One new interest

Been a while.  This is a new post about new interest: flying radio controlled model airplanes.  Not a new interest, but something I have wanted to do since I was about 12 (sometime in a previous century).

So I bought this ARF (almost ready to fly) kit in January, took my good sweet time putting it together, had a couple of setbacks, joined a model airplane club and started learning in August.  Progress to date has been a completely destroyed fuselage (body), bent-out-of-shape propeller, several cracked (repaired or replaced) motor mounts, and some successful flights with an instructor.

The plane is an eFlight Apprentice 15e - molded foam with an electric motor, 5 channel radio transmitter / receiver combo and 4 sets of servos and linkages to control the rudder/nose wheel, elevator, ailerons and motor speed.  A real plane would also have flaps, but those are not needed for this model.  There is also a lithium polymer (LiPo) battery to power the airplane and 4 AA batteries in the transmitter.  Everything needed was in the box.

So, here are the components:

First, the transmitter and LiPo battery.   The battery is NOT in a heavy protective case because that would add weight.  So, great care must be taken around the battery - especially if there is any kind of mishap.
Second, the transmitter.  The two levers in the circles are the important parts.  The left one controls motor speed (faster up, slower down) and rudder / steering (left, right).  The right one controls the elevator (nose up, nose down) and the ailerons (wing flaps to roll left and right).  Both functions on each level may be used at the same time through diagonal stick movements.

 Here are all the components.  The flat wing, the fuselage with the stuff inside (see next photo, and a yardstick for some idea of size.  This is not a tiny model; the wing is about 58 inches from tip to tip.

 The fuselage holds the receiver and linkages to the little motors (servos) that are linked to the control surfaces by long rods.  The battery goes in a compartment uder this part of the fuselage, and the wing goes over this part.  The wing is removable, held on with 8 large elastic bands.

This is what the beast looks like assembled.

The really cool part of all this is that I get to fly with an instructor who has a transmitter linked to my transmitter by a coax wire.  As long as he holds down a switch on his transmitter, I control the airplane.  When I get into a mess and everyone around screams "We're all going to die!", the instructor can take over in a split-second, save me from my mistake, get the plane stable again, then give me control again.

This has happened a few times, but less and less now.  The last couple of times out I have been taking off and landing myself.  However, the skills are not yet sufficient to allow me to "earn my wings" - to be allowed to fly on my own whenever I feel like it.  To do that, I have to convince the instructor I am no longer a threat to everyone around me.  We are not quite there yet.

Stay tuned.