Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hi, i live in Akita City and have been flying for 3 years now. i belong to the local club which has an excellent field and was wondering if anyone else flying in Japan would like to set up a regular chit chat type thread

japan3d

I live in Sagamihara, but fly in Haruna Gunma-Ken. We have a great field and clubhouse. Check out the pics on my website.

sfsjkid

Hey 3d nice web site and clubhouse. I lived in Japan, Nagoya and Ise for about 13 years, but this was before I got into flying. When I saw the clubhouse pics I thought it was typical of the Japanese. I wish ours was even 1/2 as nice. I'm kinda curious, are fields, clubs plentiful near big towns? Are the dues resonable? I hope there aren't like golf club fees. Is there an equivalent to the AMA? Basically, I'm curious about what the hobby is like "out there".

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

i live in the second smallest city in Japan, Akita and we have a lovely field. there used to be another club, that i joined first, which was owned by this tiny useless lhs and had no members hardly, but that field was no where near as good. i pay 15,000 yen a year fees, which is about $160. i haven't heard of anything like the ama here, but that's not to say there isn't. flying rc and real planes isn't very widespread here amongst the Japanese, we've got about 20 people in my club. planes are usually expensive from Japanese companies here, about twice the price of the US and i buy most of my stuff over the internet from the US. my lhs has a really friendly owner and he is an agent for Aircraft, so any planes i want from Aircraft, i order fom him. i usually fly during the week when no one else is about. the club guys are there in the weekend and all fly big glow pattern planes and hardly anything else. they probably think i'm a wierd foreigner flying my 1m electrics hahaha

Happy Feet

I visited Sendai for about 6 weeks

japan3d

There is an sort of an AMA here, but it basically just provides insurance. But you can get the insurance at a AIU insurance company, pretty reasonable at 6600 yen ($57) for 2 years with 100,000,000 yen ($870,000) liability coverage. As for the fields, most sunday fliers fly next to rivers, find a open spot mow down the weeds and fly for the day. A lot of the local hobby shops own fields too, but it's a real pain in the butt to join them. One field close to me will not let you fly for the first year, the second year you must be invited by a member to fly, and the third year they might let you join if somebody has left the club. All the while you must purchase your stuff from that hobby shop, and bring gifts to the owner. The club I fly at now is one of the best in Japan, we have 30 members, but only 5-6 show up regularly. The dues are average for a club in Japan, 80,000 yen($700) the first year and 50,000 ($435) yen per year after that. The president of the club owns the land. It's a very laid back club. Everybody owns at least one 40% plane. Also there is places to store your planes so you don't have to drag them back and forth every weekend. When you fly your planes you have the sky to yourself, so no worries about having a mid-air with anybody else. The only drawback is the 2.5-3 hr drive to the field, but then again you can go there on saturday, fly all day, spend the night at the field, fly sunday then drive back home. But like Airbourne said, the planes are expensive here, for example: A comp-Arf 3m Extra by the time it's ready for it's maiden will be close to 1,000,000 yen ($8700).

(All dollar prices $1=115 yen) Prices vary according to exchange rate.

sfsjkid

Airborne, 3d, thanks for the quick reply, I forgot about the time difference, its afternoon in Japan! As I mentioned I did live in Japan for many, many, years and seeing your posts made me feel both nostalgic and curious. I was into cars mainly at the time, and while most of my stuff was Japanese, I did order American items from Tower from time to time. A group of us just set up cones in open parking lots, and while there were many tracks operated by store owners, I just didn't have the time nor could I justify the money to travel to them. My club allows r/c planes, helis and off-road cars right in the heart of silicon valley and is 15 minutes away from home. Its funny though, if I want to run at a real car track, I would have to drive a 2~3 hours north.

Akita sounds somewhat like Ise, there were lots of open fields, spots near the river where I could have flown electrics at least. I was tempted, but then again none of the lhs's had airplanes, and besides I didn't have any extra space to keep planes anyways. Believe it or not, the procedures and prices for club membership don't surprize me at all. The membership fees seem reasonable for Japan, though the price for planes are definitely not I remember my nieces having to be ball girls before being able to join the school tennis team for example and prices in general.

I better stop here before I ramble on! I will say that I do miss all of the nice thick magazines, and the shear number of shops in the larger cities. I'd say there were more shops in Tokyo than all of California. You may see me visiting to see my friends and see whats up in the r/c aircraft world in Japan soon.

