World of RC

RC aircraft design thumb rules

2009-01-31T06:08:00.000-08:00

Following document layouts some thumb rules for RC aircraft design.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.d66e6c41-b14e-4809-8e9b-5d53b3e3e9a5

Credit: ROMEY BUKOLT

Radio frequency for Aeromodelling in India

2007-07-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the excerpts from frequency regulating authority in India. The source for the document is cited below the paragraph.

IND08	Following frequencies have been earmarked for various purposes in the citizen band:



		Frequency (kHz)	Type of Purpose
		26964, 26972, 27036, 27124	Personal Communication Relating to Hobbies
		27250, 27260	Radio Controlled Toys/low power electric gadgets
		27004, 27116, 27148, 27156, 27228	Aeromodelling
		27140, 27204 ,26968, 26976	Mountaineering
		27220, 27244	Radio Communication Relating To Sports Events
		27012, 27028, 27172, 27212	Communication Requirement In Rural Areas
		27044 27052	Communication Relating To Road Accident/Emergencies: Contacting Police Contacting Hospitals/Ambulance
		26980, 27236	Communication Needs On Highways
		27092, 27100	Communication Requirements Of Wild Life/Forest Conservation
		27060, 27068	Life Saving Communication In Coastal Water/Rivers/Lakes
		27076, 27084	Natural Disaster Relief
		27020, 27108	For Special Radio Controlled Devices (Garage Door Openers, Safety Alarm Etc.)
		27155, 27225	Radio control of models
		26988, 26996, 27132 27164, 27180, 27188, 27196, 27252, 27268,27276	Spare Channels For Future Requirements

Source:
http://www.wpc.dot.gov.in/DocFiles/NFAP/NPR.doc

A post about Indian Aeromodeller in Washingtonpost

2007-07-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

A Nice Day to Fly, With Their Feet On the Ground

DAMDAMA, India

Beneath a pale winter sun, the white-and-orange aircraft climbs skyward until it is nearly vertical, then drops its nose like a hammer and begins what looks like a terminal spin. The pilot, Lavneet Gyani, keeps his cool. Expertly working the controls, he pulls the plane out of its spiral and brings it in for a safe if bouncy landing.

An article on Indian Aeromodelling

2007-07-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

The joy of making your toy fly
Unless you are headed for the airport, flying is probably not high on your list of random thoughts right now on a lazy Sunday as you clutch your coffee mug for company. But some enthusiasts from your neighbourhood are preparing to fly, without going anywhere near the airport. Checking the engines of their planes and helicopters, confirming if the fuel tank is loaded, examining the runway… or dirt tracks that double for it. They are flying remote-controlled planes.

Read full article on
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_archive_full_story.php?content_id=168026

Aeromodelling Books

2007-07-05T01:11:00.000-07:00

RC Airplane Books

RC airplane books can be very helpful with many aspects of the rc airplane hobby. These books can help you with everything from building your own plane from scratch, learning to fly, maintenance, and so much more. There are several thousand books written on the rc airplane subject, so I could not possibly be able to list them all here. But below I have listed the ones that I think are worthy of being read, and have gotten good reviews from other rc airplane hobbyist. These books are almost just as good as rc airplane magazines , but you don't need a subscription.

My Favorite Book

Model Airplane secrets contains all the insider tips, techniques and secrets you need to know to go from beginner model airplane enthusiast to expert in no time! You will learn about the history of model airplanes, how to get started in the hobby, what accessories you need, how to avoid crashes, tips on all other aspects and much more.

RC Airplane Books for Beginner's

All of your questions are answered in Getting Started in Radio Control Airplanes . This comprehensive, up-to-date book on rc building and flying techniques. The publishers of Model Airplane News take you step-by-step through the basics of choosing and building your first model, and then making it go. This is the first book I bought, and it is still teaching me!!

Over 30 knowledgeable RC pilots share their contest-winning flying techniques in the RC pilot's handbook ! Go hangar flying with these guys and listen-in as they discuss pylon racing, thermal soaring, operating twin-engine aircraft, flying aerobatics, how to win flying contests, flying tail-draggers, avoiding crashes and a whole lot more.

RC Airplane Building Books

Become a better modeler with the Workshop Secrets rc airplane books, one of the "Master Modeler" series. This volume is a collection of some of the very best building techniques that have been published in Model Airplane News magazine. Written by the pro's, these articles cover several aspects of airplane construction, from selecting the correct wood for your project to basic metal-working to advanced engine installation and setup. You'll find that the photo illustrated tips and techniques are easy to understand and apply in your own projects.

RC airplane finishing and detailing is packed with more than 50 proven techniques to finish and detail your models. This rc airplane book is filled with tips on custom color mixing, covering and painting, rib stitching, scale markings, prepping, priming, canopies, engines, and so much more.

