OP
Session 5
Ambassador of Strings & Wings
Question. is it harder to fly a radio control plane over a full size aircraft ?
Chris Wren
22 years building and flying remote control vehicles.Author has 437 answers and 580K answer views5y
I have a few hours under my belt in a Cessna 182, and probably close to 5000 hours flying numerous different styles of rc plane, but to keep this answer relevent, ill compare the 182 to the old skyzone cessna that i once owned. It was a scale model, all control surfaces the real plane has, this had too.
The biggest difference you will find is the difficulty in control. A scale model will fly very similar to the real thing.
The 182 has feedback through the controls. You can feel how much pressure you are applying, and how that pressure makes the plane react. With an rc, you have constant tension from the springs in the control amd that is all. You need to learn by feel where the stick is positioned, it is very easy to use too much stick and cause yourself issues.
Along with control feedback, you get body feedback in a real plane. Bank a little left and you feel the plane bank, it only needs to be a few degrees to notice it. With an rc the further away you get, the harder it becomes to notice even a major change in orientation.
Orientation is also an issue with rc planes. In a real plane you sit in a fixed position. All controls are normal to you. Yoke left makes you roll left. This works with an rc plane while flying away from yourself, but how do you get back? You need to yoke left to bank right when flying towards yourself. How about flying from left to right across your body?
Wind is also more of an issue for rc planes. Yes a real plane has max wind speeds and suffers buffeting in the air, but a rc plane in the hands of a beginner can get blown away never to be seen again. With practice you can fly an rc plane in very high winds (45mph is my record so far) but that comes down to another factor… fear. If your not on board to die in a crash, is a crash a big issue?
Altitude. Cessnas cant fly that high, but they fly WAY higher than most rc planes. A small mistake at 2000' is recoverable. A small mistake at 20' isnt so much.
I could find a few more things, but have to get back to work. So in ending, in my opinion an rc plane is harder to fly and easier to crash, but the outcome of said crash will end in a pile of balsa or foam, not mangled metal and dead meat sacks.
3.5K views
View upvotes
Chris Wren
22 years building and flying remote control vehicles.Author has 437 answers and 580K answer views5y
I have a few hours under my belt in a Cessna 182, and probably close to 5000 hours flying numerous different styles of rc plane, but to keep this answer relevent, ill compare the 182 to the old skyzone cessna that i once owned. It was a scale model, all control surfaces the real plane has, this had too.
The biggest difference you will find is the difficulty in control. A scale model will fly very similar to the real thing.
The 182 has feedback through the controls. You can feel how much pressure you are applying, and how that pressure makes the plane react. With an rc, you have constant tension from the springs in the control amd that is all. You need to learn by feel where the stick is positioned, it is very easy to use too much stick and cause yourself issues.
Along with control feedback, you get body feedback in a real plane. Bank a little left and you feel the plane bank, it only needs to be a few degrees to notice it. With an rc the further away you get, the harder it becomes to notice even a major change in orientation.
Orientation is also an issue with rc planes. In a real plane you sit in a fixed position. All controls are normal to you. Yoke left makes you roll left. This works with an rc plane while flying away from yourself, but how do you get back? You need to yoke left to bank right when flying towards yourself. How about flying from left to right across your body?
Wind is also more of an issue for rc planes. Yes a real plane has max wind speeds and suffers buffeting in the air, but a rc plane in the hands of a beginner can get blown away never to be seen again. With practice you can fly an rc plane in very high winds (45mph is my record so far) but that comes down to another factor… fear. If your not on board to die in a crash, is a crash a big issue?
Altitude. Cessnas cant fly that high, but they fly WAY higher than most rc planes. A small mistake at 2000' is recoverable. A small mistake at 20' isnt so much.
I could find a few more things, but have to get back to work. So in ending, in my opinion an rc plane is harder to fly and easier to crash, but the outcome of said crash will end in a pile of balsa or foam, not mangled metal and dead meat sacks.
3.5K views
View upvotes
