For those wondering where I’ve been lately, I picked up a new hobby which has been consuming what little free time I’ve usually used for blogging…
Remote-control model aircraft.
Yeah, I know, it sounds dumb. And it may be, for you! But I’ve wanted a remote control model aircraft — a real one, with a rudder, elevator, and throttle — since I was 14. I never really had the combination of money and interest to do it before, though. There was always something more worthwhile to do.
Well, I finally did it. I bought a Ready-To-Fly kit, which includes radio, batteries, charger, and everything you need to get off the ground. I charged the batteries, took my plane out, and promptly did a full-throttle nose-dive into the dirt from thirty feet in the air.
I tried to fly the plane a few more times, but I’d broken the fuselage, so I had to replace that.
Eventually, I got better at it. These days, I can routinely get the plane off the ground and into the air without crashing, and land on pavement without doing a nose-over!
Flying a plane is much more challenging than I ever thought. You have to be keeping track of so may things in order to avoid losing control: wind speed, air speed, ground speed, yaw, pitch, roll, stall characteristics of your aircraft, maximum throw of your control surfaces, fuel/battery remaining, and more. It’s overwhelming at first, but after a while it becomes more and more natural. I’m sure that by next summer it will be natural to me, and I’ll be ready to move up to faster, less-stable aircraft. For now, though, I’m enjoying my little high-wing, high-dihedral trainer.
It’s a far cry from my visions of perfect takeoffs and amazing aerobatics, though. I thought I’d flown enough flight simulators that flying a model aircraft would be a breeze! That’s so far from the truth, it’s laughable. Perspective is probably the toughest issue for the newbie: figuring out that when the plane is flying straight at you, pushing your stick right turns the plane left. Trying to make sure you always have enough airspeed and altitude to make it back to the runway even if your engine stops suddenly is also a challenge. You don’t get much warning in a model aircraft; nobody has a fuel gauge. So you have to guess what your rate of usage is, whether electric or fuel, and figure out about how long you can fly before bringing your bird in to recharge/refuel.
I had a bit of an emergency landing flying the day before yesterday, and the children at the playground where I was flying were very excited to see a little electric plane make a controlled-crash landing not twenty feet from their playset. I’m learning that a “Park Flyer” may not be easily flown at every park; some are much better than others. Big, with few trees or light fixtures and lots of lawn seems to be the best ticket.
Anyway, so that’s where I’ve been. Most of my spare time has been spent fixing my plane or reading about how to work better with it. I have enough left in savings to afford a second plane if I get tired of my first one this season, but for now, it will suffice.
Come winter, though, I’ll be grounded more often than not, and you’ll see more of me. Rest assured that I check everything daily! Thanks to Sam and everyone for keeping things lively over the last week!
Keep smiling!
–Matt
Envious
I have always wanted to have a RC airplane as well. I have been facinated by them since about 5th / 6th grade when a dad of a friend that I had flew one. He had a couple really nice planes. They lived in the Poolesville area and had some land. I remember going over for a birthday party and watched him fly the plane. I have been facinated by it ever since. I have also wanted to build my own RC car from the ground up. I finally got around to doing this last year when my wife gave me a RC Hummer kit that I had to build from the ground up. It was a great project and it runs awesome.
Congrats on your newest hobby.
Jon
It actually could be from you…
It actually could be from you, then, that I got my desire to fly planes. It was in the eighth grade, which was when we met. Did you have model airplane magazines in your room one night when I slept over or something?
I spoke to my brother about my hobby, and he mentioned that he really wanted a plane when he was growing up, too, and went so far as to build a control-line aircraft…
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Matthew P. Barnson
Not sure, but it is a possibility
Not sure if I did when you were over, but that is a definate possibility. I had them around as i tried to talk my parents into allowing me to get a kit to build a plane (this never came to be). I did enjoy looking at them, and i still have joy when i see them at the airshows and RC / modeling meets.
Ooh.
Have you seen that video online of somebody piloting an RC plane to “hover” (in other words, flying straight upward at exactly the right speed to stay airborne at eye level)?
If not, I’ll look for the link when I get home. It’s at a well-crowded party, which makes it a tad scary IMO.
Hovering
Hovering and torque-rolling is a big part of “3D” flying. Basically, 3D is aerobatic flying with a ridiculously overpowered airframe, doing stunts no full-scale plane could ever do.
I prefer Pattern Flying, which involves flying a plane with a much more “scale-like” thrust-to-weight ratio. Pattern flying is much more regulated than 3D, though, which is why I think 3D appeals so much to kids: it’s free-form, artistic, impressive, and showy. Whereas Pattern involves executing a series of set moves perfectly.
Oh, here’s a video of a dude hovering and torque-rolling his Cub model. The freaky thing about this hover is how big this plane is, compared to most of the tiny “foamy” airplanes people hover:
http://www.spadtothebone.com/videos/spadcubtorkin.wmv
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Matthew P. Barnson