Whether you want to improve the performance of your existing models, or start from scratch and design your own, Basics of RC model aircraft design offers concrete guidance and practical methods for improved model aircraft design. Everything from choosing the airfoils, to aerobatic design.

RC airplane building techniques has over 100 great how-to building and finishing techniques, with step-by-step photos and illustrations. There are many great tips for cutting, jigs, building wings, maintenance, control linkages, landing gear, tool ideas, and everything else that you should know.

Building and flying RC model aircraft is a completely updated edition, and the advances in radio control technology and model aircrafts are addressed. It's an informative rc airplane book dealing with the types of models and radio control systems available, the materials and tools required for the building and installation. This book also tells the basics of learning to fly your aircraft.

RC airplane covering is a how to guide for the beginner. If you want to make your rc airplane look great and fly smoother, then buy this book! Great tips and how to guide on covering and finishing your RC model airplane.

If you want a good beginner book on the subject of 2-stroke glow engines , then I recommend this book. Very informative and helpful in fixing your engines.

RC Glider & Sailplanes Books

RC sailplanes and electric gliders is a great rc airplane book on building and flying rc gliders and sailplanes. If you are a beginner in the RC airplane hobby, RC sailplanes and gliders is a good starting point for you. This book will help you go down the right path.

Source: http://www.rc-model-airplanes.com/rc-airplane-books.html

2007-06-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

Quad rotor:

for RC Motor performance parameters

2007-04-03T00:44:00.000-07:00

This is very good site having motor performance parameters for more than 1800 brushed and brushless motors. This is very good site for all the RC Aeromodellers, fliers. It will help you decide the powerplant for your new aircraft or will help you if you want to switch from "glow to electric".

http://www.peakeff.com

Happy Aeromodelling...!!!

A good site for Model reviews

2007-01-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

http://www.masportaviator.com

Carvin 2005 Indoor Model airplane contest

2007-01-08T16:17:00.001-08:00


Carvin 2005 Indoor Model airplane contest. Great video of the winnner of 2005 indoor fly contest. Watch the airplane flying backwards !!! Listen to the music and see the plane movements. Pilot is Armin Mangelmann (DE).

Autogyro

2006-11-14T04:36:00.000-08:00

Everything about Radio

2006-11-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

Its very good site about RC radio and receiver.

http://www.torreypinesgulls.org/Radios.htm

Happy Aeromodelling...!!!

Servo, Radio set, signals and basics

2006-11-12T19:46:00.000-08:00

http://homepages.which.net/~paul.hills/Circuits/RxDecoder/RxDecoder.html

http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/RC/F_RC_interf.html

Autogyro Aeromodels

2006-11-10T01:19:00.000-08:00

Autogyros are an aircraft that have been around for decades. In addition to the name autogyro, they have been known as gyrocopters, gyroplanes, and autogiros. They were the first rotary wing aircraft to fly successfully with sufficient control. The design had inherent safety, better low-speed flight than airplanes, as well as the capability of vertical take-off and landing. But despite their advantages, even before the introduction of the first successful helicopters which surpassed their performance, autogyros were never accepted. This paper will explain how autogyros work in order to give the reader a better understanding of the machine, go over the advantages and disadvantages autogyros have over airplanes and helicopters, go over a brief history of the development of the autogyro, and using all this information attempt to explain why autogyros were never accepted. Read More...

More information and free plans at
Wikipedia

http://www.autogyro.com/

Make your own R/C Aeromodel

2006-11-01T11:09:00.000-08:00

Flying Aeromodel is so fascinating....right??? :) Ofcourse it is...But then flying Aeromodel made by yourself is even more fascinating... or even just watching your creation flying fills you with the joy of lifetime. To be frank, I haven't flown my own creation till now. However, I have made some Aeromodels of different kinds. I am waiting for the day.. when I'll be able to fly ... what I designed and fabricated myself. Alright... lets begin with Aeromodel design techniques....

In this article, I am mainly going to focus on the design and not explaining the basics of Aerodynamics or not gonna introduce the basics of flight. I am presuming that you are aware of all the basics of Aeroplane and its stable and controlled flight.

First of all when you design an Aeromodel; you have some constraint around which you design your Aeromodel. Typically, constraint could be one or more of (i) Weight (ii) Size (iii)Powerplant (iv) type of aeromodel.

When Aeromodel is flying level, it's wing should generate the lift equal to total weight of the Aeromodel.

