Aircraft modeling - the beginning of a long journey

    In connection with the upcoming day of astronautics and aviation, I decided to raise a topic that was already flickering on the hub, and judging by the comments to people it was interesting, but for some reason it did not receive much development.
    Big aviation, and especially astronautics, is far from accessible to everyone, but aircraft modeling is a hobby that makes everyone feel like an aviator.
    I myself am new to aircraft modeling and comments from more experienced pilots are welcome.
    This is my first note on this subject and I would like to tell in it about how my journey in aircraft modeling began, continued here. .


    So, last spring, wandering around the Internet, I accidentally stumbled upon a forum of modelers. And since I dreamed of flying from childhood, but I couldn’t because of poor health, aircraft models became my hobby — I bought such plastic gluing kits and glued them. And then I came across flying model airplanes. And of course, he’ll immediately get himself such a purchase. I warn you right away - aircraft modeling is quite expensive, for a normal start, it is advisable to have an initial capital of about 20-30 tr. True, it is not necessary to have it right away, in my case, the purchase of everything necessary has been crumbled for three months, which is quite lifted.

    What do we need to start flying?


    No matter how cool and experienced the IL-2 attack aircraft pilot you feel, or maybe even you fly at the controls of a real airplane, in any case, the first thing you need to start flying is a simulator.
    Without a good simulator, starting flights is impossible. Many stumbled on this, more than one model died in the hands of even experienced pilots who flew in the "big" aviation and took up the console without training in the simulator.
    Simulators is not a Microsoft Flight simulator, nor is an IL-2 attack aircraft. There are special simulators of radio-controlled aircraft models. I will single out three main ones:
    FMS - a free simulator with a minimum set of functions;
    AeroFly - a paid simulator with good graphics and physics, a large number of models and flight areas
    RealFlight - also paid, also beautiful and high-quality.
    I opted for AeroFly Pro Delux. Simulators are sold with laces for connecting equipment or even with their own remotes, but it is better to take the equipment for getting used to with the simulator immediately.

    Selection of control equipment


    The control equipment for radio models is produced by several large companies: Hitec, Futaba, JR, Spectrum.
    And several Chinese companies, such as wfly, but my IMHO - it is better to take the equipment of a more or less well-known company. Although wfly also works great, basically.
    Control equipment is classified by frequency (main - 35 MHz, 40 MHz and 2.4 GHz) and by the number of channels (3,4,6,7,9,10, etc.)
    FM frequencies of 35 MHz and 40 MHz are a classic, they have been flying for more than a dozen years. 2.4 GHz is a relatively new development, but has already gained immense popularity among modelers. The main difference between Fm frequencies and 2.4 GHz is that when flying on an FM frequency it is always necessary to know what channel you have (for example, I have 51 channels, 40.675 MHz) and make sure that your frequency does not intersect with anyone on the airfield - otherwise, get two sets of "firewood" while flying at the same frequency. At 2.4 GHz there are no such problems - there the technology allows you to fly a huge number of aircraft into the air without frequency crossings. The minus is 2.4 GHz in the relative high cost of equipment, especially receivers, which often suffer from vibration or when the aircraft crashes.
    The number of channels - the more the better. A minimum of 4 channels
    is required: - elevator
    - rudder
    - gas
    - ailerons
    There are models without ailerons or rudders, but it’s better to start learning on models with full control in order to immediately acquire all the necessary skills.
    It is better for beginners to take equipment with 6 channels at once, because you can grow out of 4 channels quickly - after the first model you will definitely want something more serious, for example with flaps and a retractable chassis - you need 2 more channels. Of the 6 channels, you can not grow for quite some time.
    For myself, I settled on the budget option Hitec Optic 6 - 6 channel equipment, 40 MHz, has fine tuning capabilities.

    Start of flights


    Flights begin in the simulator - the remote is connected to the computer, configured, calibrated, the model is selected and forward to the sky.
    It’s clear that I immediately want to take something like this:

    But still, it’s better to choose something simpler, some kind of an airplane trainer with an upper wing:

    You learn to take off on this trainer, and land, take off and land, and when after each takeoff it turns out with a 95% probability of planting model land - you can think about buying a real model. It took me a month personally from the first take-off in the simulator to the purchase of the model.

    The simulator allows you to save a lot of money and nerves, because the probability of returning the model land after the first take-off without preparation in the simulator is practically zero - not one of my friends modelers could do this, but 70% of them tried to start without a simulator and many flew and only 3 models landed - the first two survived literally several take-offs and not a single landing.

    In general, this is my first article, if the topic is interesting, then I could talk about the choice of an aircraft model, the purchase of components, the first take-off in the real world (which by the way ended successfully), the first drop (about 20 take-off), about how and on what models fly, what they are made of, etc.

    And finally, a small video of what that part of the aircraft modellers, who are interested in not the process of making flying copies and non-jet models, is interested in: the so-called 3d aerobatics to music on a large gasoline model:


    To be continued.

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