RC Airplanes—Having Fun and Keeping It Safe

To help keep you safe and get the most fun out of flying RC airplanes, here is a short list of things NOT to do before you take to the air:

• Don’t buy a nitro jet RC airplane that looks great, flies super-fast and needs flight skills you don’t yet have. You’ll get there, but it’s not a good place to start. At best, you’ll probably crash and maybe total your plane first time out; at worst, you’ll damage someone’s property or hurt yourself or another person.

• Don’t think when it says Ready to Fly (RTF) on the box that it means you’re ready to fly, without training or instruction (and I don’t mean skimming through the owner’s manual). RTF just means the plane needs little or no assembly but before you’re ready, you need to put in a few hours with an experienced flier and/or spend time on a flight simulator.

• Don’t ever fly RC airplanes without going through the pre-flight checklist. This is really important and applies to your first and every other flight. Make sure your plane is properly balanced, there are no loose nuts or bolts and all connections are secure. See that batteries are fully charged and your transmitter antenna is extended all the way (unless you’re using a 2.4 radio transmitter). Check control surfaces to see that they are moving properly.

• Don’t fail to check your radio range. This is done to determine that you can fly within the plane’s normal range without losing radio signal. This is also very important—if you do go out of range, she’s almost certainly coming down and coming down hard. