Radio Control Flying

[GH85Carrera]

We landed in our 172 at the airport and were fueling up. Another airplane pulled up to the other sise of the pumps. He was in a real Pitts Special. It is one tiny aircraft. No passengers, just the pilot. I went over and asked him how much cargo can he carry and he said 85 pounds. is max load, and he was a 5'6" skinny guy.

He admitted the obvious, it is 100% toy. He said he was doing a flight from South Oklahoma up to Kansas for a fly in and it was painful slow. If he enriches the mixture to fly inverted he fuel burn was too high so he had to keep it straight and level and boring.

When he took off he lifted off the ground in a short distance, but kept gaining speed all the way down the runway, and then went almost vertical for quite a while. For sure a cool big by toy.

[wdfifteen]

I see E-flite has a couple of sail planes. That would be more my speed. Those little planes are so fast I’d never keep up. I built an electric sail plane from a kit many moons ago. Balsa and Mylar. The battery pack was the size of 6 C cells. I only flew it a few times. I was flying it too high once and took my eyes off of it and lost track of it. Never saw it again.

[astrochex]

Sailplanes their own challenges for visibility and range.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I see E-flite has a couple of sail planes. That would be more my speed. Those little planes are so fast I’d never keep up. I built an electric sail plane from a kit many moons ago. Balsa and Mylar. The battery pack was the size of 6 C cells. I only flew it a few times. I was flying it too high once and took my eyes off of it and lost track of it. Never saw it again.

The modern sail planes are simply fantastic. The ones with motors on board to get them to altitude are just so darn convenient. I was never into them back in the day, but I well remember the incredibly huge rubber band, made from surgical tubing, that was at our flying field. That, and we had a guy who actually built a tow plane . He was in his glory towing the other guys' gliders to altitude.

"Slope soaring" is another great venue for unpowered aircraft. These folks utilize the lift generated at any kind of a steep bluff. Around here it is most popular near seashores - not sure what you might have available in Ohio. I think any really steep hill might suffice.

These things are, however, exceedingly fast. Faster than most powered aircraft. It's the nature of the beast, I guess. They need some serious speed and penetration if one hopes to ever get it back in the kinds of winds these guys like.

The modern little "foamies", the ultra micros, are really not fast at all. I fly the smallest of the small right out in the street in front of my house. Being well down in a dead end neighborhood, we get no traffic other than neighbors. The bigger of the "ultra micros" need a bit more room, but a big yard or a baseball field is way more than enough. The "big" Pitts does quite well at a local park with two opposing baseball fields.

So, yeah, don't think you need to fly a fast airplane that can get away from you. There are all manner of sailplanes, powered sailplanes, and very lightly wing loaded little planes that just float. Some can be flown inside a bigger multi-car garage, if it's high enough for RV parking, or a lift, or whatever. Lots of clubs hold flying nights in high school gyms. Even old guys with bad eyesight and slow reflexes can have fun in this hobby.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Even old guys with bad eyesight and slow reflexes can have fun in this hobby.

And how would a young whippersnapper such as yourself know that?

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Sailplanes their own challenges for visibility and range.

For sure. When I built mine it was beautiful light blue and silver. After flying it a couple of times I put dark blue Mylar on the bottom of the wing and bright red on the top so I could see it and and tell if it was upside down.

[Alansglide]

Used to slope fly back in the mid 80's and got back into it about 8 years ago. My how times have changed . Lots of carbon fiber and Kevlar used in these sleek fast planes.
Here's a photo of my race plane although I fly just for fun. RC can be a relaxing way to spend part of a day . Power,sail,any and all RC





The record for an RC airplane is 505 MPH and that's without a motor or engine. This is from 2014. A link to the record flight. An old guy like me has a hard time following a plane that fast much less trying to fly it but it's fun to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFPJ6DUAY10

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

And how would a young whippersnapper such as yourself know that?

Heh heh... I need one of those tee shirts that says "the older I get the faster I was..."

Honestly, though, I'm quite sure I no longer have the reflexes or spatial perception to truly wring out something like my old Ultimate 10-300. Oh, I could fly it around, but no way could I perform the aerobatics of which it is capable anymore.

So, here is a photo with an explanation of their relative sizes. On the far left are two "ultra micros", the recognizable Stearman bipe and the low wing Spacewalker (Hazel Sig, of the Sig model company, built and flew a full size version). These are the smallest of the small, my "neighborhood flyers".



Next up are three slightly larger models, the Pitts, Gee Bee, and Waco. These are still sold as "ultra micro", but they are bigger than the other two. These require more room than I have in front of my house.

Last, of course, is the "big" Pitts, what they call "park flyer" size. I front of each group of models or model you can see the required battery packs. Smallest are one cell, 3.7 volt, 150 mAH for the two little guys. Next is a two cell, 7.4 volt, 280 mAH for the three bigger "micros". The one in front of the big Pitts is a three cell, 11.1 volt, 2200 mAH pack. These all provide 5-6 minutes of flight time in their respective airplanes.

