While I follow Utah Football and Basketball carefully, the other sports don’t get much of my attention. A few years ago I became involved in RC flying. With technology growing in leaps and bounds and pricing becoming affordable we are in the “golden age” of the hobby.
I began in earnest about 6 years ago and have enjoyed it immensely!
I’ve been fascinated with RC flying, especially the replicas of the old WWII warbirds.
Although seeing modern aircraft get used is pretty cool too.
Thanks, CCU. I have about 15 planes at any given time. They are mostly WWII warbirds and lately more of the current jet aircraft. Think F-16, A-10 Warthog, F-18 Hornet, F-22 Raptor etc.
We have a local drone guy who is one of the best at it in the game. NASCAR hires him to shoot the photos and drone footage for the Daytona 500 every year. Just for giggles he films the Magna 4th of July Parade, too.
I understand some of the newer planes have photo tech, too now. Getting a view of the flight from the plane would be awesome.
RC has come a long way, no doubt.
Greg, if you watch the 2nd video of the beach strafing runs, about half of that video is from an onboard camera. Very simple to do with a $60 HD cam and some Velcro. I do onboard video all the time. Check my channel.
Very cool stuff!!! Thanks for sharing
Where is that? I’d love to go check it out.
We launch high power rockets. Last year, a member of our club flew to nearly 300,000ft. It was amazing to be there.
Do you guys coordinate with the FAA ?
Forget FAA, what about ** NORAD!?!?**
(Seriously, pretty sure they do. I think they used to launch at Bonneville Salt Flats, which is Restricted, Hill’s north test range.)
I see in the video these guys are making their own solid propellant. My initial take is that’s fairly dangerous. I know a guy I went to high school with burned up his parents’ basement doing it. (On the other hand, he ended up getting a bunch of patents for air bag inflator propellants, so he must have learned something.) Is making your own propellant common in this hobby? I know there was a company out of Las Vegas that used to show up at industry conferences that did this work and built “Estes motors on steroids” for the hard core hobbyists. What are folks using for the oxidizers in this, AP or AN? What’s the polymer? What’s the solids fraction and resulting Isp and burn rate (looks high based on how long the static test videos last)? You’ve just got me really curious now.
It’s north of San Diego about 2 miles West of I-15 on Gopher Canyon Road.
Wingmasters RC Club
Holy crap that’s high!!! The FAA has a 400 foot ceiling for RC planes. Does this not apply to rockets?
Thanks. I’m just up the road in Temecula, I’ll definitely check it out
Terrific video. Thanks for sharing! Makes my RC planes look like the cheap little toys they actually are.
Uhhhh… I’ve flown RC just a little, enough to know flying a real plane is easier, in some ways, because you have the same POV.
Do you ever have to deal with crosswinds? That was my least favorite part of flying small planes, especially if it was gusty or changing direction. My hairiest landing was at Roosevelt, where it turned to a quartering tailwind right in the flare, and gave me a bunch more float that I bargained for. At least I kept it on pavement! Sheesh!
Hopefully with RC you just take out that drama and use the “discretion is the better part of honor” angle if things aren’t near perfect. I really felt bad for this guy. Looks like a marginal day for RC. The announcer’s accent reminds me of Monty Python, but this had to make the owner / pilot sick.
Hey Ma-ake. I’ve heard many a pilot of full scale aircraft tell me that it’s easier to fly from the cockpit than from the ground. I guess the trickiest part is getting the angle right to land.
Crosswinds aren’t too bad to overcome with some rudder unless it’s a strong shifty crosswind. I choose not to fly on those days! It’s not that I’m a coward, it’s that I’m thrifty! AKA: cheap.
At least that B-52 was a model. Unlike this one:
We had an accident here at the local airport on the 4th of July. Brand new pilot doing touch and gos with gusty winds. He panicked , started a turn nose high and retracted his flaps. He had his 3 young boys with him, he was killed but luckily the boys survived.
A week later a Citation crashed 500ft short of the runway killing all 6 on board
Here’s a quickie from Memorial Day. The A-10 Warthog doing some rain ops:
