Why do you like R/C?

[SlingShot]

I thought it might be fun to see what are the driving forces behind this hobby. There's a lot to like and I'll bet that there are a few interesting things beneath the surface. I'll start it off.

The comradery is a big plus. It's nice to be able to hang and converse with people that can speak your language. It's a big part. But for me, the main thing is just being in the "club" of guys that can do it. Those that can FLY! And maybe flash a little skill and style in the process. I love being able to manipulate the vehicle through the air. And I have wanted to do so ever since I was 4 or 5 years old.

I came about it honestly. My father was a good builder and had been involved with model aviation from a young age. He had done control line and a little free flight before starting on R/C when I was 6. My first airshow was big I'm sure. It probably had the Blue Angels and much more, although I don't remember much. I was only 5. But I do remember one particular biplane. The pilot made a low inverted pass while dangling his hands down out of the cockpit. It made a lasting impression. I was enthralled and wanted to be one of the guys that could do it.

There's a lot to like and this is just the big one for me. What about you?

 

[rockyboy]

I've been fascinated with space and aviation since I before I started primary school, and while my professional career never took me in that direction I am still inspired by all the things that can overcome gravity. And the history of flight grabbed me since I first read about Chennault's Flying Tigers in Burma and saved my chore money to buy Guillow's airplane and Estes model kits from the hobby store. I've been a "maker" since long before the word took on it's current meaning, and have built guitars, cabinets, motorcycles, trailers, amplifiers, radios, many CNC machines, computers, leather saddlebags, luggage, bathrooms, knives, etc. etc.

For me, pursuit of RC airplanes as a hobby is a celebration of craftsmanship, engineering, and history with a bunch of friends who appreciate the same and have different perspectives and knowledge to share - without the external pressure of a demanding customer (or wife) wanting things done their way. If I build well, it will fly well - and if it doesn't fly well there is obviously something more to learn from the project!

 

[BATTLEAXE]

As with the both of you I was bit by the aviation bug really early in life. My Grandfather was in the Canadian Airforce in WWII flying C-130's and carried on in a flight career to owning his own charter business mainly flying in Alberta and British Columbia. The company was called North Cariboo and was mainly comprised of Twin Otter's, Navajo's, and a handful of DC-3's. I remember all through my pre-teens spending summers flying with him in the cockpit on all kinds of runs transporting anything from cargo to hockey teams to prisoners. As a kid even sitting at home I was always sketching out planes, building planes with Lego or building plastic models. Flight is just fascinating to me and RC gives me an outlet to discover what can be achieved not only with airframes but in my skill level as well.

Since being in the hobby though I have noticed how large of a community this is. Just getting into it I figured this would be a one man journey without someone there willing to teach me all the nuances of RC flight. Sure I would meet some people in the hobby shops and I did find that most were very, shall I say, snooty about the hobby, like I had something to prove about my experience level in the hobby before they would even talk to me. There was a few that loved to talk about the hobby so much that they would spend a hour with you answering all your questions, understanding how committed you are into the hobby, but wouldn't invite you out to fly because they didn't want to waste flight time teaching a newbie. But since I started participating in this forum I have met the community I am seeking to get the help into the hobby I needed. I have said before the comradery here is amazing and has further solidified my grip on the hobby, pushing me further into it. And I have met a few people who are close enough to make day trips out to there respective air parks to fly with friends. mission accomplished

And it is infectious as well. Just in talking to a friend of mine yesterday and a few times in the recent past I may have inspired him to get into the RC hobby. This guy is a larger stature biker Harley Davidson forever kinda dude. I have known him since being a teenager and we are good friends, got each others backs kinda bro's. Anyway over the past few times he has come around the house he is always checkin out my projects, pickin up the planes, asking questions. Yesterday I dropped by his place for a visit and in true RC aviation fashion I couldn't help but notice the size of the park beside his house and mentioned that it would be a good space to fly in. He got excited and encouraged me to bring some planes over and let him check it out. I think it won't be long before he is at the dollar store buying FB to start his journey.

