Newport
and District Model Flying Club
Frequently Asked
Questions Page
This
page is only meant as a guide for beginners and people who don't
know where to begin and is only an overview of what can
be a complex subject and hopefully answer some of the questions
that you may have about what a radio controlled aircraft is and
put you on the road to success.
Q. How do
I start flying radio controlled aircraft and what model
should I buy.
The
answer to this on is you should contact your local model club
and see if they can give you the help you'll need if not look
for a club that can help you such as ours (see our
training page) as for the model well
everyone seems to want a Spitfire this is an absolute no, no you
should start with something like a Thunder Tiger, Tiger Trainer
which has a 60 inch span and easy to see while it's flying then
get someone from you local club to help you fly it don't
try and fly it on your own.
Q.
Well now I've got my trainer what engine should I fit into
It.
That
all depends on what trainer you've bought the Tiger Trainer is
designed to take .40 cubic inch (about 6½
cc) IC
(Internal Combustion) engine the make is a matter of preference
there's many good makes about such as Os, Irvine, ASP, Thunder
Tiger and many, many more these type of engines are often
referred to as glow engines.
Q.
What
fuel do they run on and Why are they called glow engines.
The
fuel is made up of methanol which is an alcohol with oil added
such as caster oil or as is common these days a synthetic oil
such as EDL or Klotz oil you can also get fuel with nitromethane
added which tends to increase power output.
They're
called glow engines because of the way they work and the little
plug (called a glow plug) in them which at first glance looks
like a small spark plug but that's where the likeness ends
instead of a spark gap you have a coil of platinum wire which
reacts with the alcohol in the fuel igniting the fuel and
keeping the engine running.
Q.
Can
model aircraft be powered by anything other than an IC
engine.
Yes
over the last few years battery and electric engine technologies
have improved immensely and are now equalling glow engines for
power the consequence of this is you are now seeing more and
more electric powered planes about the advantages of these
planes are they are almost completely silent to fly although
still expensive when compared to IC prices are dropping almost
by the day.
Q.
Now I've got my model and engine I need a radio what should
I buy.
Radio's
are again a matter of choice but for your first radio and while
you're learning should be one that is used by the
majority of your club this makes training you a lot easier
because of the buddy box system (the Newport club use Futaba
radio's for training because of their popularity) the radio
frequencies used in the British Isles for flying are 35Mhz to
use this for anything else is illegal so make sure your new set
is on that frequency.
Q.
What on earth is the Buddy Box system.
The
Buddy Box system is a means of joining two transmitters together
with a lead and it's just like the dual controls in a car when you
learn to drive, the master transmitter is the one use by your
instructor to fly the model when he/she presses a button or
pulls a switch control is transferred to the slave transmitter
that's the one you're holding if you get into trouble your
instructor will release the button/switch and get control back
immediately, the buddy box system is by far the best way to
learn to fly.
Q.
I've heard of transmitter modes what are they.
On a
model plane there are four main controls elevator, aileron,
rudder and throttle what the word mode
refers to is which stick controls what, in general there are two
main modes in us know as mode 1 and mode 2 they're set up like
this (see diagrams on the right and click on the images for a
larger picture)
Mode 1
the left stick controls Elevator and the Rudder the right stick
controls the Ailerons and the throttle
Mode 2
the left stick control Throttle and Rudder the right stick
controls the Ailerons and the Elevator
There's
a lot of banter about which is the right and wrong mode to use
in truth there is no right or wrong mode if it works for you
it's the right mode, but the mode you chose should be determined
by the mode the majority of your club mates fly, go their
way use the most common mode in the club that way you are can always sure of help.
Q.
I've see numbers on propellers such as
11x6 what do these numbers mean.
Well
the first number 11 in this case means the length of the
propeller in inches (about 28cm) the second number refers to the
pitch in inches in simple terms it means that if a propeller is
screwed into a solid medium such as wood it would move forward 6
inch (about 15cm).
Q. You
mentioned the controls Elevator, Aileron, Rudder and
Throttle what exactly do they do.
Because
an aircraft flies in three dimensions there are three axis's to
control (see diagram on the right) they're roll controlled by
Aileron, Pitch controlled by Elevator Yaw controlled by Rudder
the forth control Throttle is used to increase thrust and is
used more to climb rather than increase speed unlike a car,
rudder doesn't turn the aircraft as it does a boat it causes it
to kick its tail to one side and fly almost crabbing with one
wing further forward than the other, elevator is used to
increase lift when air speed is reduced to maintain height or to
increase lift to climb aileron is used to roll the plane to
initiate a turn.
Q.
I've heard that model aircraft are noisy is that correct.
No not
at all modern IC engines are extremely quiet the Department of the Environment (D.O.E)
recommendations are a maximum noise level of 82db at full throttle which is approximately 15 times
quieter than the average lawn mower at 96db (the db scale is
logarithmic scale) which means you can stand by a mode at full
throttle and talk in a normal voice without having to shout to
make yourself heard as well as making it difficult for a model
that's in the air which would allow sound to carry further, to
be heard much further away than 400 meters, the Newport club doesn't allow any model to fly that
exceeds 82db it should also be noted that most of our
members models are much, much quieter than this and are
encouraged to get them as quiet as possible.
Tiger Trainer
Thunder Tiger 42 IC engine
Bottle of Glow fuel & Glow
plug
Typical electric motor and
Lithium Polymer battery for electric powered flight
Futaba Skysport 6 Transmitter
Stick layouts for Modes 1 & 2
click images for larger view
