Lifestyles

Renaissance Redneck: Second childhood

By DAVID KITTREDGE
By David Kittredge

I am at the stage in life when the mirage of a second childhood can creep upon you unawares. I have decided to face that challenge head-on before the real mewling and drooling starts and have taken up a new hobby: radio-controlled (RC) model airplane flying. The learning has consumed me, as I hoped it would, diverting my attentions away from the present overwhelming cares and worries of the world. Full immersion into the hobby means you must learn or relearn the sciences of physics, aerodynamics, radio electronics and balsa wood modeling. It is all incredibly challenging at first, and I still have much to learn, but I have achieved the goal of filling my life with newfound fun.

What initially motivated me to partake in this arial activity was a YouTube video of Englishman John Woodfield flying a glider called the “Lazy Bee” over a coastal hill. As the powerless glider floats on the thermals, it at times sits totally still, hovering in thin air beside the RC pilot like a well-mannered pet dog who has learned to stay! It was love at first sight, as I watched the plane being maneuvered in the air with whimsical, animated antics. I also admired the Lazy Bee’s early 20th century steampunk design, with the balsa frameworks peeking through the translucent colored covering film, exemplifying the notion that “it’s so ugly it’s beautiful.”

I found the Lazy Bee kit — which has a four-foot wingspan — online and ordered one immediately. The kit contains dozens of balsa pieces, which must be all glued together and then covered with a thin plastic film covering. I plan to build the model next winter, while hunkered down beside the wood stove.

Gone are the days of building balsa models which had to be pinned into place while the wood glue cured overnight. When finally, the fully constructed frameworks were completed, it would be clad with diaphanous pieces of tissue paper which had to be finished with dope or lacquer. These days Super or CA glue is used to construct the framework for a near instantaneous set, especially when spritzed with a “kicker.” The flimsy, easily torn paper of old has been replaced a special plastic film which has a heat triggered glue on the underside and is applied to the balsa frameworks using a heated iron. The film is then heat shrunk with a specialized heat gun, much like a handheld hairdryer, but runs at a hotter temperature.

In the meantime, I decided that perhaps I should try to fly a model that I don’t have much time invested into the construction thereof, with the added emotional investment as well. So, I ordered a sleek motorized glider from a west coast warehouse. The model is designated as plug and play (PNP) and comes nearly fully-constructed, with servos to control the ailerons, rudder, and elevator for steering the craft, along with an electric engine attached to a foldable prop. The folding prop idea amazed me in that it serves to pull the plane into the air and then when the engine is stopped folds back onto the fuselage to enable a slippery contour for a powerless glide. The folding prop also comes in handy when landing the wheelless glider so that it doesn’t break.

Experienced RC modelers explain that if you fly you are going to crash, the crashing is just part of the “fun,” which is a hard concept to grasp when you are new to the sport. So, to keep the cost and anxiety of nosediving into the ground to a minimum, it is wise to download an RC simulator app onto a computer and practice on it before you attempt to fly an actual model. Some of the RC simulator apps are free or you can spend up to a hundred dollars on a more complex program which has dozens of planes to choose from.

Before I had heard about RC simulators, I happened to buy an inexpensive toy Styrofoam plane through Amazon which was advertised as being indestructible. Well, we’ll see about that! The design is simple, which is right up my alley, having just two controls — one for the throttle and one for turning left or right by actuating the speed of two push props. I successfully got the plane off the ground and was flying to beat the band until the plane circled and was coming toward me. You are supposed to fly an RC aircraft from the viewpoint of a pilot sitting inside of the plane, but I forgot that fact, became confused, panicked, and kept pushing the controls to the right while trying to fly left, which caused the plane to fly beyond my radio signal until it was about 100 yards from me gleefully buzzing about the gravel pit on its own, while I cringed as it circled the boom of an excavator, swooped toward an embankment, and finally did a nosedive, vanishing from my sight behind a pile of gravel when the battery finally, thankfully expired.

I went in search for my elusive little Cessna, expecting to find a pile of Styrofoam popcorn scattered across the landscape. After I lost sight of the little imp, it must have leveled off before hitting the ground, because I found it relatively unscathed. It had survived to fly another day!

As I was driving home the thought occurred to me that when I had lost control of the plane, it was actually flying better on its own than when I was “flying” it. I have since downloaded an RC simulator onto my phone and am learning to fly on it. I have been quite consistent in my endeavors and have crashed about twenty times in a row. But I am slowly learning and will continue to trudge upward, undeterred into that wild blue yonder, remembering always, the first axiom of the RC enthusiast, crashing is part of the fun!

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