In conclusion I really just wanna see where this experience takes me, how far I can push my limits, and build some incredible relationships along the way. Where I am at right now is just the tip of the iceberg and I look forward to where it goes from here. Thanks for reading

 

[Merv]

As others have said, I have always been interested in flying. For me RC has two distinct advantages. 1) It's cheaper than golf. 2) No matter what happens I know I can always walk up to it and say "Oh my, what a mess".

 

[MorningViewFPV]

Oh man, the freedom and friendship. As close to a supernatural power as your gonna get. Josh Bixler and Bruce rcmodelreviews / XJET and youtube showed me how it was doable for normies like myself...freakin foamboard! oh that's how pwm works? yeah. and not just that now i gotta guy here ( Josh Bixler) whois is gonna walk me through how to land the dang thing. It's quite entertaining, i mean being just toys and models. I never used anything rc until i was recovering from a serious head injury, i was a network fool by trade though and fpv and learning about multiwii and tricopters and building rc drift cars....immersing myself into a hobby with so many challenges with so much rewards was extremely beneficial to my life. Past five six years of flying changed my life. Propably kept me alive. I'm pretty sure.

 

[OliverW]

I thought it might be fun to see what are the driving forces behind this hobby. There's a lot to like and I'll bet that there are a few interesting things beneath the surface. I'll start it off.

The comradery is a big plus. It's nice to be able to hang and converse with people that can speak your language. It's a big part. But for me, the main thing is just being in the "club" of guys that can do it. Those that can FLY! And maybe flash a little skill and style in the process. I love being able to manipulate the vehicle through the air. And I have wanted to do so ever since I was 4 or 5 years old.

I came about it honestly. My father was a good builder and had been involved with model aviation from a young age. He had done control line and a little free flight before starting on R/C when I was 6. My first airshow was big I'm sure. It probably had the Blue Angels and much more, although I don't remember much. I was only 5. But I do remember one particular biplane. The pilot made a low inverted pass while dangling his hands down out of the cockpit. It made a lasting impression. I was enthralled and wanted to be one of the guys that could do it.

There's a lot to like and this is just the big one for me. What about you?

My dad has been in the hobby for 30 years and I come from generations of pilots... I was intrigued since I was born basically lol. My dad put me on the simulator when I was three and found me hovering down on the deck on it and decided it was time for me to fly! I soloed on a gws slow stick and landed it on a gravel pile lol...

 

[Vimana89]

I have a long history of being around full scale aviation, but didn't really get into RC until recently, though as a teen I had a couple cheap electric RC planes. Growing up, my dad was in the air force working on jets. First F4s in Germany and Delaware, then we moved to North Dakota where he worked on B52s. When we first moved to California he worked at Edwards on F16s, and after retiring from the air force has been and still is in the Aerospace industry, having worked on U2, F117, and some unmanned stuff. I'd been to a couple really good air shows as a kid, and in North Dakota, I explored the hanger and climbed around inside the B52s on a couple occasions, that was a lot of fun!

As a kid in Delaware and North Dakota, I made a lot of paper planes, some with my dad from guide books that gave all sorts of fancy designs, and eventually even scale models of stuff like the B52 and Concorde. Those were some great little chuck gliders! I'd considered getting an RC plane as a kid in the 90's, but it was not economical or beginner friendly back then. We did a lot of model rockets instead, until I was about 13 and got a couple cheapo electric RC planes when they were getting easy and affordable in the early 2000's. I know one was one of those twin engine biplanes with thrust differential, and the other I forget, maybe a trainer type or flying wing, its been a while. Had some fun with those till they were busted and moved on to other things.

A couple years back, I was bored browsing anything and everything mildly interesting on YouTube, and looked at quads, RC planes, home designs, all that, and found a bunch of videos from Japan of a big gym and people flying a bunch of ultra micro slow flyers made of film and stuff. It was so awesome, they had little Nutballs, funky multi wings, deltas, Vtol x planes, ornithopters, you name it. I watched these and larger RC models.

Around 2018 I was(have been, and in some ways still am), not in a very happy place in my life, and was looking for a hobby to get my mind off stuff. I wanted something that I absolutely did not have to depend on somebody else or be on somebody else's time to do, that I could do when and how I wanted on my own time. That being said, I wanted it to be something that had the potential to connect with other people too, but something I could do just as easily by myself. I had a lot of unrealistic expectations though about how fast I'd be successful, especially with my own custom designs. YouTube makes everything look too easy. I didn't even know all the terms for different control surfaces or anything about aerodynamics, CG, thrust angle, etc. and was trying to build by own designs out of coroplast and heavy, overpriced Elmer's board. I joined the FT forum in a last ditch effort to get help, not expecting overly much, but I was blown away by all the help and support I got!

Thanks to FT, I'm not only successful at the hobby but have found a great community too. Besides all that, I too love anything that flies and overcomes gravity. Love air and space travel and vehicles, and I love to get creative. I'm not a math person, but I like geometry, shapes, angles, architecture...how it flows together aesthetically, and how it flows aerodynamically too! I love getting creative, experimenting with odd and striking wing shapes and stuff and making my own designs. I've got an interest in trying to build and fly all sorts of planes, but there's a few key areas where my interest is more concentrated. I love deltas, especially slender and low aspect styles. I want to try all kinds-straight slender deltas, compound, ogival, gothic, and wider delta styles too. I also love any kind of weird historical prototype, cold war jets, anything SciFi or UFO looking, and funky park flyers like the Nutball.

So I can scratch my creative itch and design my own planes, challenge myself to build them and work out my dexterity, motor skills, and engineering/building skills and logical faculties, and then make them look nice(not usually my prototypes, but after!). Then the flying part gets me outside and getting fresh air, and there's nothing like piloting my own creation. Besides being fun, it sharpens my hand eye coordination and spatial awareness to fly these planes, things that can use some improvement! One of the best parts, though, is to be able to share my experiences here.

 

[Piotrsko]

For me it has always been "WHY does it do that, and what happens if you put this bit over there?" Building is a necessary evil, crashing is always a learning experience not a disaster, and experimenting is always better spending someone else's money. Best jobs are at or near airports or other places where you can commit continuous heinous acts of unrepentant aviation.

RC enables me to design something, tweak it until it's right and not worry about surviving the OOPS moments. On the deck low inverted hot passes are a bonus, can't do knife edge very well with gliders.

 

[Thorondor]

My dad got me an Airhogs differential thrust biplane from like 2007 and I've been hooked ever since.

 

[The Hangar]

Well I was always making paper airplanes and playing with horseless when I was little, and then I got into the rc world. When I had saved some money I’d go to Walmart and to the toy section and drool over the rc cars for sale. I bought several over the years and finally I was ready for something better. I found a little buggy online that seemed cool and bought it. It was way nicer than the Walmart ones but still had all or nothing steering etc. Then I saw my uncle’s helion volation and was hooked! I settled on a cheaper helion car that was still “hobby grade” and went to the hobby shop. They didn’t have the one I wanted but at the end of the visit, I walked out with a traxxas slash! I drove that thing like crazy, kept breaking parts, and kept wanting more trucks. I finally got the traxxas e revo, and then just couldn’t afford any more. So someone told me about flitetest, I was hooked, and have been enjoying it for a little over a year now!

Edit: somewhere in there I spent all my money and bought a little air hogs helicopter that, well, never flew...

 

[mach1 rc]

My dad bought me a sport cub s for my 12th birthday and my cousin got me started scratch building about a year later. I've done it ever since( which isn't that long).

