How many are you into Model Aviation

Yup id get rid of the rudder to free up a channel for something else.
Snap rolls are the only thing I ever used the rudder for
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
One thing I haven't done is really go out and fly RC after getting the PPL.
Can you slip and spin RC planes? I know gravity doesn't scale so perhaps a lot of descending maneuvers in RC are different then the real thing.
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Not only slip / spin, but CG effects too. I was a poor student back then. Couldn't afford multiple planes. The guy that taught me to fly was a pilot and A&P. After I was proficient, we started changing things. First change was to move the battery pack toward the back to shift the CG. Then we increased aileron / rudder travel. Each time, flying the airplane to see the difference.

If I really wanted to make the R/C experience more relevant to a full scale pilot, I'd put an undersized engine on a flat bottom airfoil trainer. Models have waaay too much thrust, but other than that, they seem to be very high fidelity third person view sims. :)
 
Yeah, I am sure the scale speed for a lot of RC planes is Mach something.
 
I was into model rocketry as a kid, and if I ever get the time and money (and a good place with other people to get involved in it) I'd like to pursue high powered rocketry.

But never got involved with RC, although it looks fun.

Don't they have jet engines now for RC aircraft? I bet that would be a blast, although probably very expensive.
 
yakdriver said:
I have built and flown models all of my life. My Dad who has been a pilot since 1961 flew competition free flight from the age of twelve and is still at it at 86. I did control line and free flight until I got into RC in 1972. I like building large detailed scale models but haven't done much in the last 10 years because I have been building full scale. Got a Top Flite Zero ARF last month and it flies great. Didn't know how much I missed flying RC until I got back into it. I have a 1/5 scale Yellow Spitfire kit for a winter project. Here is a Focke Wulf 190 I did 10 years ago. Don
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Beautiful FW! Nice to see someone who actually still BUILDS. That's where most of the satisfaction was for me. Nothing like making the first flight on something you painstakingly built. I've been involved with RC extremely sporadically since I was a kid. Last plane I built was about 6 years ago - this little electric Waco. 35" span, 7-3/4 oz. flying weight. Floats around super slow like a rubber scale plane. Great design. But I recently sold out and bought my very first ARF/RTF plane. :) Last pic below.

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I had a sweet stik 60 with a K&B 75 pumper. Darn thing moved the test bench I had it attached to when breaking it in. It would accelerate in a climb to nearly out of sight.

Also had a swizzle stick with an OS Max 35 and an ARF (looked like a 1720 with an OS Mas 25 in it.

Sold everything about 2 years after returning home from AK
 
I miss model airplanes a lot. Since I moved to Lincoln and didn't feel like driving far to fly they got put into storage. After I lost my hand and parts of my feet, they all got sold.


What a great hobby. I tried helicopters and did well on the sims but never could get competent to fly my model helis outdoors.
 
I remember the early helicopters. A local would get his out and everyone at the field would hide behind their cars and trucks. The early birds were very underpowered. Of course I am talking ancient history. I did most of my RC flying when I was in Alaska 79 to 83. Many of you weren't born yet
 
1600vw said:
The High's and Low's of RC Flying....I sold this on E-bay for 10 bucks. The man said he put it back together. I always doubted this. But you never know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy2U2eIsj3Q

Tony
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From the NTSB Report: Probable cause of the accident was the pilot's failure to maintain control of the aircraft. A contributing factor was the failure of the flight controls due to loss of radio connectivity.
 
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I've been flying RC since '79..... I still dabble in it. I enjoy building as much as flying them. I mainly build WWII era scale stuff nowadays with the odd, old school pattern plane thrown in the mix because i love how they fly. Our field really sucks though, so I keep a few ARFs around as beaters.
 
I grew up flying models in the 60s. My Dad and a good friend were lifelong model builders and flyers. They flew control line and free flight before I was born. My first memories of model flying was going to the ARCS (Aero Radio Control Society) field outside of Pgh. They had a hard surface purpose built field for about 100 club members.

RC in the early sixties was as much an electronic hobbyist pursuit as it was about aviation. Single channel escapements and multi channel reed radio sets was the state of the art - digital proportional radios hadn't yet been invented. Many days ended with no flying after much range checking and radio tuning. If the radios worked sometimes the engines wouldn't start. They always bought us balsa models to play with while they did the adult stuff but he die had been cast for my younger brother and I.

Through the mid-sixties I can recall building and flying balsa and tissue rubber powered models, hand launch gliders, and even dabbling in microfilm covered indoor models where the prop turned over once a second and the planes flew slower than a normal walk. Played around with a kind of rocket powered airplanes (Jetco? Jetex?) and launched a few Estes model rockets. After all the moon race was on!

With the advent of digital proportional radios they decided to teach my brother and I how to fly RC. My father was primarily a builder, his friend was an engine collector, flyer and our teacher. For the next couple of years we'd go to the field with several models and gallons of fuel. We'd usually return reeking of castor oil and with all the models requiring repair. Much of it was just training accidents but the radios often failed, engines quit a lot and sometimes they just came apart in the air. I saw so many planes stall, spin and crash that I knew long before getting in a full scale aircraft that if an engine sputtered or a wing dropped, the last thing you wanted to do was pull back on the stick.

We both broke thru and became full fledged pilots with a pair of Headmasters that we got for Christmas. We also built our own balsa models and started fooling around with the early ARF planes but we were still the only kids/adolescents in the club!

We were attending the model airplane NATS (national meet) when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I recall hearing the live transmissions thru loud speakers at Willow Grove Naval Air Station.

My brother became the hot stick. He designed and scratched built his own aerobatic plane when he was 12. I migrated over to RC gliders.

Then a life changing opportunity came about when my RC instructor was offered full scale flying lessons and instead of accepting them convinced the giver to offer them to me. I took the bus to the airport for the first few lessons because I didn't have a learners permit yet. But now I had a reason to drive and quickly fixed that. I got in about 20 hours before moving away for college.

Funny now our model experience played forward. When I got out of college and started getting a paycheck, I immediately continued my training in a C150 but also started soaring and spent many years focused on racing sailplanes. My brother stayed with pattern flying and a few years ago was the National Masters Class Aerobatic Champ. Recently I returned to the work bench to build a kit plane and now fly an RV10. And our old club, the Pittsburgh ARCS, flies on a field named after my RC instructor and mentor, K Leroy Irvis, former Speaker of the House, State of Pennsylvania.

I don't fly models very often but I have a few laying around just because it will always be a first love.
 
Yes, good stories that led us into the real thing! My kids, like my wife and I hardly ever sit in front of the computer for hours. Many young children(and adults) are missing out on a lot in life. Keep the stories coming.
 
I very much enjoy this aspect of rc. It doesn't take much effort to design an aircraft using basic principles and then build it from scratch, and see how varying the cg, weight, powerplant, and other variables affect performance. It's easy enough to measure weight/thrust/rpm/current/voltage.

I put an undersized motor on a model rv-8 and it flew remarkably well; it's a lot more fun when you actually have to manage energy and use the rudder.

I wanted to put some yarn tufts on an fpv model to record some stalls and spins, but never got around to it. I did build an alignment of elements style glideslope indicator; it was cool to fly down the glideslope and land on a paved runway, and know that you greased it because you heard the wheels start rolling :)

Mistake Not... said:
Not only slip / spin, but CG effects too. I was a poor student back then. Couldn't afford multiple planes. The guy that taught me to fly was a pilot and A&P. After I was proficient, we started changing things. First change was to move the battery pack toward the back to shift the CG. Then we increased aileron / rudder travel. Each time, flying the airplane to see the difference.

If I really wanted to make the R/C experience more relevant to a full scale pilot, I'd put an undersized engine on a flat bottom airfoil trainer. Models have waaay too much thrust, but other than that, they seem to be very high fidelity third person view sims. :)
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Started in free flight balsa and then control line in the early '80s when I was 7 or 8. Move to -172s in '90-91, then off to college. Life got in the but I racked up a few thousand hours as a crew member on AWACS. Kids are in college now and I've been playing with rc heli's for a year or so and saving for an RV-10 to build in the house we built.
 
TCABM said:
Started in free flight balsa and then control line in the early '80s when I was 7 or 8. Move to -172s in '90-91, then off to college. Life got in the but I racked up a few thousand hours as a crew member on AWACS. Kids are in college now and I've been playing with rc heli's for a year or so and saving for an RV-10 to build in the house we built.
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That is what we did...house, save, shop, save, RV-10, save for 100LL/hotels/rental cars. There are many similarities in the processes. Enjoy the work. It is all worth it when you are shoving that throttle in to take the family to a new destination.
 
Been flying EDFs for about 10 yrs now.
 

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