I started flying RC as a teenager in Pennsylvania. I bought an Olympic II glider and radio when I was about 14. I had never even seen a radio control plane fly before my first flight. I read what I could find and just tried it. I pulled the High Start way back and just let it go. I had the pitch hooked up backwards. I also had no idea how slowly it would fly, so I kept it near what was probably its top speed. I crashed a lot, but kept fixing it.
I eventually found the Daniel Boone Silent Flyers. I remember being stunned at how slow a glider would fly. The guys there were welcoming and helpful. It made all the difference. I tried to make an .049 powered plane, but it wasn't successful.
I took a break from flying until my senior year of college. I was studying aerospace engineering and had gotten tired of the abstraction. It was clear that we were never going to make anything, let alone something that flew. I got a radio with a lightweight flight pack and built an .049 racing plane.
It flew fine and I got some experience. I think I also made a glider called a 2x4. Then, I started designing my own planes, one of which really flew well. After I graduated, I got a job and started part time grad school.
That put a stop to model planes.
Kids and career came along. I also took a long detour into guitar making, which worked out really well. About 5 years ago, I picked up a little hand launched glider, the kind that come with a basic transmitter and started playing with it at the local park. That led to a little powered plane.
Things changed when I found the Lafayette Cloud Jockeys. The guys were welcoming and have a very nice flying field. With their support and encouragement, I've really dug into RC planes. I've got a small collection of store bought ones and have designed a couple.
I'm a professor, so I started an intro to aerospace technology class in which I have the students build and fly model planes. It's been a learning experience for everyone, but they are learning a lot. We tried to make ones from scratch from foam and fiberglass. It worked, but the builds were slow and messy. We then tried foam core planes from Flite Test. The radios and hardware kits were great - just what the students needed. However, the planes couldn't handle the abuse that my enthusiastic kids dished out. The next class will build from wood, just like in the old days, with Flight Test hardware. The prototype is taking shape as I write this. I'm looking forward to seeing the students flying planes they made themselves.
Parting thoughts: The technology of modern RC equipment is really impressive, but the radios are complicated and can be hard to figure out.
The documentation tends to be poor, so there is a lot of slowly figuring things out. It feels like the early days of PCs. Feature lists keep growing, but ease of use doesn't seem to be a concern. I sometimes find myself missing my old analog radios. While limited, they just worked. I didn't need to spend long evenings looking for hints on how to get them working and trying endless combinations of settings. To be fair, once the radios are set up correctly, they are reliable, accurate and durable.
However, I think they form a barrier to entry that the sport can't afford. I worry that we're turning away anyone who doesn't want to spend long hours fussing with radios.
