R/C PLANES

I learned to fly R/C from a buddy at my work, Hank. I started with a Heathkit radio and servos system that I built myself from the Heath Company kit. That radio went into a Heathkit foam high wing "Cessna" style airplane with a glow engine. I had been a mechanic and had been using glow engines in the control-line planes I had been building and flying, so getting the engines to start and run well was easy for me. There were no R/C flight simulators back then so I had to learn to fly the hard way, like everyone else, by flying, crashing, repairing, flying, crashing, repairing cycles.

The Heath Company has been long gone for many years now (ended in 1992), but the radio was pretty nice in that you could change frequencies by using a different module in the transmitter that just plugged in. That way you could fly on a different channel with no interference from other flyers. Everyone at the field had to have a frequency "pin" that was used while flying so nobody else could use that frequency while the pin was "in use". An honor system of sorts.

Nowadays that is not an issue because everything uses the same frequency but talks digitally to a unique receiver. A single transmitter can "bind" to multiple aircraft and not have to worry about interference at the field. We can also load up a flight simulator with our favorite plane onto our computer, watching on a big screen TV, and practice landings, new tricks, flying with crosswinds, etc., with the same transmitter we fly the real planes with.

I started flying electric planes around 2013 with a 44" wingspan PT-19 ARF (Almost-Ready-To-Fly) that was balsa wood covered in Monokote. The plane had to be assembled (attach the wing and tail assemblies), and a radio and motor installed (separate purchases). Since then, I have added more electric planes and got rid of all my glow engine equipment. I really like flying smaller, "park flyer" style planes because of the ability to fly at places nearer my home without the requirements of flying at a designated club field.

Here are a few of the planes I have had the opportunity to build from older balsa wood kits. The building part of the hobby has seen rapid decline because of all the great foam planes available, but I enjoy the building too.

Piper Cub

The links below are places I use when doing stuff with radio control.  Even though it can be a real blast, this hobby can get expensive fast.  And that is even when you don't crash!