Why Fly RC Aircraft?
The hobby of model aircraft flying has been popular since the early part of the 20th century.Indeed, the very concept of powered flight depended on using models to test theory. Flying model aircraft is by no means restricted to radio control and before the advent of this advanced technology, modellers were flying a variety of free flight and fixed control line models.
A free flight model flies under power, but there’s no means of directional control.It has to be pre-trimmed and it flies and lands where it wants to – you have no control at all!Control line flying is still popular and features two long control wires attached to the model aircraft’s elevator via a handle similar to a kite control handle. There is no direction control of course as the aircraft is forced to fly the circle around the operator (who also has to spin with his machine) dictated by the length of the control wires.
During the 1950s, miniature diesel and petrol engines were further developed and more importantly electronics began to get less bulky with the introduction of the transistor. Radio control aircraft became a practical reality and more recently electric rc helicopters have bought thousands of people into the hobby. Similarly, small electric rc aircraft can be bought from practically any kind of hobby or toy store and flown with no experience whatsoever.Like any hobby that evolves from toys, model aircraft can come in distinct grades of complexity.
The cheap and cheerful plastic/electric toys are great for kids but further up the scale, some model aircraft are genuine scaled down engineering copies of actual aircraft or entirely original designs.The attraction of radio control flying lies in the fact of being in control of something and being able to make it do what you like in all that free airspace.Learning to fly rc aircraft or helicopters is part of the fun too. Crashing is part and parcel of the radio control aircraft hobby!
As in the real aviation world with STD (Synthetic Training Devices) you can even buy rc flight simulator software products that let you learn to fly rc from the comfort of your own armchair. For many, the pleasure of radio control aircraft comes not only from flying them, but also from actually building an rc aircraft, helicopter or any other type of model.Indeed, many modellers see the building of a model more of an attraction than flying it, and it’s true that there’s a huge amount of satisfaction in seeing a model develop from a box of bits into a fully flying plane or helicopter.
Tagged with: model aircraft RC aircraft • radio control aircraft
Filed under: Other Hobbies
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Leave a Reply