How sophisticated are today's R/C scale-model airplanes and helicopters?
Do any have drone-like technology? Cameras for aerial photos? Camera in cockpit for pilot's view? Scale retractible landing gear with operating doors for all gear? Does gear open and close at real-world speeds instead of just snapping shut and open? Aircraft instrumentation on heads-up display goggles for the R/C operator on the ground?
1. fuel gauge
2. airspeed
3. relative ground speed
4. absolute altimeter
5. bank angle indicator
5. pitch indicator
7. navigation lights
8. landing lights
9. compass/magnitude indicator
10. auto-pilot/auto-altitude/auto-hover for helis
11. battery indicator
12. idiot lights for engine trouble and so forth
13. braking system in wheels
14. parking brake
15. variable flap settings
17. reverse thrust for jets
18. feathering for turbo props
Just think of a physical 3D scale model that flies like Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe!
I can imagine with micro technology of today's cheap drones on the market today, fine-scale model RC aircraft has potential to get a lot of fancy "avionics" on board. It would be cool to be able to pilot a model plane or heli while getting the pilot's live view from the cockpit just you do while in a PC flight sim game. Flight sims generally don't mimic piloting model R/C planes, however. The Microsoft flight sim is great for mastering basic aircraft flying principles. You, for example, use your ailerons heavily to bank around turns and very little rudder input if at all for aircraft steering in the sky. It is much easier to control a plane while getting a cockpit view because you can feel what the airplane is actually doing. I tried piloting a heli in MS FSX with an external camera view and that is next to impossible. A fixed-wing plane is not quite as hard in this fashion. A PC-like/gaming-like joystick controller might even be great fo an R/C pilot especially one with sim flight experience.
An advanced HUD (heads-up display) for an R/C pilot should also in theory provide a stall warning as well. One might have a VR monocle goggle as a display for an R/C pilot. The R/C pilot could keep one naked eye directly on the aircraft and his controls while the other eye gets a cockpit view with a HUD instruments overlay. Virtually Reality (VR) visuals might someday be incorporated into RC models.
Last edited by Plumcrazy Preston; 04-25-2022 at 07:18 PM.