Inexpensive IF you understand the electronics enough to piece it together (i don't).

Go to RC Groups and look for vids showing 'FPV'. A guy in Canada rigged up VR glasses w/ a gyro sensor and not only flies his plane via the VR glasses but also has full range of motion with his head! Completely and utterly stunning to watch and will probably be mainstreamed in the next year or two.

Lots of 'tension' around this technology though as it tends to encourage more risk on the part of the pilot.

2.4ghz video downlinks are getting donwright common (will be getting one eventually myself) and the quality is going up.

Tim,

Care to point us to the video?

I was hardcore into RC (nitro) a few years back untill I had to choose between cars and planes. I used to write for a smaller RC magazine doing new model reviews, nice gig.

Anyway The area we moved to about 1.5 years ago has an RC field about 4 blocks from my house and it's got me thinking again... I've been chewing on superlight "park flyers" for a while now. I'm really curious how this one turns out for you.

Keep in mind that the fabric and balsa guys do not like the park flyers. Odds are the RC fields generally don't allow them, atleast around here anyway.

I think it has to do with the limited freq. available.(that's the excuse anyway)

Bad link; see later post for awesome vids!

Yea, it's not an electric/nitro thing, it's the $40 foamy with 8 available freqs.

Sorry, previous link not working.

These should though!

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/303404/canadian_autumn_video_pilotage_of_r_c_planes/


http://www.metacafe.com/watch/340854/complete_tour_of_f1_race_track_onboard_a_radio_con trol_planes/

Here it is again (I put it in my first post in this thread) http://www.slofly.com/videos/3d/rc_gymnastics.wmv

If you go to this guy's website (www.slofly.com) and look for the "video" link in the left side menu, you can find more (some of the 22 I have along with some of his 28's)

One of the guys I used to fly with was a member of a large established RC club and we went with him to his club to compete in some "funfly" competitions. Over half of those guys were wieners and I never joined the "club". We mainly flew at a local private grass airstrip or at a local soccer field. We did all sorts of wacky stuff with no "safety cop" types to bother us or tell us what we could or couldn't do.

I have my own grass airstrip now and occasionally, a few locals that are into RC come out to use my strip. I guess growing up in a rural area, I just don't like the idea of having to drive to a special RC field just to play for an hour or so. (kind of reminds me of shooting guns, I can't imagine having to go to a "range" to shoot) I don't think I would fair well living in a city. :D

That is effing awesome! :eek:

I have to add my .02 here. . . when Overpaid Slacker and I were in Law School, trying desparately to keep from going insane (jury's still out on whether we succeeded) I got the bright idea to purchase an almost-ready-to-fly RC airplane. So I went down to the hobby shop one day and bought everything: plane, .40 motor, props, radio, servos, starter, tools, about $500 worth of the garbage you need to make it work.

So I built the airplane over the span of a couple weeks. . . took it out in the Stadium parking lot. . . and . . . CRASHED the SOB. No problem, I just need more experience. Rebuilt it and CRASHED the SOB again, this time I broke the muffler clean off the engine. Glued the muffler back on with epoxy, runs fine, CRASHED it again. Time for a new plane.

Somebody tells me I should get a DURAPLANE, which is basically a square section of PVC pipe with an alumiunum tail boom and a styrofoam wing, the .40 goes in the nose and you could basically jump up and down on it like the gorilla in the Samsonite commercial and it will still fly. "That's the plane for me," I declare and hustle off down to the hobby shop and buy one. By this time the hobby shop manager is laughing, he's thinking about buying a pool table, I've been in there so many times.

Assemble the duraplane, get everything rigged, call Slacker and we meet at the Stadium parking lot. High-speed taxi test OK. Into the wind, full throttle. Airplane picking up speed, good, V1-Rotate. Airplane immediately enters 20-degree nose up pitch attitude, hanging on the prop like Bedford Maule. Muffler comes unglued and breaks off, to hell with it, this is no time for mufflers, engine now wailing like a 14,000 RPM dental drill, altitude 30 feet. I have to get this thing under control, throttle back slightly, left rudder. Airplane finally stalls, I let go of the controls in an attempted Beggs-Mueller, it does a passable chandelle and comes back down toward earth. I've lost control input, the airplane is in freaking MACH TUCK, screeching, howling, WOT toward the pavement.

