R/c flying for Christmas!

[wingman863]

I took up R/C flying 3 Christmasses ago after I started doing the real thing. Its great fun and definately harder than flying a full-size plane with you inside. The hangar presently holds a P-51 Mustang, a Cessna 177, a generic high-wing trainer (my first) which is presently in about 4 large pieces after having the misfortune of hitting the house, 2 microlights and a half-built Hugh's 500 helicopter.

The mircolights were hard enough to fly and as mentioned before, trimming them before flying them is essential. I neglected to do this to the required degree which resulted in one of them getting stuck in a series of spirals and landing half a mile away. We got it back after driving up a small mountain with some bi-nocs and going cross-country to get it. Great fun but a bit un-nerving. The P-51 is great and flies like a true fighter, the 177 is in the final stages of construction and looks like it will be a beauty to fly. Helicopter seems like a bit of a death-trap and will probably hit ebay before taking off. This is simply a matter of not wishing to die.

Happy Christmas and if you have any questions feel free to PM me. I was rather crap at the start so repairs and reconstructive surgery are a speciality.

[John Farley]

I was a free flight aeromodeller up to 1955 when I stopped because I had to get on with life as a pilot. Five years ago I decided to go back to models via ARTF and R/C.

Against an advanced R/C friends advice I decided I would teach myself to fly R/C. Pulling back when it was diving was clearly not going to be a problem but how to deal with the roll control in a way that worked when it was both coming towards you and going away was something else again.

I decided that I would treat the aircraft as if it was free flight and talk to it (OK shout at it) as I used to when a kid and the thing was going the wrong way towards a tree or whatever - ‘go left’ or ‘go right’. When I do this with my R/C model my hand has no trouble following my voice.

All I can say is having thought it through BEFORE STARTING it has not been a problem apart from how people stare at you. Another friend of mine, an RAF engineer not pilot, went the professional pay for it buddy box route and after several weekends he got nowhere and rang me up.

I told him ‘go left’ etc and he went back and just flew on the buddy box. When asked by his instructor why things had suddenly clicked he told him about ‘go left’ and he said he would use that in future.

For DIY may I suggest a nice 2 axis glider that will virtually fly itself while you learn how to steer it. I used a Windstar but I don’t expect they are still made. If you are near a hill suitable for slope soaring you might be lucky like me and land after 35 mins on your first trip because you fear for the Rx battery. The pic is of the electric powered Windstar EP which is handy if you don’t have a hill (or get fed up laying out a bungee) but the airframe is just the same as the glider.

[nick14]

hey guys,
Iv been aeromodeling since i was 10 (now 18) and now instruct for the local club.

If anyone needs any help/advise or indeed free training dont hesitate to pm or email me.

I have competed in local competitions including pylon racing and aerobatic comps.
I have the nationally recognised BMFA "B" certificate which took me 3years to get. Have been teaching and testing since i was 14.

Any help just ask

Nick

[email protected]

[david viewing]

Hmmmm, RC models, I think by law you can only fly in a designated area as stated by the local council. You must be a member of a club, for insurance reasons I believe. Of course it will have wings so the CAA will have a say in this......

BRL, do you have references for any of the above? I am not aware of any restrictions on model aircraft relating to councils, clubs, compulsory insurance or the CAA for typical small models up to 7Kg. (7Kg is quite a big model aeroplane and can make a decent dent in a car door. I know this...). On the other hand the 'out of the box' model in this discussion weighs very little and could do no more damage than, say, a kite.

It's true that club membership often confers 3rd party insurance and the BMFA is a good example. Insurance is a good idea (see 'car door' above). In any case, if you 'self teach' outside of a club as I did as a boy then your progress will be littered with broken and lost models (some of mine are still out there).

To see what can happen, look at this report from the Irish Accident Unit.

[What's a Girdler]

I used to fly RC models when I was a teenager a few years ago, it was highly stressful and I began to dread each Saturday and Sunday morning to see my beautiful creation sitting in my bedroom and wondering how many bits it would be in when I got home that night.

I once snapped a dowell which held the wings on, I had no replacement, and being a young slapdash kid I replaced it with a pencil! Needless to say that afternoon I climbed the plane up to a particularly high altitude (I reckoned 500ft I could be wrong), carried out a loop to which the wings separated from the fuselage, ripping the aerial off and sticking the throttle open fully, I have never seen a cruise missile before. Needless to say I had to dig the engine and radio guts out with a very large shovel, and my plane didn't improve its looks much.

I think the real thing is alot morre relaxing.

[Gingerbread Man]

If you're worried about losing a model David V, there's a modern-day solution to it. They make a throttle fail-safe that cuts the throttle if you lose the signal from the transmitter. This all sounds great until you consider that the model is still out of range, so it will just fall at a slightly closer location than otherwise. I suppose one could jump in the car and chase it trying to regain control before it hit the ground. That sounds like a challenge....

Ginger