Hi,

I teach an Aerospace Engineering course to advanced High School Juniors and Seniors. The course is aligned with and modeled after a college level Introduction to Aerospace class (similar to the one I took at the University of Michigan, including using Anderson's Introduction to Flight as our text). The students have a good academic understanding of Aerodynamics and Stability & Control, but I am looking for some actual R/C Planes for them to fly, so they can put their theory into practice. I would like to get several models including Propeller and Jets. I myself do not have experience with R/C Planes either.

Any and all suggestions for Models, Brand & Equipment would be greatly appreciated. I teach in a Public School, but recently have received an offer of a donation of $1,000 - $2,000 to spend for equipment and supplies , but I have to spend it fairly soon.

Thank you for any ideas!

First, get in touch with the local RC club in your area.
They may have the equipment you need or help with their
recommendations and will probably be willing to do the training.

My suggestion is to use electric airplanes - much less mess
and they require less peripheral equipment.

Jets may be a bit much for a one semester class.
However, there are some electric jet trainers and with a buddy box
could be a great experience.

Good Luck and keep us posted,
KW_Counter

Using this club locator:

http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubsearch.aspx

I have found this club in your area:

http://www.thermalthumbers.com/

This is a free flight simulator:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/fms/fms_instruct_toc.htm

This summary of links will take you to endless good information:

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~atong/

Great project, best luck!

As for equipment, the newest type of radio broadcasts in the 2.4GHz range. This is definitely the wave of the future, but these radios are rather expensive. However, two very reliable companies have just introduced some new 2.4 radios in a VERY affordable price range.

http://www.airtronics.net/index.php/...radio-air.html

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXYWM9&P=7

Or, you can go for something a bit more advanced:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXSFY3&P=SM

Please click on the link in my signature for some great info on getting started

Don't underestimate the specialized skills involved in building, flying and maintaining a radio controlled model airplane. The advice you've received about contacting a local club is very good. With any kind of luck you will find individuals who will provide more assistance than you ever dreamed.

Most model airplane clubs are populated with folks on the "high end" of the age demographic. They are usually on the lookout for young folks to round out and perpetuate the hobby. And they like to be mentors.

With your organizational base of students and your established curriculum and the modeling expertise of in a local club you may just have a winning combination.

Dick

After mulling your original post, I'd like to offer one caveat to my first reply (above). Tapping an experienced model builder / flyer as a resource should be very useful. But you should also be aware that the experience base of many (perhaps most) model fliers is models only. It's not uncommon to find quite competent model fliers who have mental constructs to explain how their airplanes fly and that their constructs bear little resemblance to your formal training.

Model fliers do not have the benefit of cockpit instruments to tell them what their airplanes are doing. Also, they fly in a moving atmosphere (wind) while standing stationary on the ground. Thus you may find ideas such as, "It climbs better into the wind because the wind gives it more lift."

You may want to screen candidate modeling mentors to find someone who is also a full scale pilot in order to avoid conflicting inputs to your students. Funny, some of the very best model pilots have no full scale experience at all. But you aren't looking for a superb pilot, just a competent flier who can get the plane up and down for you, save the students when they get into trouble, and help reinforce what you are teaching.

Do you know about "buddy boxes" ? If this is an unfamiliar term for you, say the word and I or one of the other posters here will fill you in.

Dick

Yea Im sure you could get a club to bring a demonstration to you or, field trip to their field.

Remember knowledge of theory doesnt immediatly translate to what to do with the sticks, especially when the plane is turned around coming towards you, or in a panic situation.

Im a 5th year Mechanical engineering student with years of time playing combat flight sims. I finally took the RC plunge last summer cause it was something I always wanted to do. Im glad I stumbled on this forum and met a great friend and instructor who invited me to his land and taught me to fly on his equipment, with out his help my entrance cost to the hobby would have been probably quadruple. I did take to it quickly, soloing in 3 days of lessons, but that first flight he definatly caught me and kept me in the air on numerous screwups learning to flip input directions as the plane comes at you.


That being said its very difficult to monitor more than one bird in the air especially with new pilots. So I strongly recommned contacting local clubs for help most have a dedicated instructor or two who Im sure would love to be part of an educational experience like teaching a HS class.

One thing you could look into for a more in house project could be building Free flight kits. Or find plans of free flight planes and have the students do a study on the kits. Why was this foil picked why was this wingspan picked, what could you do to improve the design, and time permitting have them build their prototype with the changes theyve made to the original plan. Alot could be demonstrated with that and you could fly the FF planes right in the gym with the smaller rubberband powered ones.

With RC the bigger and heavier the planes get the bigger and faster and more powerfull those motors or engines are. Safety concerns raise exponentially. I am by no ways dissuading you form doing this, but I understand the liability that would come down to you as a teacher. Rubberband FF is harmless for the most part. you could have them build in the classroom. and fly in the gym. RC will take alot more time effort and instruction.

