Remote-control flight
instructors enjoy the
air up there
It’s a Friday morning in
early November and Les Mason is adjusting his model airplane.
But this isn’t any old toy,
and the British native isn’t tooling around in his basement.
Mason stands poised outside
a hangar in the Valley, tinkering with a replica of Hawker Hurricane —
legless pilot Douglas Bader’s bird of choice during World War II.
“He was my boyhood hero,”
Mason says of Bader, who flew for the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.
“If not for those men, we might all be speaking German.”
Admiration is why his
version of Hawker Hurricane includes a tiny pilot resembling the erstwhile
famous flyer. But Mason’s love of airplanes goes beyond their history.
“What fascinates me are the
engineering facets,” says Mason, a mechanical engineer and motorcycle draftsman
who moved to California 20 years ago. “You must really know the mechanics and
aerodynamics. My motto is, if you wouldn’t fly in the plane, don’t fly it either.”
Observing and assisting this
day is Tom Wolf, president of the Santa Barbara Remote Control Modelers, a
group that promotes the hobby of aviation by instructing prospective pilots.
There’s a mild breeze
sweeping through the swath of property and a high, blue sky with traces of
clouds marbling it. It’s an idyllic time for Hawker Hurricane to take flight,
with Wolf handling the radio controller.
A tweak
here, a touch-up there. Mason
manually spins the propeller, and then Wolf takes over with a control box.
Moments after a real airplane has touched down and vacated the runway, Mason’s
prized creation is soaring through the air up there: The expected result for a
large, gas-powered machine that took thousands of dollars — and no
shortage of labor — to get off the ground.
Suddenly, a crosswind causes
a noticeable swing to the left. It isn’t long before this
seasoned pair of remote-control modelers detect a problem and thus
direct Hurricane back to terra firma.
“The engine sounded like it
was losing power, so I decided to land it,” says Wolf, whose curiosity with
airplanes dates to his childhood in Ventura. “We need to figure out what’s
wrong.”
It’s precisely the type of
situation Wolf hopes up-and-comers don’t encounter; hence the need for his
Santa Barbara organization.
“Without proper instruction,
many beginners crash their airplanes, get discouraged and perhaps abandon the
hobby,” he explains. The instruction program is free, but a participant must
first belong to the Academy of Model Aeronautics and SBRCM.
The latter club, which was
founded in the 1950s and set up shop in the Valley during the late 1980s, now
has 85 members hailing from Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara, Caprinteria
and beyond. Four times per year at Lake Cachuma, the group conducts “float flys”
that entail sea planes and flying boats flown off the
water near Mohawk Shores. (The next such event is slated for March.)
To become a solo pilot, says
Wolf, requires about a dozen flights with dual training. Younger enthusiasts,
he points out, tend to learn the fastest because of the hand-eye coordination
they develop from playing computer games. In fact, a few kids can go it alone
after just two flights, whereas full-size aircraft pilots sometimes have more
difficulty adjusting to remote-control models.
“I’m not sure why that is,”
Wolf says, “but one might speculate experienced flyers have pre-conceived ideas
about it, and they are probably too overconfident.”
Having no such problem is
Chris Spangenberg, a pilot from Camarillo whose interest in aviation — just
like Wolf’s — stems from his boyhood days about a half-century ago. When
not serving the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, he enjoys building
accurate, to-scale replicas.
“You can allow yourself to
see the actual full-size airplane — it’s magical,” Spangenberg says,
noting the endeavor can lead to careers and is also a good history lesson.
Model airplanes flown at the
club’s site typically weigh between five and eight pounds with wing spans in the range of 55 to 65 inches. They cost about
$300 to $500 to build, according to Wolf. Big-ticket items, such as engines and
radios, are reusable from plane to plane; that way, in the event of a crash,
the whole investment won’t be lost. Small electrical aircrafts, suitable for
parks and school yards, generally have price tags of
less than $200.
Regardless of the
remote-control model, he says, landing is always the toughest task for a novice
pilot because one is lined up with the runway while the aircraft is coming
toward him or her. (It’s the opposite effect of when you’re actually in the
cockpit, explains Wolf.)
“And the airplane is low to
the ground, which leaves no margin for error,” he says.
That brings us back to
Hawker Hurricane’s better-safe-than-sorry grounding last Friday. Conversation
and speculation about throttles, rudders and other components fill the air.
As it turns out, the culprit
was too much heat pressure causing a small gap in a conduit.
“That’s the reason it acted
funny,” Mason confirms.
“Congratulations,”
Spangenberg says, adding with a grin: “You still have an airplane.”
For More Information
Santa Barbara Remote Control
Modelers
modelaircraft.org sbrcm.org.
jluksic@syvjournal.com