If you've been following our blog for a while, you might recall that I began flying Radio Controlled (RC) model aircraft while we were in Colorado in 2012. I flew again in Colorado this past summer, but haven't found a place to fly while we are in Texas.
Teri discovered that there is an active club within 20 minutes of our location, so we headed out there to see what they had to offer. We were lucky enough to meet one of their officers (Mike) and he was eager to show us around. He mentioned that he had a new plane that he needed pictures of in flight, and I volunteered to come back Saturday morning with my camera to give it a try.
Saturday was a beautiful morning, and club members were out in force. We saw 8 gentlemen flying about 10 different aircraft so I got a lot of photography practice.
One of the oddest aircraft was this "Quad Rotor" Helicopter with a camera mounted on the bottom. This pilot uses his helicopter to get aerial views of the airfield and planes. The helicopter is very sophisticated, and includes a "return home" option that flies it back to the spot where it took off. It uses GPS, gyros, and an autopilot feature to accomplish this.
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| Quad Rotor Helicopter with Go-Pro Camera. |
Mike hadn't arrived with his plane when we got there, so I practiced on a couple of other airplanes.
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| de Havilland Beaver. |
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| T-28 Trojan (Navy Trainer). |
Mike arrived with his new plane, and I got to work. This was a very quick plane that was built for racing. The plane has a top speed of over 100 mph, but Mike slowed it down as much as he could to assist with the pictures. I still ended up with a whole lot of partial shots!
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| Looks Fast Sitting on the Runway! |
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| It is even Faster in the Air! |
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| Banking Hard into a Turn. |
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| Back in for a Smooth Landing. |
There were a few acrobatic planes flying.
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| Escapade |
This Yak-54 had a clear covering on the bottom, so it looked very strange as it flew over. You could see the innards!
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| Yak-54 (bottom). |
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| Yak-54 |
One of the last planes to fly was a twin-engine model of a B-24 bomber. This was a very successful bomber used by the Allied Forces in World War II.
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| B-24 |
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| B-24 |
So here's looking at you!
Mark
How long has radio-controlled aircraft been around? I remember seeing folks with them at the old airport runway many years ago. Can still hear that whine they make....
ReplyDeleteThey have been around since the 60's. A big change in the past 10 years has been the changeover to electric power. Everything that we saw on Saturday was electric powered, and almost silent. That helicopter sounded like a small swarm of bees, but still not nearly as loud as the old fuel powered planes that you probably remember.
ReplyDeleteLove the RC airplane pics. I have taken photos of planes and boats and know how difficult it is to get a good shot.
ReplyDelete