Very soon after the advent of the airplane building, collecting models of airplanes became a hobby of the young and old alike. Model airplanes in the earlier era could fly short distances, using basic aeronautic principles. Model airplane enthusiasts in the earlier days burnt a lot of midnight oil, to build their model airplanes from a kit or a plan. Today, it is fairly simple for newcomers, with the advent of RTF (ready to fly) and ARTF (almost ready to fly) model airplane kits, to get initiated in this wonderful and amazing hobby. The real model airplane enthusiasts still swear by the old method of building and flying their own model planes from scratch. They believe and rightly so, that building the model aircraft is as much fun as flying it.
Basically two types of model airplanes or scaled down versions of actual full size planes are available, static or non-flying and flying models. Static models are usually made of wood, plastic, paper or metal. Static models are used in wind tunnels to aid the design of full-scale airplanes. They are also used as promotional items by airlines. Flying models are used for aeromodelling.
These days the model airplane enthusiast is spoilt for choices, as a variety of model airplane kits are available in the market. However, its important to decide, which type of kit is suitable for you. Depending on your building skills and experience, you could choose from the following model airplane kits.
Diecast Models
These models are ready-made and usually made of metal. They give you a feel of how the real airplane looks. They are priced depending on the level of detail. The expensive ones will have all the fine details as observed in the actual plane, while the inexpensive ones are less detailed. You don't have to assemble anything. All you have to do is fix it to the desk stand and the model is ready for display. If you are not inclined to construct a model, this is the ideal choice.
Snap Fit Model Kit
This kit comes with pre-painted parts and no cutting and gluing is required. Anybody can assemble this model in less than half an hour. These kits are comparatively inexpensive and are usually recommended for beginners. For people looking to challenge their building and construction prowess, this is not the ideal choice. However, it is far more satisfying assembling this kit than the previous die-cast model.
Wooden 3D Construction Kit
This kit contains pre-cut wooden pieces of plywood usually 3mm thick. Cutting is not required, as the pieces interlock with each other. A three dimensional model can be prepared without any cutting and gluing. This is far more challenging, as you have to find and match the individual pieces, before putting them together.
Advanced Plastic Model Kits
This is perhaps the most difficult and challenging kit, as a lot of cutting, gluing and painting are required, to make your chosen model. The kits usually contain more than a hundred parts and are very finely detailed. You need to posses good construction skills, as a lot of gluing of tiny parts is involved. Practice will help in perfecting your technique. Patience and a lot of time are required to assemble your model aircraft..
Flying model aircrafts rates as one of the most intriguing hobbies. Very few things can compare to the experience of seeing your first RC airplane or helicopter take flight. For non-pilots, seeing someone else fly an RC aircraft is extremely captivating. So captivating that often times it makes you want to learn to fly!
Then the story starts. You spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy your first airplane/helicopter plus a few more hundred for the radio, fuel, batteries, gyros, glow plug, flight box, charger, fuel pumps, engines, starters and a hundred different things that the shop tells you is a must. Just when you thought that the cash spill finally ends, it doesn't!
New RC pilots quickly learn their first lesson - that it's hard to fly! So what to do? Easy, get an instructor! Well, this also means more money and a few hours of lesson time. No matter! In for a penny in for a dime! You take those lessons and learn everything you can from the (expensive) instructor. Pretty soon, you can fly "half" the time! Great!
Then eventually the lesson time runs out and you're on your own. That should be ok, since you are now "half" a pilot - or so you thought. On your next flight, you take the RC airplane / helicopter out and attempt your first solo flight. Suddenly for some reason that you don't understand, you loose control and crash. Unrelenting, you fix the craft, spent (much) more than a few dollars and hit the flying field again. You finally realize why you crashed last time, and you overcome it. Wonderful! But this time there's another hurdle, you turn the aircraft in to face you, you get disoriented and then - yup - another crash. You fix it; try again, crash again, and again and again - and yet again. A few months, a dozen crashes and thousands of dollars later you finally learn how to fly! Wow! Great ending!
This story repeats itself over and over with every new pilot. No matter how careful, a new pilot will crash more than a few times as they learn. In doing so, they will have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. Sadly, this fact "was" absolutely true - before!
No More!
Nowadays new pilot can learn to fly without having to pay for expensive instructors. Even better, they can crash their aircraft as often as they want without having to spend any money to fix it! How? The answer comes on a CD Rom, the Flight Simulators!
To be fair, RC flight simulators are nothing new. In fact, they were around since the 80s. However, early flight simulators were extremely unrealistic and so expensive that it might be cheaper to actually crash your model a hundred times.
Luckily, competition and technology changed all that. Modern flight simulators' realism rivals that of the latest computer game - in other words, extraordinary. Some versions come with an exact replica of a real radio controller as a joy stick, others will come with a connector cable that allows learning pilots to plug in their favorite RC controller, really good versions will allow for both options.
The physics engine that come incorporated in these flight simulating are also the very best modern programming technology will allow. Simply put, everything that can and will happen on the real airfield can and will happen in the simulated flight at 99.99% accuracy. And that is not an overstatement.
Price of these RC simulators is dropping too. Really good and well branded simulators costs around $300 dollars. Others that are just as good are available for just under a hundred bucks. The best deals come even cheaper than that, they are free! Don't think that free RC simulators aren't up to scratch; they offer features that rival their high priced counterparts. Still, even the most expensive package will pay for itself on the very first simulated crash you make (and you will make lots of them).
So there you have it, the best way to learn to fly an RC model today is to crash, crash, crash, and crash some more until you got it! Of course, do the crashing on a flight simulator where it won't cost any money.
Both Victor Epand & Tara Soonthornnont are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Victor Epand has sinced written about articles on various topics from Shopping, Trucks and Interest. Victor Epand is an expert consultant for model planes and model helicopters. You can find the best marketplace for model planes and model helicopters by visiting the best sites for. Victor Epand's top article generates over 11100000 views. to your Favourites.
Tara Soonthornnont has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Branding, Interest and Computers and The Internet. Interested in the amazing hobby of Electric RC Helicopters?Tara Soonthornnont is an Electric RC Helicopter enthusiastwho maintains a website dedicated to it.Check Out. Tara Soonthornnont's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.