Thursday, March 22, 2018

How to Choose The Right Remote Control Airplane

If you are looking for a new hobby that is more exhilarating than fishing, remote control aircraft flying is a hobby that you should look into. Flying a radio controlled plane at high altitude and doing aerobatics is fun and exciting. But first you have to get into the business of finding the right remote control airplanes that will suit you as a beginner. It seems easy and fun but like all activities flying a RC plane takes time and patience to perfect. But there are things you must know before finding the right remote control airplanes for you. RC planes for beginners are susceptible to wind and turbulence. Because of the small sizes, these are suited for small area practice flying. And also makes them vulnerable to winds that are faster than 5 miles per hour. Your orientation of directions, up and down, left or right will be tested in flying.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Glow Engines - The Beginners' RC Planes Guide

There are two main propulsion systems used by R/C models today: The internal combustion systems (glow engines) and the electric motors. Combustion engines' energy source has so far a higher energy/weight ratio than the batteries used to power the electrics. However, the combustion engines are usually more noisy and more prone to oil spillage than the electric motors.

There are two types of glow engines: The four-stroke and the two-stroke.

Two-stroke engines are the most used, mainly because they are simple made, light, easy to operate, easy to maintain, and are usually inexpensive. Two-stroke engines operate at a high RPM and therefore can be quite noisy without a good silencer.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Electric Motors - The Beginners' RC Planes Guide

Electric powered model aircraft has gained popularity, mainly because the electric motors are more quiet, clean and often easier to start and operate than the combustion motors.

They need batteries to operate and despite some developments in this area; the batteries still are somewhat heavier as energy source compared with the gas fuel.

Thus, the electric flier has to strive to build the model as light as possible in order to obtain a reasonable wing loading and/or a reasonable flight time.

The electric motor's operation is based on the electromagnetic principle. When electric current flows through a coil it creates a magnetic field with a strength proportional to the current's value, the number of windings of the coil and is inversely proportional to the coil's length. The strength of the magnetic field will further increase by introducing a so-called ferromagnetic material inside the coil.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

RC Airplanes: Trainers, Styles, and More

Remote control airplanes account for a large portion of the RC vehicle market and they come in a large variety of styles with their own distinct characteristics and abilities. Each style is built and designed for a specific purpose such as speed, maneuverability, or show. The primary styles of RC airplanes are: trainers, park flyers, racing airplanes, and acrobatic airplanes.

Trainers are designed for beginners and novices and fly at a slower rate of speed which gives the controller more time to react to changes in the wind. A good trainer style airplane will have these basic characteristics: a tricycle landing gear, low center of gravity, and wings that are angled and flat bottomed. Atricycle landing gear means that the RC airplane has 3 fixed wheels which allows for more directional control when taking off and landing then those with the tail dragger style landing gear.A low center of gravity means that the wings are located above the fuselage which helps to keep the plane flying some smoothly. When the wings are located below the fuselage then the center of gravity is high on the airplane and gravity is always trying to make the plane fly upside down. The wings of the RC airplane make up a large portion of its body and should have a dihedral angle which forces the airplane to self-correct into a straight and level flight path if the controls are released during flight. The wings should also be flat bottom which causes the air traveling over the wing to go at a slower pace than the air flowing below the wing allowing the airplane to sustain flight at a slower speed.


Friday, January 12, 2018

Pulsejet Engines - The Beginners' RC Planes Guide

Aircraft model builders have always strived to emulate the full-sized aircraft, as well as their propulsion systems. The word "pulse" engine may be tracked back to around 1880 - 1890 and it is claimed that a Frenchman has build a pulsejet engine in the beginning of 1900 however, it's unknown whether he was successful.

The Germans used this type of engine during the W.W.II to power the well-known V-1 flying bomb. This power concept was eventually proven to be relatively inefficient, terribly noisy and also having a very short lifetime.

The valves on the V-1 engine lasted no longer than 30 minutes continuous use. The pulsejet was therefore abandoned as a full-size aircraft propulsion system. Nevertheless, it has been used on model aircraft by some enthusiasts until now.

A model pulsjet engine is basically made of a tube consisting of a head with a venturi shaped air-intake, a diffuser, a combustion chamber, reed valve plates, a spark plug and an exhaust.


In order to start the engine, a compressed air from an external pump or air bottle is fed to the angled pipe located near the diffuser while a pulsed high voltage supply is applied to the sparkplug. The air/fuel mixture is pushed through the valve into the combustion chamber and ignited, which causes a noisy explosion that closes the valve plates while the expanding gasses escape trough the exhaust. This produces a low pressure inside the combustion chamber that opens the valves and new air/fuel mixture enters the chamber again, which is ignited by the residual heat and gasses from the previous explosion.

The high temperature developed keeps the motor running without the spark plug and the compressed air, which are only needed at the start moment. Some types have no sparkplug attached. The initial ignition is then obtained by introducing external sparking wires through the exhaust. The pipe has an acoustic resonant frequency depending on its length, which must be close to the valves' working frequency in order to get a reliable operation.

The extreme heat developed means that this engine needs a lot of air cooling and cannot stand static running on a test-bench for longer period than about 10 seconds. It must also be mounted outside the model to prevent burning damage to the structure.

Due to the extreme noise and the high temperature involved, this engine is absolutely not recommended for beginners and should not be used near residential areas.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Gas Turbines - The Beginners' RC Planes Guide

Another well-known propulsion system is the gas turbine or jet engine. There are several types of gas turbine engines, but the simplest ones are the so-called turbojets.



Sunday, November 12, 2017

Getting Started Flying Radio Controlled Model Airplanes

The popularity of radio controlled model airplanes has exploded in recent years. You can find RC model airplanes for sale in most toy and sporting goods stores. There is no shortage of complete packages on the market that sell for less than $50, though I do not necessarily recommend these bottom drawer systems.

The process for learning to fly model helicopters properly is very similar to what I describe here, but I will be focusing on airplanes.

Learning to fly RC is not hard, but there are right ways to do it and wrong ways to do it. Too many times I have seen a young man by himself at a local park trying to teach himself how to fly. That is the wrong way. It quickly leads to crashed airplanes and frustration. A much better approach is the one I outline here.

Local Hobby Store

Before you do anything else, find yourself a local hobby store. They specialize in helping out beginners such as yourself. They don't bite, and they will respect your budget by not steering you to equipment you cannot afford. Their prices are very competitive, and the advice is well worth any small price premium. Just make sure you are speaking with somebody that knows about model airplanes. Hobby stores carry products for many different hobbies such as RC cars and model rockets. If they have a reasonable selection of model airplanes in stock, there is guaranteed to be somebody on staff that understands them.