Jet powered remote control planes

[carl carlson]

While browsing round the yorkshire air museum yesterday we saw a bunch of jet powered remote control airplanes. I want one! They where doing all sorts of manoeuvres loop da loops, spins, rolls and all sorts. Very impressive stuff.


How hard are they to fly?
Where does one get one from?
Does one need a license or something?

[Brother D]

I would probably learn to fly on a trainer (non-jet powered) first...

[Magic919]

Join a club. Get insured. Practice on something cheaper. You can get a simulator too, to help get stick time.

[skOOby]

...and start saving

[DIW35]

The engines in those things are hellishly expensive compared to the usual piston engines you find in R/C planes. Apart from the noise, if it's aerobatics that interest you, I'd go as far to say that a pukka piston powered aircraft designed for aerobatics will be much more fun.

[Roop]

Assuming you have never flown a high performance r/c aircraft, you can't just rock up and start flying a turbine. Even the trainers are quite quick. It'd be in the deck or sailing off towards the horizon fairly quickly I'd expect.

You might be able to get some 'buddied' stick time on a turbine trainer with Paul Heckles. http://www.paulhecklesrc.co.uk/

[carl carlson]

Roop said:

Assuming you have never flown a high performance r/c aircraft, you can't just rock up and start flying a turbine. Even the trainers are quite quick. It'd be in the deck or sailing off towards the horizon fairly quickly I'd expect.

You might be able to get some 'buddied' stick time on a turbine trainer with Paul Heckles. http://www.paulhecklesrc.co.uk/

]

looking at the speed that they go I would say it would go flying off into the horizon at 200mph! Cool.

I'll have a look at that link. Thanks.

[Roop]

carl carlson said:

Roop said:

Assuming you have never flown a high performance r/c aircraft, you can't just rock up and start flying a turbine. Even the trainers are quite quick. It'd be in the deck or sailing off towards the horizon fairly quickly I'd expect.

You might be able to get some 'buddied' stick time on a turbine trainer with Paul Heckles. http://www.paulhecklesrc.co.uk/

]

looking at the speed that they go I would say it would go flying off into the horizon at 200mph! Cool.

I'll have a look at that link. Thanks.

Yep. It's great provided you can make it come back again without stotting it into something...!!!

[The real Apache]

[pedant]they're radio controlled, remote control usually refers to something on the end of a wire[/pedant]

The jets are mega expensive, I'd suggest getting something cheap from here,

http://www.storacingproducts.com/radio-control-pla...

pre formed foam stuff is pretty resilient

[Groovydale]

Its the Large Model Assocation show at Cosford this weekend, there will be some very impressive models flying, both jet and otherwise will realy whet your appetite

[SlipStream77]

Most of the salient points have been covered, cost, joining a club, insurance etc.

Start with a trainer and work up.

Regarding sims, try Aerofly 5 or Realflight 5.5

http://www.aerofly.com/gallery_en.html

http://www.realflight.com/g5_5features.html

Ducted fan models are a cheaper alternative to jets, Montoya gets his from here, they provide video reviews of many too.

http://www.bananahobby.com/electric-rc-airplanes-e...

[yorkieboy]

Wonder if Dave Johnson is bringing the Vulcan :-D

[carl carlson]

yorkieboy said:

Wonder if Dave Johnson is bringing the Vulcan :-D

There was a vulcan (r/c) at the air museum on sunday morning. There was also a virage(r/c). Very cool stuff

Edited by carl carlson on Monday 11th July 20:33

[Evangelion]

These things puzzle me.

If the full-size aircraft needs a computer to help the pilot fly it, how come you can fly a model of it without a computer?

[Brother D]

Evangelion said:

These things puzzle me.

If the full-size aircraft needs a computer to help the pilot fly it, how come you can fly a model of it without a computer?

Have you seen the controllers and on-board electronics these days??

http://www.futaba-rc.com/systems/18mz.html

Telemetary feedback etc

[The real Apache]

Evangelion said:

These things puzzle me.

If the full-size aircraft needs a computer to help the pilot fly it, how come you can fly a model of it without a computer?

You couldn't, the older 'scale' models weren't very true to scale but as the R/C gear evolved so did the design of the models.......I guess

Edited by The real Apache on Tuesday 12th July 12:59

[Mr Will]

Evangelion said:

These things puzzle me.

If the full-size aircraft needs a computer to help the pilot fly it, how come you can fly a model of it without a computer?

The instability of modern fighters is mainly due to the centre of gravity, not the shape. Move the CoG forwards and they become perfectly flyable.

[anonymous-user]

Despite knowing virtually nothing about model aircraft, the really big jet powered stuff really interests me.

I've watched a few YouTube videos of jet powred rc transport planes actually verging on the size of a light aircraft, requiring 2 or 3 people to push them to a taxi position.

So my question is: Legally, how big is too big? when does an rc plane become classed as an aircraft minus pilot?

[davepoth]

There is a set of rules for UAVs.

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/uk-uav-regulatio...

I was having an exceptionally odd discussion with my sister in law once which revolved around how large a model DC-3 would need to be to be in scale with a "Sylvanian Families" passenger load.

It worked out at about this if I remember it correctly.

http://www.flyrcmodels.com/dc-3.htm

[MOTORVATOR]

In the good old days you would just have to get an exemption certificate for over 7kgs. I had a few and they were fairly easy to deal with just sending off details of construction, power, fail safes, control and design and very occasionally they would want a look at it before issuing. The certificate would carry details of exactly what conditions you could fly in and seperation distances etc.

Nowadays they changed it to not needing an exemption over 7kg upto 20kg but making you far more legally liable.

In fact they have changed the definition of model aircraft completely to 'small aircraft' which gives the CAA far reaching abilities. And yes technically that includes the bit of paper you just folded up and chucked across the room!

Over 20kg and you will be subjected to an exemption process that is a bit more onerous than it used to be but more importantly you lose the 'small aircraft' status and you are now flying an aircraft subject to the full ANO bar what your exemption certificate allows.

Most importantly there is a standard ceiling introduced of 400ft over 7kg unless you have specific exemption or clearance.