But I applaud you and wish you the best of luck. I wish my High school had something like this. And youve found one of the best forums on the internet to ask advice to getting started.

Our Club's Field is Cal Poly's Aerospace department Experimental Flight Range. We see some interesting activities. One of the biggest events of the year is Aero 101 day. The students design and build Styrofoam gliders.One of our club guys flys each glider, or attempts to. They are HiStart launched and they carry a payload of penny rolls. Flight score is time, times Penny count. They teams are given up to three flights, if the planes last that long and the best time for the team is logged.The Aerospace department has about a dozen 4 channel radio sets and the receivers and servos are moved plane to plane during the day. We see quite a few unique designs.A lotdon't fly, but every now and then a real surprises poops up.

Each team has to do a presentation on their flight, what went wrong and what was needed to fix it. The 2009 class had thirty teams each with four members. Keeping the flight line safe was kind of like herding cats.

With a limited budget like yours, something like this would be great fun for the kids and you could have the seeds for a yearly event.

The photos are just a sample of the days activities. The old guys are our club president and contest director.

Don

May I suggest a different route?

I am an aero engineer and have mentored several high school and grade school classes.

The most amount of bang for the buck learning any of our classes have had was an 8th grade class where everyone built one of these:

http://www.sigmfg.com/IndexText/SIGFF5.html

With a few bottles of super glue Cyano Acrylate (CA) a couple of sheets of cardboard to build on and a box of straight pins, EVERY student got to create something that flew and could experiment with changes in trim, cg and warpage.

The drawback with RC, because it is expensive and break easily, one bad flight and no one gets to fly, or if the weather sucks for the two day window you plan to fly again no one gets to fly. Keeping the programmed aimed at an indoor venue, the gym, a high ceiling cafeteria, you will always get to fly (if the gym class isn't there)

The other alternatives are these:
http://www.parkzone.com/UltraMicro/D...ProdID=PKZ3400
http://www.parkzone.com/UltraMicro/D...rodID=PKZU1100

Both the EMBER and VAPOR are available READY TO FLY for under $130.00 each so for your $1000 grant you can pick up 6 of these an everyone in the class will have a chance to try to fly RC. They are both very stable and easy to fly airplanes. They will learn that a well trimmed airplane will fly it self. All the pilot does is goof it up.

I'll be glad to help anyway I can, please PM or email me with any questions
Tom Solinski
AMA 8026

It's not really clear what you want them to learn from this. If it's the actual skills of flight, then 2 or 3 ARF sport planes and some club members willing to buddy box your students is in order. That will teach them a little about setup but not much about design. If it's about designing airplanes, small free flight models (rubber band powered) will give them a lot more time experimenting with airfoils, trimming, balance, torque effects, etc. One semester isn't much time at all to learn any of this stuff, so focusing in on one educational objective will be smart.

Thank you all for your wonderful advise.  I have gotten in touch with a couple of our local clubs and am trying to arrange either a field trip or a site visit here.  I think we will eventually go with the purchase of a couple of the trainers that come already assembled, as the idea with them is not the construction, but really the control.  We have already done small scale design, testing  and calculations on airfoils and wings.  To see some of what we have done, feel free to go to <span lang="EN">

http://www.gtri.gatech.edu/media/829<font size="1"> </font></p></span>We may even be able to work with Georgia Tech to get them into the wind tunnels to get aerodynamic data as well.

Thanks again &amp; I will let everyone know how it goes.  You have all been VERY helpful

Why not just buy a few set of flight sim software.  If you have decent computers, you can buy something like Phoenix 2.5 for $180 per workstation.  Easy to use, always available and no problems with broken planes.

Great video and task in front of you, David![sm=thumbs_up.gif]

I recommned: simmulator first (Free FMS is good enough for the project), and flight training last (with buddy cord and instructors from the clubs (it may be difficult to achieve for the number of training-hours necessary for the whole class)).

Before buying airplanes you might check with the club to see what their trainers are comfortable with using. If this is a one shot deal, the club may even own some trainer airplanes that you could use, which would let you use your money for fuel and incidentals, along with maybe hiring 2 or 3 of the club trainers to give you some full days of flying. That would be much better than buying planes and getting 2 hours total with instructors.

Our club helped an Explorer Post (high-school age) build and fly four Sig LT40 models. It was a great time had by all. The models were raffled off by putting all the students names in a hat and pulling four. They build fast and fly well.

If I'm understanding the post right dplattman wants to get them some stick time, not building time. I could see a club setting aside a whole day for a project like this if there was some incentive. Maybe even instructors from two clubs together could get the kids running through a rotation keeping 3 or 4 planes in the sky all the time. That would let each student get a decent amount of stick time on well trimmed planes that fly well.

Here is another teacher wanting to do the same thing. It is a slightly different approach. The planes are extremely durable. http://spadworld.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17122