also be concern with strings or ropes catching blade of the UAV and blade fragments hitting child

Attaching a small squeeze on fishing weight will prevent that. My support wires will be made from leader wire with crimped ends, from my tackle box

 

[Sandwich]

Remember when Larry Walters went up in a lawn chair tied to weather balloons? The FAA was ticked off as I recall. But he went a lot higher than 6 feet AGL!

I’m debating on sharing any video for that very reason....and some silly claim of child endangerment. That topic has already come up here on this forum. After wondering why children have become such whimps, I see they’re just a product of their environment.

 

[Chip]

I think the idea of doing outdoor science projects with gkids is great! I remember my grandad lived far away and seldom got to visit but when he did we always had fun doing experiments from searching for fossils to making pyrotechnic devices. One year he gave me a little Jet-X Wren rocket assisted glider just like the one in this video:

Greatest present ever. But, might get arrested for flying the thing now!

 

[Cymruflyer]

I can attach a rope as a safety, and if it will barely lift the weight, any loss of UAV will bring it down slowly....I think.lol

Attaching a rope adds the weight of that rope you are back to square one of overcoming the weight to lift ratio.

 

[Cymruflyer]

Just make sure that this is well thought out and there are safety precautions in place. 58 lb kids are very resilient. Ask me how I know.

I used to jump off 8 foot roofs as a kid and practice rolling out of it into the grass below. People thought I was nuts. I was not nuts , but at that age I thought I was virtually indestructible. That was actually a tame example of some of the things I have done.

Then you get older and that thought process slowly changes...

I used to do the same thing jumping off garage roofs and walls.