<h1>Radio-Controlled Airplanes May Be Small But They Are High Tech</h1>
The jet’s turbine powerplant spun up, the sound increasing to a whistle and then a soft roar as the odor of burning kerosene dispersed across the flight line. It rolled out, twisted, then sped ahead and climbed into the the skies, all while pilot Roger Olsen stayed on the ground.
Welcome to the modern home of radio-controlled airplanes - not the little things that some time ago sounded like huge, enraged wasps but aircraft powered by gas motors with mufflers, by electric engines or fuel burning turbines that cost of thousands of dollars.
Lesser piston engines burn a combination of oil, alcohol and nitromethane, said Ron Dixon, who is 74 now and began piloting model planes when he was about 10.
“The big ones use gasoline,” he said, indicating to a large, yellow plane during a walk in the middle of the tents on Sunday at the Racine R/C Club’s flying field in Mount Pleasant. These bigger engines burn a gasoline-oil combination like that utilized in chain saws and produce 6 or 8 horsepower. Some are half-scale planes, Dixon said, meaning they’re half as big as the genuine thing.
But gas is not the only option.
“I flew gas back in the 1960s and ’70s,” said Dennis Vollrath. At present his planes are all electric with no kerosene to mess with or to make a mess all over him and the plane. He pointed to one model which he’s tracked at 90 mph. Battery know-how - lithium ion or lithium phosphate - means lesser, more powerful amounts of muscle for the lightweight electric engines. The squarish batteries weigh approximately a half-pound apiece and are a little bigger than the cardboard cylinder at the middle of a spool of toilet paper.
“Two of these will start your car. That’s how powerful they’ve become,” he said.
After piloting his twin engine electric airplane, Aaron Cochran attached a small video camera under one wing of his Radian plane. A folding propeller mounted to an electric motor permitted him to unleash the sailplane and get it to an altitude where he could turn the engine off and let the plane soar on the air currents as the camera shot pictures of the ground. He intended to upload the clip onto the Web site YouTube. (You can find such videos by searching “radian” on http://www.youtube.com)
Like other pilots at the field on Sunday, Cochran, 49, an engineer who resides in Brown Deer, became involved in radio-controlled airplanes while he was a young man and saw one in the air over his home in Glendale.
If you are starting today costs only roughly $500, said Cochran and Vollrath. That amount will purchase a respectable plane along with the control units. Beyond that there’s a lot of free advice at clubs.
“Then we get down to the real cash,” Dixon said as he neared the sleek gray jet owned by Roger Olsen of Oak Creek. “That’s a pure jet turbine ... approaching 200 miles per hour.”
The jet frame costs a few thousand dollars. A turbine engine producing approximately 25 pounds of thrust costs about $4,000 more.
“There is no really cheap way to get into jets,” Olsen said. He has his eye on a replica of the Air Force A-10 attack aircraft. It has an 8-foot wingspan, and he’d need to purchase two of engines.
There was still work for him to do when the plane got in from the producer. He had to put in the circuit boards, wiring and set the fuel lines in place to transport the gallon of kerosene from the fuel reservoir to the engine.
“I had to set up the servo motors, the landing gear. Now I have to figure out why the failed to work.”
When his jet glided down from its 7-minute flight, the airplane rolled further than it should. Fortunately the friction of the grass on the 800-foot landing strip helped coast it to a halt. He gained a lot of applause from the spectators who complimented him on how well he controlled the plane in flight.
The Racine R/C Club has approximately 70 members, said Jerry Rose, the club vice president. A look across the field on Sunday showed that the people out flying tend to be middle-aged or older.
“We would really like to have some young kids starting,” Rose said. Quite a few club members are trained to instruct people how to fly the small planes using dual-control boxes that allow an instructor to override a student’s joystick if required.
Kent Buska, 12, has every intention of learning. He resides in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and at the show to visit family. His uncle, Keith, who also flies remote control planes, brought him to the club.
“I’m planning to get that one right there,” Kent said, pointing to a box for a model of the Air Force’s new F-22 Raptor fighter, but a slower model powered by a piston engine and a propeller.
Piloting model planes shows you many stuff, he said. One learns mechanics, aerodynamics and, of course, how to exist within a budget.
Then the sky’s the limit, as a minimum the first 400 feet of it. On top of that model planes can’t fly, but that’s still ample amount of room for fun.