Thanks for the snapshot of Japan, I've subscribed to learn more! Regards!

japan3d

SJSJKID, I used to live in Mountain View. Bought my R/C stuff from PEC's Hobbies. I flew at the SCCMAS field till I came back to Japan in '94.

sfsjkid

What a small world! I love the Tomcats field, I would have joined them except that they are a ways away, even when I was living Santa Clara, my club Bayside was closer.

Hmmm, never heard about PEC's, I wonder if they are still around? I'm sure you've heard that San Antonio Hobbies closed their doors a couple of summers ago also. Very sad. We almost lost Sheldon's too.

japan3d

PEC's was/is located on Shoreline blvd. Just a little west of HWY 101. San Antonio hobby was always more expensive then any other hobby shop in the area. I visited Sheldon's quite a lot too.

sfsjkid

Agreed! Before SAH closed their doors, the discounted everything by 20% I believe and only then did I feel the prices were reasonable. I mainly went there for plastic models, kinda miss that, though my pocketbook doesn't. Just out of curiosity, I'm going to ask about PEC at the field over the weekend.

flyathome

My Feedback: (7)

I lived in Chiba Shi from August of 1988 to August of 1992. My son and I belonged to the Chiba Flying Club. Their field was at Inba Numa. It was only about a 25 minute drive from our home. We felt fortunate to live that close. We had members who lived in Tokyo, who drove two plus hours to get there. We made a lot of good friends during those days. I still miss them at times.

Steve

Mluvara

My Feedback: (10)

PEC's has been gone for quite awhile now. The owner sold and closed the electrical business and building, which housed the hobby shop too.

Michael

sfsjkid

Thanks Michael! I'll have to say again this is a small world, Sfsjkid=Frank Goto of Bayside. See ya!

abufletcher

Another RC flyer in Japan (American) checking in here! I've been down in Kagawa-ken (Shikoku) for the past 10 years but have only been flying the last three. Being located in so-called "rural" Japan appears to have it's advantages in terms of RC. The flying field is located on an scenically situated unused rice terrace in the local hills and is only a 15 minute drive away. I pay 10,000 yen (currently about $85) a yen in membership fees to my local club (Sanuki Wings). While there are perhaps 60 guys on the club roster, no more than about 20 are regulars and on most days 10 would be a crowd.

For the most part, the flight line looks pretty typical: Mostly extra and funfly types -- with a few scale ARFs thrown into the mix. I'm the only one in my club building scale. There are also a few heli guys.

The downside of being rural is that there are no RC shops. There is one small mom and pop style shop run by one of the club members where I can pick up small items such as props and fuel but otherwise I have to either haul stuff back from the States or order online from shops in Osaka. I can also place an order with the old lady who runs the local shop IF I can communicate to her in Japanese what I want.

While a few of the guys at the field do speak a bit of English for the most part it's up to me to try to communicate in Japanese. It helps that most of the Japanese RC vocabulary is just katakana versions of the English words.

Prices for RC stuff in Japan is generally higher but there are also some good deals. I bought a Kyosho Calmato Sport and Me109 for the same price I would have paid in the US. Engines (Saito, OS) seem to be the same price here as in the US. Radio gear, on the other hand, is considerably more expensive (perhaps a third more). I used an Airtronics radio bought in the US (so it's mode 2) but I have to replace the crystals with ones from Sanwa since Japanese frequencies are different than US ones. I can't wait for Futaba's FASST system to come out in the Japan. It would be the perfect solution for me.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hey Abufletcher, interesting post. how do you find the Japanese guys treat you at your club. at my club, they all fly big glow pattern planes and i fly mostly 1m electrics, which they regard as 'toys'. they have all been flying for more than 10 years and are very good, but the rare times i turn up on a sunday, they are all flying pattern, doing the same things and it's really boring. i've been flying for 3 years now, but i used to fly light aircraft (got my licence over 20 years ago) but can only fly ultralights in Japan, which i don't like much, hence my interest in rc.

