RC Airplane World flight school
- lesson #5; where to fly RC airplanes
Following on from lesson 4, this rc flight school page will help you to choose a suitable location from which to fly your rc airplane.
Club, private land or public area?
These are pretty much your three options for finding somewhere to fly rc airplanes.
It could be that you have a local rc flying club - use the rc airplane club directory in this website to see if there's one within a convenient distance from home. If there is, consider joining especially if you're thinking of flying gas powered rc planes.
If there's a club nearby but you don't want to join, it's a very good idea to pop along to their field one weekend and talk to the members about flying in the area. Frequency interference is a very serious issue and can't be ignored if there's potential for conflict. Only if you have a 2.4GHz spread spectrum radio set are you safe from causing, or falling victim to, unwanted interference that can easily cause a crash. Bad enough if you crash your own plane, but even worse if you cause someone else to crash theirs!
If you're lucky enough to have access to private open land - either your own or a friendly farmer's - then you can fly from this so long as you have permission to do so. Private land is the preferable option over flying from somewhere public, because you can pretty much do what you like when you like, without the worry of being yelled at by a member of the public who doesn't like rc airplanes!
And again, if there's an rc club nearby go and talk to them first, make sure that you're completely clear on frequency issues and that your flying is in no way going to interfere with theirs. This is very important!
Your final option is to fly your plane from a public area. Depending on the size and type of your airplane, suitable locations include public parks, sports fields, ball parks, beaches, open hill sides.... You get the idea.
The crucial thing to remember when flying in a public area is safety. Read these do's and don'ts for flying your rc airplane from such a place, and always use common sense and fly responsibly.
Wherever you want to fly from, your flying location needs to be open and spacious. The size of your plane will determine what size area you need to fly in, but for, say, a 30 inch wingspan electric RTF airplane a ball park would provide ample airspace - that should give you an idea of the kind of area you should be looking for.
Tip: when searching for local flying sites, use Google Earth, Google Maps or Windows Live satellite imagery - it's simply the best way of searching your area quickly!
Other things to note when looking at where to fly rc airplanes include: presence of objects such as posts, pylons, lights, small huts, power and telephone cables etc.etc., how close members of the public will be to you while you're flying, proximity of houses, schools, offices, shops, roads etc.
The bottom line is that you need a large(ish) open space where there is no danger of causing trouble, being a nuisance or risking damage to people or property. And on that note, you absolutely must check local regulations and byelaws to see if flying radio control aircraft is even permitted! If it's not, and you take to the skies, you could well have an angry official breathing down your neck and writing you a ticket!
Another important point you might want to consider is public liability insurance. It's not so critical if you're flying from private land, and if you join a club then insurance is likely included in the membership fee (but check!), but if you're flying from public land then it's well worth taking it out. Your national governing body for model flying will be able to help you, here are some links for western countries:
Third party liability insurance for rc flying isn't expensive and will give you good peace of mind. Take some time to look into it and contact your appropriate organization from the list above for further information.
Next up: Lesson 6 - How to do your pre-flight checks.
Or skip to the lesson appropriate to your current situation...
- Lesson 1: Buying your rc airplane
- Lesson 2: Know your rc airplane
- Lesson 3: Preparing your plane
- Lesson 4: Weight and balance
- Lesson 6: Pre-flight checks
- Lesson 7: Take off / hand launch
- Lesson 8: Flying your rc airplane
- Lesson 9: Landing your rc airplane
Got a question about where to fly rc airplanes? Join the forum!
