Anyone into aircraft?

PrankishSmart · **Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:59 am Anyone into aircraft?**

Anyone else here into aircraft or R/C planes? This is my new toy an Extra 330L Vmar plane with ecs covering. I have an OS91FX for this particular model.

Brightstar82 · **Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:19 am**

Those are cool. Im not into them But mybrother certainly is

TrekkieMage · **Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:09 pm**

*drools*

I'd love to be able to fly one of those. I've flown a real plane before, and I'm really curious about how it would feel to fly a model. Especially a model like that. Does it have a prop? I can't see from the pic.

Btw, cute dog

PrankishSmart · **Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:04 am**

Motor or radio gear isn't in yet neither is the prop. In general they are hard to fly because of the difficulty in determining the planes direction from long distances they also glide bad. But no need for flaps or instruments of course so easier than real plane in that respect.

TrekkieMage · **Tue Dec 13, 2005 4:47 pm**

Ah...I can see how that would be difficult and why they wouldn't need flaps or instruments. But I didn't realize that they had a bad glide ratio. Hm. But they look like a lot of fun!

PrankishSmart · **Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:47 am**

Yeah remote control gliders have a great glide ratio but these aerobatic planes need a steeper glide slope and they tend to just fall when the speed drops too low the nose doesn't even dip hardly. These weigh hardly anything much at all without engine or radio (this one weighs 1.45kg).

They are a lot of fun until a crash happens

Theresa · **Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:54 am**

I'm pretty much into anything w/ a jet engine.
Haven't done much of the r/c planes, but do sometimes build rockets. It's cool how you can make a rocket do spirals, etc..., by making small changes to the outside.

TrekkieMage · **Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:28 pm**

^ Yeah, it's amazing how much a small change in the airflow affects the flight path!

Ah! I need to read the font of the plane better. I just noticed that it said "Unlimited Aerobatics" on the underside of the wing

That explains the large rudder!

I really want to get an rc plane, I think it'd be a lot of fun to build/tinker with. Now the chances of me actually getting around to it...slim

PrankishSmart · **Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:09 am**

PrankishSmart · **Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:12 am**

madlilnerd · **Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:33 pm**

Not models for me but real planes. Lancaster bombers and spitfires all the way

!

webtaz99 · **Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:33 pm**

PrankishSmart · **Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:24 am**

This is an example of the turbine engines you can buy already built. Their pretty small and provide a lot of thrust and are mostly computer controlled.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Graupner-JetCat-P-80-turbine-Complete-Setup-BRAND-NEW_W0QQitemZ6022248490QQcategoryZ34055QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Wolf359 · Senior Cadet Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 22

I was in a club once but didn't have enough time for, I'd love to get back into it.

webtaz99 · **Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:23 am**

PrankishSmart · **Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:11 am**

webtaz99 · **Tue Dec 20, 2005 8:41 am**

The problem with stuff that goes 100,000+ rpms is that the tiniest misalignment or foriegn stuff in the bearings creates horrible vibrations which can tear the engine apart.

The fuel consumption would only allow for short duration flights, but it's still cool that there are real turbines in the market.

Many real-world jets (even some fighters) have less thrust than their weight. If you can get thrust-to-weight close to 1 you have a good jet. If you can get it over 1, you have an awesome jet. And with no life-support or weapons systems, models have more weight and room allowance for fuel.

Aerodynamics respond to scale. That's why insects aren't the size of dinosaurs. At the scale of a fly, air "feels" more like water. To make a scaled-down jet fly more like a real one, ot would have to have larger control surfaces and a different wing profile.

What about fly-by-wire? I saw a really cool show once where some scientists made a 3 foot scale model of a pteradactyl to settle the argument of whether they could sieze prey and fly off with it (their muscles were not strong enough for true flight, so they mostly glided).

Using traditional servo control, the thing was all over the sky - completely uncontrollable. Then they added a computer, and after that it flew so well it looked real. It was easily able to snatch and carry away (simulated) bunnies.

PrankishSmart · **Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:05 pm**

These days servos and radio equipment is all digital and trim is digital unlike before trim was doneby the slider switch. I think all r/c jets have power to weight ratio's well over 1:1 (mine if going to be close to 1:1).. but don't forget that this ratio is dynamic not static in turbines, the faster you go the more thrust you get up to a point because of the nature of the turbine and the way it uses air to compress unlike a prop that just pushes air and the air only just becomes a slight pressure. I'm not too sure I understand your thinking control surfaces need to be bigger or something. R/c aircraft handle much better because their scale weight is much less, and they have more scale power. Exact scale aircraft fly almost exactly like full sized aircraft, and in fact need to me more efficent than the full sized aircraft because of the lack of a pilot on board.

I agree with the high rpm being potentially hazadous. Recent advancement in technologys for small scale aircraft and more wide spread use of smaller ball bearings have made small turbines possible. They have been only popular in the last 5 years. Fuel would last only a minute or so at full or close to full power for a flight and glide landings are tricky for a non-glider r/c aircraft, although something that is quickly learned and not that hard for the intermediate flyer. Computer type gyro control is usually only used on r/c helicopers where 2 gyros onboard control each axis, so the lack of pilot input means the helicopter hovers itself without the need for constant trim adjustments... also making helicopters easier to fly than aircraft instead of harder. Gyro on board r/c aircraft have only been used for autopilot recovery type scenarios for trainer aircraft, where an extra switch on the transmitter can control the aircraft to return to level flight.

One_Drone · **Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:12 am**

I've always been into R/C equipment but never had the money for it.. Now that I'm in China everything is so cheap so for christmas I think I'm going to buy one for myself. I fly aircraft and drive cars back home so I'm not sure if I want a car or a plane..

In any case, can people give me recommendations and heads up on R/C as I'm relatively new to it all.

Dirt · **Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:10 am**

Planes are boring, tanks are cool

PrankishSmart · **Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:28 am**

Dirt · **Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:21 am**

They're even cool blown up