
How to overcome adverse weather depression
Some people are prone to bad weather depression when the weather is bad.
As an RC helicopter pilot, I’m depended on good weather to be able to go flying my models. So fall and winter is the lousy season indeed.
Here’s how I try to cope with that.
If you never saw RC flights, I recommend to go to YouTube and search for it. There are several channels with cool content. There you can see how exciting and versatile this hobby is.
Here a selection of such channels.
- RCHeliJet
- RC Media World
- Helicrissi RC
- FileTest
- My own Channel (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCsa2K4jTFrfCFEQJdi0EJQ)
- And much more
To begin, I need to explain some things:
- The wind is not so lovely while flying RC models. While a little bit of wind is not a problem, it brings some issues with the stability of the model in the air and with visibility. Especially for me, as I need eyeglasses and wind from the side goes directly between my eyes and the glasses and disturbs my vision
- The local flying field has significant problems with drainage. So when it rains, I cannot go to the field with my car, which is necessary, because I have my models, the transmitter, the batteries, and some more stuff. This situation starts to be permanent from fall and ends with warmer and dryer weather at the beginning of spring.
- I can fly on fields not meant for RC flying, but here in Germany, I need explicit permission from the owner of the field. And this is not so easy, as the fields are not marked with the owner’s address
- I can go to other RC flying fields without the drainage issue, but this means relatively long drives to get there, and I need permission from at least a member of the owning club. So I need to coordinate my time with someone from there
- Indoor flight is a good option, but I have to buy a suitable model first.
This week I was on holiday, and it rained almost every day. I wasn’t able to go flying at all. This situation brought me near to be angry at the weather (as this would make sense).
To make things worse, I know that fall just began, and now it would take 4–6 months until spring would kick in, and I can return to fly.
So I created a short video about this to reflect the situation and what I can do to overcome this situation:
In the end, I can summarize this in two words: Be prepared
You need to think about this in advance and prepare yourself for this situation.
During the summer season, I always take my Camcorder with me to be able to record the flights I see. This way, I’m ready to put together several videos and to spend several hours while doing this.
Then I postpone any work on my models to the cold season.
For example, I plan to build telemetry into my models to be able to collect data during the flights. This helps me with optimizing performance or finding potential problems on my models.
Also, I prepare to do other things besides RC flight, which are not so weather-sensitive, in addition to the things mentioned in the video above:
- Drive RC cars
- Read Medium Articles
- Watch Motorsport
These things allow me to continue things on which I’m passionate about, and I have no reason to be depressed.
So who cares about the weather if you can do something interesting.