Radio-Control Pilots Take Hobby to a Higher Plane

A camouflage-colored C-130 sat on the runway. Its four engines were silent, but an armored tank had just rolled out of its cargo bay.

Down the runway sat a Pitts S2-A, a vintage biplane known for its acrobatic maneuvers. Its distinctive red and white paint gleamed in the sun.

Even though these planes are just as airworthy as their full-size counterparts, they are only a fraction of the size. The C-130 has a wing span of 135 inches. The Pitts has a 68-inch wing span.

The two planes were among 51 radio-controlled model planes built to scale that were on display at a “fun fly” at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. The demonstration event was hosted by the Scale Squadron of Southern California, one of several clubs that fly at the park.

Most any weekend you can find hundreds of Southern Californians giving wing to their flights of fancy as they pilot their radio-controlled model aircraft through acrobatic maneuvers high in the sky.

There are more than 40 clubs for model airplane hobbyists in Southern California--from Lancaster to San Diego. To join these clubs, members must belong to the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which is based in Reston, Va.

There are 180,000 members in more than 2,500 AMA clubs around the country. There are about a dozen clubs in Orange County, according to the AMA. National membership costs $40 a year and includes $1 million in liability insurance. Individual clubs charge an additional membership fee.

The AMA membership includes people who build and fly three basic kinds of model craft: Radio-controlled, control-line (with models flown in a circular path around a pilot) and free-flight (planes that are hand-launched and built to fly in a circular motion).

Clubs are organized around types of craft, such as sailplanes, scale models, sport planes and helicopters. The costs range from $250 to $500 for a model kit and radio control equipment, and the planes weigh as much as 50 pounds.

Of the three major types, radio-controlled planes seem to be by far the most popular.

Radio-controlled aircraft can be powered or unpowered, but both are guided by electronic signals sent by a pilot on the ground to a receiver in the plane. Fuel-powered planes have either modified chain-saw engines that run on gas or smaller engines that run on a mixture that includes alcohol and nitro-methane. They take off and land much like a full-size plane.

Sailplanes are usually launched by a winch, and electronic signals are then used to maneuver the planes to catch air currents and to land.

For many participants, flying is only half the fun. The other half is the painstaking construction of the models, an ongoing project for pilots who frequently tinker and improve various aspects of their crafts.

The C-130, which was built from scratch to 1/12-scale, took Nick Rivaldo, 52, of Long Beach, more than two years and $5,000 to design and build. The prototype has a fiberglass body, foam core wings and sheeted balsa wood on the wings and tail. It features a radio-controlled tank that can be driven out the cargo bay or dropped with a parachute during flight.

The Pitts was built at 1-inch-to-3.5-inches scale by James Morrow, 62, of Buena Park. The model was constructed mostly of balsa wood and plywood, covered with a Dacron material and then painted.

“I’ve had a love affair with model airplanes for 50 years,” says Morrow, an aerospace engineer.

“We see how closely we can duplicate full-size aircraft in appearance and flight characteristics,” he says of scale modeling.

Modeling helps fulfill a dream of flying full-size aircraft, says Fred Browns of Fullerton. Browns, 62, is a board member of the Scale Squadron and says building scale models is a chance to demonstrate expertise as a modeler, to take “that extra step.”

Browns started building models when he was 6 years old.

“Most pilots (of full-size planes) built models before they ever got into flying,” he says. Browns is a businessman, a retired Marine colonel and a pilot of full-size airplanes since age 17. He has 17 radio-controlled models parked in his front room.

In spite of the popularity of model flying, there are only a handful of flying fields in Southern California for radio-controlled aircraft.

Safety and noise regulations require the pilots to fly at designated fields, and the two types of planes--powered craft and sailplanes--don’t mix at flying sites.

Sites for powered craft include: Miles Square Park, 16801 Euclid St., Fountain Valley; the Whittier Narrows Recreation area, 1601 N. Rosemead Blvd., South El Monte, and the Sepulveda Basin Flight Field at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, 17017 Burbank Blvd., Encino.

Sailplane flight fields include Fairview Park, 2501 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa, and El Dorado Regional Park, 7550 E. Spring St., Long Beach.

Don’t confuse the sailplanes with gliders, says Frank Chasteler, treasurer of the Harbor Soaring Society. “We prefer to call them sailplanes. Gilders only sink, sailplanes will thermal on up or climb with rising air,” says Chasteler, a 62-year-old retired aerospace engineer who lives in Costa Mesa. His club coordinates activities at the flying field at Fairview Park.

To be a good radio-control pilot, Browns says, you need good depth perception, good hand-eye coordination, dexterity, instruction by a qualified model pilot and lots of practice. Most clubs have members willing to instruct novices at no charge.

Although the AMA distributes safety guidelines and rules to members, manufacturers and hobby store owners, accidents do happen, but usually they aren’t serious and they are the result of inexperienced pilots or carelessness, according to Geoffrey Styles, marketing director for the AMA.

“We work hard to monitor our sport,” Browns says.

Dave Herbert, a leader-member of AMA and a member of the Capistrano Aero-Dump Masters, who does radio-control stunt work for films, says, “It’s a very safe sport . . . but it takes us guys to stay on our toes all the time to keep it that way.

“A guy comes in and buys an airplane . . . and he wants to go out and fly it. He thinks he can go anywhere, turn it on any time and fly, and that’s not really the case because there’s very few places you can fly,” Herbert says.

At Mile Square Park, representatives of the clubs and park rangers are working to make the flying field as safe as possible. “It’s a team effort,” says Ranger Steve Bonhall, of maintaining flying safety at the park.

Rules for flying--including the necessity of having all transmitters conform to FCC regulations and the prohibition of flying over the adjacent golf course or surrounding houses--are posted at the park and listed on the back of maps to the hobby area.

The Orange County Radio Control Club also has a safety officer to monitor noise levels and safety procedures at the Mile Square flying field, according to Bonhall. Rangers also watch for unsafe flying or excessive noise.

The goal is to protect the public and radio-control pilots’ right to fly, AMA members say.

For more information on model flying, contact the Academy of Model Aeronautics, Marketing Department, 1810 Samuel Morse Drive, Reston, Va. 22090, (703) 435-0750. Or, drop by the flying field at Mile Square Park. AMA members are usually eager to provide information about their sport.