The two smallest, especially the Spacewalker, are the size that can be flown indoors in a bigger garage or something like a school gym. There are even lighter, slower, more "floaty" ultra micros available that could probably be flown in your living room. That's when you start to get into the translucent mylar wings and such, with a carbon fiber rod as the "fuselage". I like the scale stuff, but you can go smaller and slower.

[Ayles]

Just picked up this little guy at an estate sale... I can't hardly resist scale models. It's a large-scale (1/6th scale with a 48" wingspan) Fokker Dr.1 triplane. Exquisitely built and appears to have not ever been flown. It's stored neatly inside a custom wooden crate.

[Jeff Higgins]

Awesome!!! I've always loved that airplane. Never got around to building one, though. This is another design that was notoriously hard to fly back in the pre-gyro days. This one looks old enough to hail from that era. Probably better as a display model.

[jyl]

anyone do the FPV kind of RC, video camera in the cockpit?

[Rusty Heap]

I Fly with Mr Higgins, he's an excellent pilot.


My recent favorite plane is a Sport Motor Glider. it's damn fast and agile. I bought Jeff one too. Horse it around the sky like a maniac or just soar and glide. 20+ minute flight times.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/conscendo-evolution-1.5m-bnf-basic-with-as3x-and-safe-select/EFL01650.html



My other toy is a DJI Mavic air 2 drone, FPV and a 2 mile video range I use a 7" tablet for navigation...........fly out till you lose video signal. Push "return to home" button and the signal dB strength will return.

[aschen]

Originally Posted by jyl

anyone do the FPV kind of RC, video camera in the cockpit?

I built an FPV drone about 10 years ago, with the fat shark goggles and All. Its a different experience but never got crazy into it.

I also have one of the fpv micro drones to fly around the house with the same goggles, pretty fun as well more of a toy than a hobby probably.

I could see FPV drone racing being super fun if you had buddies into it and a good space.

Also, It is a wierd sensation being alone in a park wearing goggles, somebody could walk up kick you in the testies and run away!

[SpyderMike]

Here is some RC Flying from WW2:

https://youtu.be/eHRIjL3-HGE

[cstreit]

Same here. We have a flying field < 1/2 mile from my house. Almost got restarted and then realized that all my equipment was out of date and no longer allowed.

I have an Ultimate Bipe also - ran it on a 4 stroke. Very cool. A couple of sport flyers and a 1/4 scale Cub with a 25cc gas engine. Flew like a tank.

Some day I'll probably getback into it. I always wanted a ducted fan and with electric their easily attainable now. My local field has a paved runway.

[Rusty Heap]

Jeff, show off your big scale planes in your basement, they're amazing ! post some pictures of your glory days.

[Rusty Heap]

Back in the high school days I had a 4 METER wingspan glider. Two 6 foot wings plugged into each other.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Awesome!!! I've always loved that airplane. Never got around to building one, though. This is another design that was notoriously hard to fly back in the pre-gyro days. This one looks old enough to hail from that era. Probably better as a display model.

Just buy a SAFE receiver with the gyros and you are all set.

[asphaltgambler]

I got into this in the early 80's when I spotted a local club that was covered in the newspaper. I got the guys name that ran it, he was just down the street from me then. He ran a full blown hobby shop out of his basement for RC aircraft. I started out with a trainer foam wing Cesna that was 1/5 scale, glow plug nitro engine. Of course wrecking it, almost immediately, but parts were plentiful and cheap.

I think my biggest hurdle with mastering RC was not having any direct feel or sensation, essentially a 3D video game. After having it for a while, seeing how everything worked, and getting to the point of almost crash-free flights I became bored. So I bought an electric powered glider about the same scale. Of course easier to learn with that.

The other hurdle was there was nowhere close by to fly and the time to go enjoy. If the weather was not almost perfect, it was pointless. So those things eventually killed my 'hobby' although I still find all of that stoking my interest, especially with all the current technology.

As a kid growing up in the 60's started with, as most the balsa wood rubber band kits, then saved my money for wired (the kind where you fly it in a circle) kit planes on nitro with .049 engine. Then @9 years old spotted a much older guy with a RC scale plane flying in a park. I had no idea that technology existed. Looking back, I'm pretty certain he was retired, had the time and the money to enjoy the sport. I remember him having several planes, all kinds of support equipment and a Ford Econoline van that he had converted into an RC hauler with hand-built shelving and other stuff to properly carry all of it. I had never seen that level of 'involvement' for what I thought of as a kids toy. The other standout was the radio controller was HUGE. He had a leather harness that would support it like a musical instrument.

[Jeff Higgins]

On board with my Pitts S1: