Introduction to the Different Electric RC Plane Types

Posted on Aug 19, 2009 by Radio Controlled Aeroplanes

Most RC plane hobbyists start out with an electric RC plane. The electric RC plane offers an affordable and easy way to start flying radio controlled aeroplanes. The electric RC planes can be categorized in many ways, but in general, there are five kinds of electric RC model planes around:

Park Flyers
Indoor RC Planes
Micro RC Planes
RC Glider Planes
(Bigger) Electric RC Planes

Park Flyers

Park flyers are smaller RC planes that were created to enable flying when there’s not too much space to fly around – like a park.

However, even a park flyer still requires a space equal to a football field for enjoyable flying, so keep that in mind when choosing your plane.

Park flyers are made of various materials, like balsa wood, depron and higher quality materials like EPP or elapor foam. One of the most common models is the Cessna, common plane turned into RC version: Cessna 182 electric RC plane (Cessna models exist in all electric RC plane “classes”, including the smaller park and micro flyers).

Typical park flyer weights less than 1 pound (of slightly more) and has a wing span of 2-3 feet. With the light-weight, the park flyers can’t stand any wind and thus, require calm weather.

Indoor RC Planes

Indoor RC plane is an electric RC plane that is spesifically designed to be flown inside. But not inside your standard house, but bigger halls and buildings like school gymnasiums and indoor sports arenas.

Indoor RC flying is great when the weather conditions would prevent flying outside – wind, rain and freezing weather won’t stop flying. An indoor RC plane weights-in at both sides of a pound and cannot be flown in any kind of wind.

With all indoor planes, it’s recommended to learn the flying basics outside, without the danger of hitting walls (it’s not uncommon for a beginner to fly to the walls or ceiling even in a bigger hall).

Most indoor RC planes are capable of flying outside as well, even the micro planes, as long as there is little to no wind around.

Micro RC Planes

One subcategory of the indoor RC planes are the micro RC planes. Micro RC planes are not as common as micro helicopters for example, but these tiny RC models have grown into a whole new hobby.

Micro RC planes range from cheaper and smaller versions of the bigger electric RC planes to tiny replicas of the WWII fighters and modern jet planes. Micro RC planes require some airspace to be flown around, so even these are not necessarily suitable for a small flat.

Electric RC Glider Planes

In general, RC glider planes have a wing-span over 4-5 feet and weight-in about 3-5 pounds – and because of the nature of the flight, more and less require wind to be flown properly.

Electric RC glider plane refers to a glider or sailplane that has an electric motor. Some refer to all radio controlled glider planes as electric planes as the planes have electric gear in them, even if they don’t come with an electric engine.

All RC glider planes are flown in the same way, utilizing wind and the rising air currents, both thermal and slope lifts. The difference between a pure RC glider and a motored RC glider is the way they are launched.

A pure RC glider is launched by throwing it by hand, towed manually or with another RC plane or with a bungee. The motored electric RC glider is launched and taken into the air with it’s own engine. When the plane has climbed high enough using the engine, the electric engine is cut off through the RC radio transmitter.

The motored electric glider planes have a folding propeller. The propeller works like a normal propeller when carrying the plane to heights and when the throttle is cut, the blades fold back to the fuselage sides. With the propeller folded back, the plane avoids wind drag for the flight.

When the plane has climbed up, engine is cut off and the propeller has folded back, the electric RC glider plane is just like any RC sailplane / glider, and is flown using and trying to find the thermal and slope lifts, just like the real, non-RC glider planes. A 2-3 channel radio controlled glider plane is often referred as the best and easiest option for a beginner to start flying radio controlled aeroplanes.

(Bigger) Electric RC Planes

These are the electric RC planes that are more and less the same as the RC planes with combustion engines. Bigger electric RC planes weight-in anything from couple of pounds up to 10 – with more weight, these heavier electric RC planes can handle a little wind too.

On the 3-10 pounds weight range and packing the modern brushless engines and Li-Po batteries, bigger electric RC planes are more and less equal to the nitro and gas planes (although nitro RC plane fans will of course disagree here).

The required flying area for these larger RC aeroplane models is equal to the combustion engine planes. As a ready-to-fly package, a bigger electric RC plane offers a whole lot of fun as long as there’s enough space to fly around.

The distinction between the park flyer and non-park-flyer varies based on who’s talking and the manufacturer – for example, the Easy Star -plane (the blue-winged one on the picture there) weights about 3 pounds and is sometimes referred as park flyer, which is probably the correct classification, although it does pack some characteristics of the bigger planes.

What Kind of Electric RC Plane Are You Using?

Many RC hobbyists have all kinds of planes, but still one plane or plane type is often the favorite…

Which is your favorite RC model plane type?

Are you into micro RC planes or indoor flyers? Or is flying outside the only true way to go?

How To Choose a RC Radio Transmitter for RC Planes

Posted on Aug 17, 2009 by Radio Controlled Aeroplanes

Most of the time, the RTF (Ready-To-Fly) radio controlled aeroplanes come with a radio, so you don’t necessary have to go through the process and buy the radio on it’s own. However, it’s still good to know the basics of the “radio” in the RC hobby and know what the different number of channels are for.

When you get further in your radio controlled aeroplanes hobby, you’ll be looking for more advanced RC radio transmitter, so I’ll tell you why you should consider getting a better radio than you’d actually need right at the beginning. And we’ll go through the basics of RC radio controls and channels in the process.

For Radio Controlled Aeroplanes: Get a RC Radio Transmitter with At Least 4 Channels

The most basic radio control transmitters have 2-3 channels, rudder or aileron, throttle & steering or rudder & aileron in case of radio controlled aeroplanes. It takes 4 channels to gain complete acrobatic capability that will enable you to fly nearly every radio controlled plane.

Because of this, it might be worth it to by a bit more expensive and better radio with at least 4 channels, even for your first plane, because you can “re-use” the same radio for your next RC plane, heck, you can use the same radio for RC cars and boats as well, and possibly even radio controlled helicopters.

Like said, the 2-3 channel RC radio transmitter will do fine at the beginning, but you will probably have to buy a better one at some point, when you’ve built up your skill and want to move to the more advanced models and want to get full acrobatic control of your radio controlled plane.

Radio Control Channels for Radio Controlled Aeroplanes

With less than 4 channels, you can’t control everything. For a basic, beginner-friendly RC model planes this is not a problem, as many trainee planes don’t utilize more than 3 channels, using throttle, elevator and either rudder or aileron, depending on the plane. Leaving either rudder or aileron out, flying your radio controlled plane is, of course, simpler than with all 4.

Here’s what you get with different number of channels in your RC radio transmitter:

1 Control Channel
- Rudder* (e.g. RC model plane flies with full throttle until out of fuel/power)
2 Control Channels
- Throttle, steering (e.g. RC cars, RC boats). or Rudder & Elevator (e.g. Glider RC airplanes)
3 Channels
- Rudder or aileron, elevator, throttle or rudder, aileron and elevator
4 Channels
- Rudder, aileron, elevator, throttle.
5 Channels
- Rudder, aileron, elevator, throttle, flaps or retracts.
6 Channels
- Rudder, aileron, elevator, throttle, flaps or retracts.

When you have more than 6 control channels, you’ll have the option to add cool extra features like parachute drops, bombs, dive brakes or other operating parts to your model.

The most common number of control channels used on a RC model planes is 4. Cars and boats usually use 2-3 channels. As mentioned, the four-channel control gives you the total acrobatic flight capability and is able to fly most radio controlled aeroplanes – thus making getting a radio with minimum of 4 channels a great choice, even when starting out.

But there’s nothing wrong in getting a RC radio transmitter with 6 or more channels right from the start. Good RC radio transmitter will serve you for many years, so think of it as an investment. As the radio is at no risk of breaking because of crashing to ground, the chances of the radio getting broken are minimal, compared to the risk with the actual plane, which is likely to crash more than once during the early stages of your radio controlled aeroplanes hobby.

Note that if you’re looking for a 2.4 transmitter, make sure that the transmitter works with the receiver you got, or purchase a receiver to go with the new transmitter. For example, the Spektrum 2.4 transmitters have worked only with Spektrum and JR receivers, but not necessarily with any other, as the 2.4 seems to be brand-specific — but like said, take a look at the transmitter (and receiver) specs and you’ll see if they work together or not.

