WHEN I was a child, we had a doctor living next door to us who spent his free time building and flying remote controlled model aeroplanes. An entire room in his house was dedicated to his hobby. These planes were quite large, with a wingspan of more than two meters. They were constructed out of very light and fragile Balsa wood and had gas fueled engines. We sometimes went to his house to see the latest model but I don't remember ever seeing one fly. I do recall seeing one stuck at the top of a tree, and a story of one that had got out of range of his remote control and flown all the way to Lake Victoria, some 90 kilometers away. I don't know how he knew it had gone there, but that was the story. The other day, I met a group of guys in Jeddah who also fly remote controlled aeroplanes. However, thanks to advances in technology, the choice and range of what you can build is very wide. You can go for the relatively expensive and large planes, similar to the one described above, which fly at up to 320 kph (200 mph), or you can have fun with very small, light aircraft built out of Styrofoam, powered by little battery operated motors. The ones that these grounded aviators were flying were the latter. Their planes don't cost a fortune to build and when they crash you aren't left with a heap of toothpick-sized Balsa wood fragments. Nonetheless, these little planes require the same remote control skills as the big ones and are surprisingly challenging to master. You can download various simulator program from the Internet to learn and I had a go on a friend's computer. It is fairly straightforward powering up your machine and taking off and there, the easy bit ends. The little planes have similar primary flight controls to the real thing in that they have a throttle to control their speed; a rudder to control yaw; elevators to make them go up and down; and ailerons to control roll and pitch. (The more sophisticated the aircraft, especially when it comes to the larger, fuel powered ones, the more sophisticated are the controls.) However, learning how to use these basic controls is difficult enough and I successfully crashed on each attempt. The real challenge is when you turn the plane around to fly back towards you – now you have to reverse your controls. Left is suddenly right, right is left, up is down, down is up … yes, it is confusing to say the least. There are similar challenges when you start doing aerobatics and fly the plane upsidedown. The friend whose program I was trying out is a 747-400 captain and although he can safely fly those huge, beautiful birds, he also admitted defeat when it came to flying a little polystyrene battery powered remote controlled plane with a wing span of less than one meter. I spent a very relaxing morning watching the “pilots” fly their little remote controlled planes and learned a lot about them. Because the planes are so light, they have to be flown in almost windless conditions, usually in the early morning. The planes being flown were all home-built out of colorful pieces of Styrofoam, bought from various shops in Jeddah. There was a diverse collection of styles from fighters to a classic aerobatic Pitts Special bi-plane. The technology of mobile phone batteries has enabled small, light Lithium Polimer batteries, that provide a lot of power and energy for their weight, to be made to power the motors for these aircraft. The motor then powers a propeller, positioned at the front or rear of the plane, depending on the design. The Internet has revolutionized the hobby giving access to a wealth of information, a worldwide community of enthusiasts' clubs, and cheap components from China. Roberto Temporini, an IT professional who first started this remote controlled flying when he was a young man, recently returned to it when he had to give up tennis after an injury. He had a beautiful little red Pitts Special bi-plane with him but explained that his passion is the building of the planes. He likes to start without any plans and do the research and investigation. “There are no shops here selling the parts we need – even if there were, there probably wouldn't be a good market base and the prices would be too high. We use all kinds of things to make the planes from Styrofoam, to yoghourt containers and paper maché. I order things like electric motors, batteries and controllers on the Internet from China. They are very cheap and they are here within two weeks. I also buy things in toy shops, like kites and toy planes, and then take them apart and use the pieces I want – like landing gear. Have a look at this.” He showed me the leading wing edges on his plane. “That is a piece of bamboo from one of those Ikea blinds.” He admitted to finding the flying itself rather boring and doesn't have the patience to do all the work on the simulator. Nonetheless, he was quite a proficient “aerobatic pilot.” “If you are learning, you need a “sail” plane – it has big wings and is light weight, very stable and slow.” As we chatted, several little planes were darting about the sky with the occasional near mid-air collision and crash landing. A South African man, considered to be the local “Master” of remote controlled flight, has been flying for thirty years and was patiently instructing a school boy to fly. Roberto gave me a running commentary: “The orientation when you are learning to fly is difficult to master. You have to train your brain to do it so you can react automatically. You have to practice a lot.” There was also a little helicopter buzzing around – apparently, these are a lot more complex and not “do it yourself” and have to be bought. There are very diverse interests within the hobby – the motors, the aerodynamics, the electronics, the construction and the flying – and it is relatively inexpensive. Although these little aircraft cannot be flown very far (you lose sight of them very easily), the main problem the enthusiasts have is importing the Remote Control Transmitters. “We never really know what the situation is,” Roberto explained, “whether it is legal or not. We sometimes have trouble at customs when they see the transmitters.” Hopefully, this will become clearer in the near future so that more people – especially youngsters – can enjoy this challenging and absorbing hobby. __