 

[The Hangar]

My dad bought me a sport cub s for my 12th birthday and my cousin got me started scratch building about a year later. I've done it ever since( which isn't that long).

So how long have you been doing the ft planes?

 

[mach1 rc]

So how long have you been doing the ft planes?

2 years

 

[sprzout]

Well, for me, RC's always been fascinating for me. I started with RC cars when I was maybe 12ish? My dad had bought a Tamiya Frog at what was then known as Price Club, and built it up. I was so fascinated by it that he bought me a Tamiya Falcon, which I then built up and drove until one of the NiMH batteries exploded and broke the chassis. I don't know what happened to it after that, as it ended up being boxed up and sold/thrown away?

I had always been interested in doing RC flight, but my dad wasn't willing to let me get into that. Fast forward almost 30 years, when he had some friends that pulled him into a local RC flying club called the Weedwackers Aerosquadron. He started flying with them, and took me out to the field; I get out there and there's a couple of guys who had started flying quadcopters with FPV. I'd seen the guys on Rotor Riot flying, and got hooked on that; when the guys sat me down and had me watch while they flew their quads, I got hooked and flying snowballed from there - I was given a racing quad for my birthday (after flying for over 40 hours on the simulators) and immediately took off and started doing flips and rolls on the first flight of it, with my dad spotting me and swearing at me to stop giving him a heart attack. LOL

From there, I went to a Maker Faire and ran into some guys who had built some Bloody Barons and were screaming across the flying area, and so I watched some of their videos and found the Sea Duck plans, which had been straight out of Talespin and Tales of the Golden Monkey, both shows I had grown up on. I started building and ended up here in the forums. Bug has bitten hard.

 

[Hai-Lee]

I always loved airplanes and even joined the Airforce, (RAAF), to be involved though, due to my mustering and training, only as a passenger. I tried "Get Dizzy" flying, (control line), but I got dizzy. Started building RC in the 70s but never quite got the hang of it.

Restarted in 2015 by building myself yet again and taught myself to fly. Found a group of like minded locals and formed a club, and now I teach and do repairs for club members as well as build.

It has its rewards being an instructor because I get to crash planes I could never afford to buy. In addition I have flown a very wide range of models in a very short time frame. In the last week I have assembled and maidened the LARGE Opterra as well as the smallest version in addition to my training duties, I may have gained another student and I have been retrofitting flight stabilizers to a number of aircraft including the small Opterra and a Bixler 1.1 clone.

The people you meet and become involved with can be the strongest and longest lasting of friends you ever will meet.

I have a lot of RC matters on my plate such that i have to keep a book of work in and out or I will just forget something.

After all of the above I don't like RC, I love it!

Have fun!

 

[BATTLEAXE]

After all of the above I don't like RC, I love it!

Have fun!

Well said sir

 

[CrazyFastFlying]

My dad got me a 2ch RC helicopter when I was 6. Since then I have been hooked with General Aviation and the RC hobby. I started my youtube channel about 2 year ago and from there I have gotten more serious in the hobby. I am 14 now and I am hoping to get my Private Pilots License in the next few years.

 

[Flying Monkey fab]

I've had a fascination with air and space since before I can remember.
Built and flew free flight and control line as a kid as back then you had to be affluent to fly RC.
After a hitch in the Navy I learned to fly and have flowen a lot of different things over the last 40 years.
In the end health starts to slip and any real aircraft becomes too expensive so I rediscovered models.
RC now affords me the opportunity to fly things that I never got to when flying full sized. As I progress I plan on getting weirder and weirder with them.

 

[Vimana89]

I like the trying different types of planes part too, and I'm broadening the styles I'm comfortable building and flying, and even designing from scratch. Multi wings are a new category I never knew how much I liked until I built the FT DR1 and my four winger. What's the next type I'll really end up enjoying? Who knows. It could be anything from flying wings, forward swept, or something weird like annular round or box wings or even lifting bodies.