My R/C Hangar

[Gambit21]

Zero!!! ??

[dburne]

I have a lot of fond memories of my R/C Plane flying days. 

All throughout throughout the 90's and into the early 2000's I was a very heavy enthusiast. I had gotten into pattern competition and would travel to different cities on the weekends during the summer to compete in pattern contests. Have several plaques and trophies collected from those days. Was of course a member of the AMA and even went and competed in the Nationals one year. Great experience.

 

Ended up finally just burning myself out on it, gave all my equipment away to the local flying club around 2003 and have not had a desire to touch it again. But I do have some great memories of that time.

[Gambit21]

I've thought about getting into it a number of times in years past.

In the end I could never justify the expense and time for something I'd probably crash.

 

Also, I've always been turned off by how they actually fly. They don't look like real aircraft. Smaller ones fly like a housefly. So you have to go BIG to begin to eliminate this problem (well it's a problem for me anyway) and even a 1/5 scale aircraft have less 'housefly' factor, but it's still there. So in the end I decided to fly sims instead.

 

 

 

[dburne]

53 minutes ago, Gambit21 said:

I've thought about getting into it a number of times in years past.

In the end I could never justify the expense and time for something I'd probably crash.

 

Also, I've always been turned off by how they actually fly. They don't look like real aircraft. Smaller ones fly like a housefly. So you have to go BIG to begin to eliminate this problem (well it's a problem for me anyway) and even a 1/5 scale aircraft have less 'housefly' factor, but it's still there. So in the end I decided to fly sims instead.

 

 

 

 

Yeah thankfully flight sims were a Godsend for me, I much rather do this from the comfort of my home rather than spending weeks building a plane then all day out at the field flying. But I did do that for a number of years.  I was fortunate I never crashed many at all, early on in learning I did a couple but all throughout the years of pattern competition I never crashed any of those planes. Thankfully.

[ZachariasX]

16 hours ago, Gambit21 said:

Also, I've always been turned off by how they actually fly. They don't look like real aircraft. Smaller ones fly like a housefly.

They fly as you make them fly and making them fly convincingly is not easy and requires a lot of practise. Making them fly the right way is as important as building them, as regulations (just an example) usually show. Most don‘t fly them accordingly, as it is as hard as it requires discipline. But I think it is also fair to just have fun with them up there.

 

There are helpers, though. Putting gyros in them makes them fly like on rails. But as you say, size helps.

 

Personally, I also shy away from investing that much in a model that might come down the wrong way for whatever reason. But I sure appreciate other peoples work a lot.

[Lusekofte]

My rig got messed up once and I had to return it for repair.

I bought no less than 6 electric choppers in different sizes.

First of smallest survived the first careful days.

Then I started and get cocky and slammed them in the wall.

Then I got really good and started to chase the cat with it.

After supper I discovered the cat had killed it.

The two big ones I eventually flew into a cable in a parking lot . The other I just crashed.

Then my rig came back.

Choppers do very much resemble real choppers. And battery power really make them easy to maintain

 

[Dagwoodyt]

On 8/4/2022 at 4:23 PM, dburne said:

 

Yeah thankfully flight sims were a Godsend for me, I much rather do this from the comfort of my home rather than spending weeks building a plane then all day out at the field flying. But I did do that for a number of years.  I was fortunate I never crashed many at all, early on in learning I did a couple but all throughout the years of pattern competition I never crashed any of those planes. Thankfully.

I did crash a few but my recollection of the late 1980's is that the crashes that hurt most were when "kids" were allowed to fly "Dad's" RC aircraft and ended up totalling mine in-flight ?

[Gambit21]

2 hours ago, Dagwoodyt said:

I did crash a few but my recollection of the late 1980's is that the crashes that hurt most were when "kids" were allowed to fly "Dad's" RC aircraft and ended up totalling mine in-flight ?

Kids crashing an RC aircraft - boy nobody saw that coming eh?

[dburne]

20 hours ago, Dagwoodyt said:

I did crash a few but my recollection of the late 1980's is that the crashes that hurt most were when "kids" were allowed to fly "Dad's" RC aircraft and ended up totalling mine in-flight ?

 

Yikes!! I never let my kids have at it, but really they were pretty young at that time. One regret I have was spending so much time with that hobby which took away time with my kids.