RC Radio Transmitter for Radio Controlled Aeroplanes

To summarize, if you’re new to radio controlled aeroplanes, that 2 channel radio for your RC glider plane or the 3 channel basic radio coming with your RTF RC plane will do just fine. But if you’re seriously thinking about going into radio controlled aeroplanes hobby, consider getting yourself a radio with at least 4 channels.

You know how it goes, when the RC bug bites, you’ll be looking for the high-quality gear. And a metallic, chrome-style RC radio transmitter feels so much better than the usual plastic models, adding sense of quality and luxury to the hobby you love.

The Spektrum RC transmitters are widely recommended by the experts, so you might start looking for a quality RC transmitter from those (JR transmitters being other quality option)…

Introduction to RC Sailplanes: RC Glider Plane

Posted on Aug 14, 2009 by Radio Controlled Aeroplanes

A two channel, electric RC glider plane with elevator and rudder controls is a great choice for the first radio controlled plane. After you’ve built up your skills, you can move on to more advanced, more complex radio controlled aeroplanes. RC glider planes are often also referred as RC sailplanes, because flying one is like sailing in the air, using the wind and the lifting currents.

It’s common that one starting their radio controlled plane hobby with a RC glider plane, will not even “move on”, because RC glider planes are very cost-effective because there’s no need for fuel and unpredictability of the wind keeps every flight challenging and fresh.

Why a Radio Controlled Glider Plane?

One of the reasons why even experienced hobbyists enjoy radio controlled glider planes is the amount of flight time one can get without extra costs. With fuel or gas RC motor, the tank of a radio controlled plane might only last for 10-15 minutes. In an electric RC glider plane, without a motor, the flight time is only limited by the size and capacity of the batteries of the receiver, resulting in several hours of flight time with one charge.

At the same time you will avoid the fuel costs and don’t have to clean the fuel mess etc. Thus, a radio controlled glider plane is very convenient choice and an electric RC glider plane will let you enjoy the fun of flying radio controlled aeroplanes for a long time.

Different Kind of Radio Controlled Glider planes

Gliders are available with or without a built-in motor. They come in various designs and wingspans.

Motored Radio Controlled Gliders

In case the RC glider does have a motor, the motor is used to get the RC glider plane airborne, not for the actual flight. Thus motored gliders don’t need wind to raise up, but they have motored propellers instead, which allow climbing up from flat sites.

After the throttle is cut, the propeller shuts down and in most planes fold back to lie alongside the fuselage, eliminating wind drag from the flight. After the motored propeller has been used to climb the plane up and shut down, motored glider is flown just like a pure glider, via thermal & soaring descent flight.

Pure RC Glider Planes

RC glider plane doesn’t necessarily have a motor at all and this kind of radio controlled glider is more common and often referred as RC sailplane. Instead of using a motor, the pure RC gliders plane are launched in to the air by towing with winch/another plane, catapulting with a bungee, or launched by hand like this DG-1000 Sailplane:

DG-1000 Glider Launch, original photo by hyper7pro

After the launch, pure RC glider plane are flown using the air currents produced by a wind blowing into a slope, creating a lift above, called a slope lift, or a thermal lift, generated by the heat of the earth, a sun warming up the ground for example.

Launching by hand from the top of the ridge is done by throwing the glider outwards into the slope lift. A glider can be thrown into a thermal lift as well, but launching from the top of the hill is the easier and usually the more efficient method. Towing the glider by hand or winch is pretty much how one would fly a kite. Bicycle makes the towing easy and fast.

Large radio controlled aeroplanes can be used to tug tow the glider aloft, pretty much like the real glider planes, releasing the glider by a RC servo operated mechanism. This kind of towing requires quite a bit of organizing, but it creates great collaboration for a RC flight club as the RC pilots with different planes can work together and everyone is having fun.

Click here to get your own RC glider plane from eBay

What Kind of Radio Controlled Plane is Your Favorite?

Radio Controlled Aeroplanes: RC Glider Plane

There’s something about radio controlled glider planes that I like a lot; flying in the wind like an eagle, hanging up there for ages. And no flight is never the same… What about you?

Is a RC glider plane a radio controlled plane you don’t feel like flying?

Or are you a slope soaring RC sailplane fan like me?

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