So, W = L = 0.5*rho*V^2*Sw*CLw
where, rho = sea level air density
V = flying speed of Aeromodel
Sw = Area of the wing
CL = Lift coefficient of wing

W/Sw = 0.5*rho*V^2*CLw (W/S is called wing loading)

There are some typical values for wing loading (in Newton/m^2 unit) according to the type of Aeromodel,

15-30 : Park flyers, basic trainers and powered sport sailplanes
30-45 : Fastest sport flyer, smaller size trainers
45-60 : Larger size trainers, sport scale models and sport aerobatic models
60-75 : Fast sport models usually with more than adequate power
75-105 : Scale models and larger multi-engine models
105 plus : thts a lot!!!!

Now based on the type of Aeromodel you want to design, choose a value of Wing loading. Suppose it is 25 for small trainer plane. Along with this you also need to assume a value of Aspect ratio (AR) of your wing. Typically, AR for powered R/C model is between 4-7. Lesser AR means faster and sporty plane while higher AR means slow and glider type of plane. Lets suppose AR is 5 for our Aeromodel.

So at take-off from wing loading formula,
0.5*rho*Vto^2*CLwto = 25
(where, Vto: speed at take-off
CLwto: wing lift coeffiecient at take-off)

Here, value of "rho" is known; the two unknowns are Vto and CLwto.

Now here comes the first iteration process you need to go through...... Assume some take-off speed Vto, starting from 4 m/s and calculate CLwto.

As in our case, for Vto = 4m/s
CLwto = 2.55

Which is way too high for typical Aeromodel wing. So you need to increase Vto some more and calculate CLwto once again and see if it there exists any airfoil with which wing can give this much lift coefficient.

There is one very good software DesignFoil for getting virtual wind tunnel data of various airfoils. Its demo version is available online for free. You can use it for generating airfoils and running virtual wind tunnel to get the lift and pitching moment coefficients. The data you get from this software may not be accurate enough for real Aircraft but surely good enough for designing an Aeromodel. One more thing to note here is that you need to convert airfoil CL to wing CLw by the formula given as follows:

CLw = CLalpha_wing * (alpha – alpha0)

(where, alpha: Angle of attack, alpha0: Angle of attack at zero lift)

CLalpha_wing = CLalpha_airfoil / (1 + CLalpha_airfoil / (2.51*Aspect Ratio))

(where, CLalpha_wing: slope of CL vs angle of attack plot for wing
CLalpha_airfoil: slope of CL vs angle of attack plot for airfoil)

So at the end of iterations, you will get your airfoil fixed and you would know at what speed would your plane take-off from the ground.

WING DIMENSIONING:

Now, when we calculate wing dimensions, the constraint on the design comes into picture. Suppose, you have constraint on weight… so W is known, from wing loading value, you can calculate wing area. If you constraint on power-plant or you know what’s the max thrust your powerplant can provide. So from typical value of thrust to weight ratio from 0.2 to 0.4, we can calculate, maximum weight of Aeromodel allowed. So again from wing loading, we can calculate wing area. Now suppose we have constraint on size or on wing span. Then, from aspect ratio we can calculate mean chord of the wing as aspect ratio is equal to span divided by mean chord. So in the end, we know airfoil, wing area, wing span and its mean chord which defines wing, very much for us.

TAILS DIMENSIONING:
There are some rules of thumb for deciding the horizontal and vertical tail dimensions…..

Horizontal tail: Its area is typically taken as 20-35% of wing area. It should be mounted to fuselage at 3-4 degree negative to wing. It should have Aspect ratio lesser than the Aspect ratio of wing but not less than half of it.

Vertical tail: It is designed with respect to the horizontal tail. It should have area equal to 40-60% of Horizontal tail area and almost half the aspect ratio.

Most of the time, horizontal and vertical tails are made from flat plate. And sweep back is given to both the tails.

Elevator: Elevator area is typically, 25-35% of horizontal tail area.

Rudder: Rudder area is typically, 30-45% of vertical tail area.

Note that, horizontal tail includes elevator and so vertical tail includes rudder while calculating are of both the tails.

FUSELAGE DIMENSIONING:

As wing is made in one single unit… so it your Aeromodel should be high wing or low wing. High wing plane is more stable suitable for trainer and beginner aircrafts while low wing plane is suitable for sports and high maneuver flying. Generally, high wing Aeromodels are designed for the ease of wing assembly.

Typically, fuselage length should be 55-70% of Wing span for High Aspect ratio Wing, and 70-90% of Wing span for Low Aspect ratio Wing. In addition to this, pitching moment of Aeromodel should be balanced at cruise and pilot should not be required to apply the elevator control surface for that. Assume wing setting angle to be 1-2 degree and balance the pitching moment about center of gravity (CG) of the aircraft. The CG of the Aeromodel should be at 10-20% of the wing chord from wing’s leading edge. And that’s only what you need to know… Don’t worry you won’t need cruise speed to know while balancing the pitching moment.