japan3d

Airbourne, in my travels to different R/C clubs I've found that they can be cliquish. If you don't fly a certain type of plane, I'm thinking your fellow club members are into F3A pattern flying, so they are only interested in other pilots that fly the same type of planes, and sometimes the same make of airplane. You'll never see them do any other type of flying, it's strictly fly the F3A schedule and nothing else. I've ran across 2 clubs in the Tokyo area that are F3A clubs and quit talking to me (actually my wife) as as they found out I was just a sport flier.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hey Japan3d, is your wife Japanese (mine is) ? the club guys do talk to me if i start a conversation. a couple are friendly anyway, but i'm at a double disadvantage being a sports flier and a gaijisan. however i don't care as long as i can use the field as i have to look after my kids at the weekend (my wife works 6 days a week) and as i don't work, apart from a little teaching English on wednesdays, i have the field free to myself during the week. you're right it's f3a pattern they do, a couple have the same planes ever, mostly 1.20 and 1.60's. they ALL have futaba radio gear.

slowstang88

hello all, im a gaijin, im stationed at misawa airbase. i hear theres a few guys that fly at the miss vedol beach (cant imagine that with the wind), i will go check it out soon, and see if theres a better spot to fly a trainer. im a new flier, and i definately dont want to step on any toes!! hey airbourneinjapan: do you live near hachiro-gata ko? my number 1 love besides my family is bass fishing and i hear hachiro-gata is famous in northern japan for black bass!!! i also have the occasional trip to the misawa fishing port and drop a sand worm in the surf and pull out soi, iname, donko, and if i cast waaaaay out there ill catch a flat fish or 2!! sayonara!!

nate sanders

japan3d

Yes my wife is Japanese. But not as good as yours. I still have to work all week.

Airbourne in Japan

My Feedback: (3)

hey Mahogany, i don't think i live there. sorry, i've never been fishing, but i do have 8 goldfish good luck with learning to fly, you definately want zero wind. i used to go flying at dawn when i first started, because that is usually the lest wind. near sunset is often good too

abufletcher

As I said, it's mostly smaller planes here, lots of 40-class funflys and scale ARF, a couple of 70-class pattern ships, some saiplanes, a few Extra types. There are also a few 30-class models. It's all really casual and the guys seem to have accepted me (despite my miserable Japanese). It's helped that I've been there to help alternately tear down and rebuild the "hut" and take my turn running the industrial stength weed cutter (think mini tractor) and get all sweaty with the rest of them looking for models that go down in the bamboo.

In one particularly nice moment of international cooperation, I was looking deep in the forest for a downed Me109 and had begun to loose my bearings in terms of where the model might have gone down. Then I hear the buzz of a model overhead flying in very tight circles about 100m ahead of me. This would have been a very risky endeavor for the pilot. Anyway, it ended up leading me to what was left fo the model. When I got back to the field I found out that the pilot was the guy in a wheelchair and this was his way or participating in the search.

One curious thing I've noticed is that engine sounds seem to be quieter than in my club in the US -- for the same class engine. I can't quite figure this out. But I've been impressed with how the engines just purr. I've also learned a few interesting Japanglish RC terms for example "ensto." This means "deadstick" and is made out of truncated version of "ENgine" and "STOp."

I thinking learning to fly here might be a challenge for a gaijin. The best way to learn to fly is with an instructor -- ideally using a buddy box radio. But that's not possible if you're the only one at the field flying an American Mode 2 radio (Throttle Rudder on the Left / Elevator and aileron on the right). Personally I wouldn't want to learn to fly Mode 1, seems counter intuitive to me.

BTW, when you're learning the RealFlight G2 (now 3.5) PC flight simulator is worth it's weigh in models. It runs about $200 bucks and you'll save three times that in crashed models. Now I use it to warm up my thumbs before heading out to the field and to practice new maneuvers. I've occasionally surprised myself at the field when I'll intuitively try something new that I've been doing for week on RealFlight.

japan3d

You need to do like I do, surprise them with asking to fly one of thier models on mode 1. I've been flying mode 2 for 28+ years, mode 1 is a challenge to keep the plane in level flight. You find you keep on reducing the throttle instead of pulling elevator. It's not fun, having to keep telling yourself that the elevator and throttle are reversed. But I've flown everything from a trainer to 40% on mode 1.

abufletcher

Of course another reason to get RealFlight is that you can select eitgher Mode 1 or 2. Though, come to think of it, I wouldn't recommend this for a new flyer. You've got to completely hardwire your stick reactions so that you are just intuitively moving the sticks while imagining what the model is going to do next (just think of video games).

abufletcher

BTW, here's a link to the VERY lengthy thread on my current build of a Sopwith Snipe.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4853598/tm.htm