Free Flight Model Airplanes

[Marco Polo]

I met a fellow enthusiast at an event over the weekend that has been flying free flight planes for 40+ years. He talked about the competitions he attends, the technical nature of the pre-flight setup (the perfect control surface settings for max flight time); it really sounded interesting. I think he flies fairly large models because he talked about having a massive rubber band and a machine to wind them. The last free flight plane I built was in the 70's with balsa and tissue paper. It was a cub of some sorts. I think I got a few flights in before it crashed... it was a long time ago.

If anyone knows more about free-flight, has current aircraft, can recommend a good kit, etc. please share.

MP

[brk6188]

There are quite a few kits available in Europe but not to many over here but they are there. Search on "Free Flight model aircraft". There are many plans available however, for scale, sport, competition, glider, gas and rubber. I still have some free flight stuff and yes if you are serious about this type it can get very technical. I would say your "average" R/C guy of today could never get a free flight of any type balanced and trimmed for perfect performance without some major damage -- you have to understand how aircraft fly and it isn't thru brute force and ignorance !

[F22trainer]

Some good videos on UToob taken at contests - the rubber powered are some pretty interesting works.