It's got Slacker boresighted. For some reason, as I'm fiddling away like Dr. Frankenputz trying to get control of the airplane, Slacker stands transfixed, awestruck at this careening food processor which is locked onto him like a sidewinder on a MiG. Either that or he was just doing the old football move, trying to figure out which way it was headed so he could go the other way. He dives behind my car, leaving his hat behind.

IMPACT. The duraplane strikes asphalt at around 800 scale MPH. Pieces of propeller go flying, hit the car. Nitromethane leaks everywhere. The airplane is a crumpled heap. I go over, wrench the engine from the mount, yank out the servos and throw the whole thing in the trash.

Next Christmas I gave the entire setup, along with a new engine and a complete almost-ready-to-fly kit to a relative who's an engineer, a non-pilot. Let HIM figure it out, I will never go near another RC airplane as long as I live.

I've got hundreds of hours of aerobatic flight under my belt, inverted spins, all that stuff. . .but I would NEVER take up RC planes as a hobby. . . too freaking DANGEROUS!

OMG John, I'm crying over here, great stuff:D

That is funny John! I lost my first .40 trainer in a corn field on it's first flight. I had an experienced RC pilot helping me out at the controls on a buddy cord. I learned quickly that the old rubber bands were not up to the task of holding the wing on in a high G pull! We looked for that thing for hours, we even flew over the field in a Cub for awhile....Nojoy.

The farmer found it that fall and I actually was able to salvage some components. I ended up buying an Airmadillo which was made from 1/2 sq aluminum tubing and plastic cardboard type material. Once I got the hang of it, my friends at I got very good pretty quickly. I used to compete in the funfly competitions (timed events such as take off...ten loops... land. In my self designed planes, I could do consecutive loops 10' off the deck in about a six foot diameter).

My friends and I were "full scale" pilots, but quickly learned that that did not matter much when it comes to flying RC!

Great video's guys. I was really into RC planes during high school and college. I had a great group of guys to fly with and we used to do formation flying with our fast planes (over 120 mph) and had lots of fun. I was one of the senior instructors and very active in the club. Then two guys got transferred and the club just wasn't the same for me (safety nazi's, guys thinking planes were too fast, loud, etc). Now I have 7 planes ready to go in the attic. I get the urge every so often and the club still sucks so it quickly passes. I have a 3/4 finished ducted fan F-16 that needs to be finished one day too.

I have been looking at helecopters and they look really fun. Problem is I have no idea how to fly them and crashes look very expensive and I don't know anyone who could teach me (they were not welcome at our field).

OMG, John, I have tears of hysteria in my eyes from that story! :D

My cubicle neighbors think I'm insane.

My only "near-miss" is when I chipped my father's tooth with the rudder of a glider we were about to hi-start. To this day (20 years later) I'm still not sure what he was trying to do, but for some reason he was sighting along the fuselage while I was holding the plane against the tension of the neoprene launcher. A small gust of wind hit us and the next thing we knew he had a mouthful of empennage. He wasn't too happy.

Cool video Mikester! Hey, I only said more than HALF of the club guys are wieners, not all of them :D I understand your concerns over keeping the field safe. THAT club just was not my cup of tea.


Dan, there are some pretty neat RTF somewhat inexpensive ($100-$200) dual rotor electric helis on the market now that are much easier to fly. I need to quit watching these d@mn videos! :D

Here's some more amazing stuff, some 3D included.


www.higherplaneproductions.com

insane control!

i am envious of pilots who do this stuff for real. fear of heights (and violent death) keeps me out of real planes whenever i have a choice.

I ran across these as representing the more expensive side of the hobby.
http://www.bvmjets.com/

In flight camera:
http://www.bvmjets.com/videos/DShulman_bbndt.wmv

jet motors:
http://www.bvmjets.com/turbine/turbine_power.htm

Not so happy ending for this jet....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENcIZVx-o9c