My teenage self refilled the tank of my tethered control line model airplane. The gas “glow” engine was powerful enough to easily remove fingers and it burned hotter than hot. I did not just respect that plane. I feared it.
We knew when any neighbor within half a mile flew one of these things. Unmistakable was the distinctive whine of the engine as it powered the plane through tight little circles around the pilot. The Doppler effect raised and lowered the apparent pitch every few seconds: RRRrrreeeooowwwwWWW, RRRrrreeeooowwwwWWW, RRRrrreeeooowwwwWWW, over and over into the early dusk of the summer night. Here is an example: Cox PT-19 Day: Flying the classic Cox PT-19 control line trainer on a nice Sunday evening.
Pitch, nose up or down (not the sound), is the only aspect of such a plane’s attitude under the pilot’s control. The engine has one speed, full throttle, and you fly until you crash or run out of fuel. By rotating his wrist, the pilot makes the plane climb or descend. His feet spin his body to keep the plane from wrapping the control lines around him. It is possible to perform loops [and other fancy stuff: CONTROL LINE FLIGHT FROM A WORLD CHAMPION!!], though I did not become so proficient in my two, possibly three flights with my 1970’s aircraft.
“Aircraft,” in my opinion, is too lofty a word. While they technically fly, the activity more closely resembles flying a stunt kite, where you live on the surface of a hemisphere described by the radius of the strings. This dimensional limitation, combined with the exhilarating experience of starting that engine with my very own tender young fingers are the factors that drove me from the sport in such a short time.
Radio controlled model airplanes had always seemed beyond my abilities to afford, and my skills to fly. Enter the wonders of 21st century design and circuitry. The sport* of flying model airplanes is now approachable for the masses. Beginner Mode is a beautiful thing. It uses on-board electronics to stabilize the plane against sudden forces, be they wind or pilot induced. For just over one hundred dollars you are in the club, figuratively speaking. If you want to join an actual club, which I am seriously considering, that will cost you another hundred.
Type “learn to to fly RC plane” into a YouTube search box and you will find videos featuring my first RC plane of choice, the Sport Cub S, made by Horizon Hobby. This plane is ultra light, relatively slow, and completely non-threatening. I bought mine a few weeks ago at Jackson Brothers Hobby Center Plus in Clearwater.
My Horizon Hobby Sport Cub S, after repairs. Flying is not the only skill to learn in this hobby!
The inevitable career ending crash happened while flying the plane in the vacant lot north of the office where I work. Over eager, as always, I was flying in winds rated too strong for the aircraft. According to the instruction manual, “Fly your aircraft outside in no greater than light winds (0 – 5 mph).” The flag at American Power and Gas was blowing significantly out from the flagpole. The wind blew the plane off course toward the parking lot, despite my attempts to keep it close to the ground. Close to the ground, I thought, would mean out of the strongest winds, but it also meant flying at my car’s door level. The head-on crash unseated the motor mount from the plane and was followed by the equally inevitable, but desperate and clumsy, fat-fingered attempts at repair.
My first mistake was to mis-comprehend the play I was observing in the motor mount, and assume the only real problem was the cracked cowl. Sure there was a bit of extra vibration when I tried to fly, but it was not “bad” if kept it below half throttle. I liked flying slowly, anyway. I would just repair the cowl, and that would be fine.
Back to YouTube. Of course, I was not the first to cause and repair this particular type of damage. My first question, “What type of glue should I use?” was answered fairly quickly. The options included a readily available type available at the hardware store or super market. White Gorilla Glue does not require a special trip to the hobby store, and the RCGroups.com forum recommend it. The instructions on the box caution, “DO NOT OVER APPLY GLUE. A little goes a long way. While curing, glue will expand 3-4 times, creating an incredibly strong bond line. Be careful of squeeze out.” 3-4 times? Are they exaggerating? Squeeze out? Yeah, yeah, standard warnings. I applied the glue in the Ace Hardware parking lot. The glue, I planned, could cure on the way to the soccer field where I would be flying.
But wait. When I lifted the plane from its box at the field, the glue was doing something “unexpected.” It seemed to have oozed out from beneath the motor and was seeping into the tiny gears that drive the propeller. The shaft was becoming immobilized with “an incredibly strong bond.” Ahhhh! Some quick work with my pocket knife while the glue was still pliable saved the day. I was able to pick and etch all the glue out of the spinning parts. Not a terrible result. I could still fly.
But a couple of windy night flights and several hard nose dives later, and the engine mount was too loose to fly, at all. In addition, the elevator was not longer responding to the stick, at all. This was it. The plane was toast, and my newly revived flying career would have been over, were it not for YouTube publisher FishyComics. His “Hobbyzone Sport Cub S motor Mount repair tutorial” video made the process seem way less daunting than I had been making it out to be. Fortunately, I was not as bad off as some. This guy, who started his first repair with plastic model glue is now on his second plane. #disaster #melting
But what to do about the elevator failure? I waited for my son, Eli the Observant and Calm, to visit before opening up the plane for any further repair. Sure enough, Eli noticed that the elevator’s disconnected state could be easily fixed. “Looks like there is a connection tube and you just fit those two rods together through it.” Two rods? I had seen only one, and the tube was not resolved at all by my eyesight, even with glasses. That’s My Boy! I was back in business. After one failed glue job on the motor mount (I over compensated and used too little glue) and some extra-curricular experiments with the foaming stuff, I was back in the air, honing my skills again, back in Beginner Mode.
How did the Wright Brothers do it?
On the way home, I pulled over and texted my son to tell him the good results of our RC plane surgery. I told him of a newly found Vacant Lot, much better for flying than the soccer field. I had run through 4 batteries and flew for nearly an hour. I had even switching out of beginner mode, flying for several seconds in Intermediate without immediately crashing, as usual.
“A few seconds is good. 🙂,” Eli responded. “The Wright bros only got a few seconds.“
“😮 They had no beginner mode, just crashes. With Orville or Wilbur in the plane!” I responded. “But they made a wing, and it lifted them, and my wing is hardly changed from theirs.”
“Yeah! That’s totally amazing,” Eli said.
No longer confined to the surface of a half-dome, I have experienced the ability to fly in 3 dimensions, maybe more. Within the range of my radio transmitter, I decide in which direction, how high, and how fast to go. Ultimately, it will be these successes which fuel my continued progress in the sport of radio controlled planes – successes fueled by a fantastically easy to fly (and repair) new breed of plane, and the freedom experienced when flying them. And lest you think these abilities and freedoms trivial, remember this. The Wright brothers’ passion for aviation was sparked by a model helicopter made of cork, bamboo and paper and powered by a rubber band that their father had given them in 1878, and we all know what this led them to do between then and 1903. We launch our dreams from the shoulders of dreamers who came before.
Paul Guernsey Player © 2019/02/03
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*sport. Is RC flying a sport or a hobby? I’m going with sport, because of the physical skills required. Does that mean that wood carving is also a sport, because that certainly requires physical skill? No, carving is a form of sculpture, which is art. I am open to suggestions here.
TheGuern 