The last thing left in this article is the selection of appropriate engine for your Aeromodel. Info for the same would be added soon. Check back soon... in the mean time you can start planning the design of your own Aeromodel or you can even do start calclulations.

Note: In this article, I have intentionally not written some equations and have not shown mathematics. It is to encourage the reader to learn the basics and explore some more about Aeroplanes and its design. I’ll write some more articles on basics of Airplanes and its flight in near future. Do check back if you find yourself curious about it. In case you could not understand anything on this article or have some suggestions for improvements, do write me at ashvani@gmail.com

Aeromodelling for Beginners

2006-10-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

How should I start Aeromodelling?? This question have been by asked all the Aeromodelers around the world when they began Aeromodelling; just that their mentor would have been different. Learning Aeromodelling is not like learning to play with a flying toy but lot more than that. It is an art for which you need not possess at the time of your birth. Now don't scare yourself by thinking that since I am not an artistic person, I won't be able to fly the plane. All you need to be is passionate with Aeroplanes and determination to become Aeromodel pilot. Somebody has said:

"It's neither theory nor experecience, it's curiosity and patience,
hard work and determination which makes something airborne" - AKS & GKG

Mind it, if you don't possess above mentioned qualities; you are not to become an Aeromodeller. Do something else....else you'll end up with nothing but a hole in your pocket and frustrated with Aeromodels.

The first basic thing you need to undestand is nothing in this world wants to leave the ground happily, except birds, hopefully. And if flown somehow then it wants to come back to ground whenever possible. So your plane do not want to go up in the air, it's you who force it to do so and always be attentive to make sure that it doesn't come back to ground unless you desire so.

Now there is wide variety of Aeromodels available in the market with varying complexities. To do the mastesr or doctrate in Aeromodelling, you need to start from class one.

Class 1:
First of all understand the basics of a plane. There are many websites which gives you very brief about Aeroplanes and how it flies. However there is one very interesting site: http://library.thinkquest.org/C0122082/
Visit this website and I am sure you'll become Aerospace Engineer after reading it.

Class 2:
Catapult Gliders : There are many kits available for catapult gliders... They come in ready to fly condition.. u just have to place different pieces together and chuck it from hand from the help of a catapult. One example for the same is available here...http://www.guillow.com/GuillowDetail.asp?UID=&prod=36&SeriesId=12&FamilyId=2
You can make one by yourself...here are the plans http://f4bscale.worldonline.co.uk/plans.htm

Class 3:
Powered Gliders : These are gliders with engine or electric motor and radio controlled. Most of the time they are very stable and easy to control. They fly at smaller speed and self correcting so that you develop your controlling skills without loosing your plane. However, it doesn't mean that gliders do not crash.

Class 4:
Radio Controlled Planes and Helicopters : Huhhhh.... Now you are at the first stage of becoming real Aeromodeller. From here, actual fun starts. Purchase a good learning model first and have fun with it and then advance to highly maneuverable Aeromodels and participate in the competitions.

I hope this article would help you in pursuing your hobby/interest. Pass it on to your friends if you find it useful.

!!!!........Happy Aeromodelling........!!!!

Battery charge

2006-10-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

Voltage State of Charge
12.6+ 100%
12.50 90%
12.42 80%
12.32 70%
12.20 60%
12.06 50%
11.90 40%
11.75 30%
11.58 20%
11.31 10%
10.5 0%

Discharging and storage really go hand in hand. For NiCd packs, you should completely discharge them, to 0.9v per cell, before you store them NiMH packs should be stored with roughly a 50% charge in them for best performance. And before you charge a NiMH pack for the first time in the day, simply drain the pack completely on a discharger or in the model and you are then ready to charge the pack for use throughout the day.

LiPo batteries are completely different when it comes to discharging and storage. Depending on the output voltage of your pack, you should only discharge your pack so far. For example, during use, a 7.4V LiPo battery (also known as a “2 series” or “2S” pack) should never be discharged below 6.0 volts under load (3.0v per cell). For storage of 2 weeks or more, LiPo packs should be stored at approximately 3.8v per cell to prevent overdischarge or imbalance from developing among series cells in the packs due to differing levels of each cell’s self-discharge rate. In the case of a 2S 7.4v pack, the pack should always be stored at 7.6v. You should also store your LiPo batteries in a fireproof container or cabinet and never store your LiPo, or any other battery for that matter, in the model itself.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Articles/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1555

1st post

2006-06-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the world of RC - Radio controlled Aeromodelling!!!!

“It’s neither theory nor experience, it's curiosity and patience,
hard work and determination which makes something airborne.”

- AKS & GKG