Getting Started with Remote Control Airplanes

For about $150 and a couple hours of effort, you can buy a remote control airplane and learn to fly it.

Growing up, I was obsessed with airplanes (my dad was in the Air Force, which helped). I spent thousands of hours building plastic models from kits, and I memorized every detail of almost every military aircraft build since the 60s.

A few months ago, while looking for Christmas gift ideas for myself, I noticed the Estes XB-39. I was shocked–a remote controlled aircraft for about $150, and it could take pictures. I looked into RC aircraft a few years back, and everything was gas powered, cost thousands of dollars, and you were guaranteed to destroy your first three aircraft while you developed some skills. Being an avid photographer, it seemed like the perfect gift. Santa came through for me.

(more after the jump)

A couple of weeks later, the pond behind my house froze over, providing the big open space I needed to fly it. The wife grabbed the video camera and we took it out for its maiden flight. I knew nothing about flying RC planes, so I expected to destroy it–which made it that much more fun, like going to a NASCAR race when know FOR SURE there’s going to be a huge crash.

• Flight 1: Sharp right turn into a tree. I knocked it out with a big branch and repaired it with some packing tape. Suddenly, I was relieved that it was made with cheapy feeling foam.
• Flight 2: I launched it straight over the pond this time. I immediately wanted to circle around, so I held the stick left. It turned left, all right, until the left wing was pointed straight down. Death spiral as it crashed into the ground. Amazingly, even from this dramatic crash, there was no damage.
• Flight 3: Remembering the instructions, I decide to steer by pulsing the control left and right. The plane makes a big, wide circle, and gains lots of altitude. I make another beginner mistake and fly it over my head. I lose track of it, and it ends up in another tree. This time, it’s about 60 ft in the air, and way too high for me to reach (though it doesn’t stop me from trying).

Amazingly, it fell out of the tree two days later and ran just fine. I flew it about a dozen times after that and got pretty adept with it. Nonetheless, everything I did was wrong. Save yourself some time and cash and follow my advice for getting started with remote controlled airplanes.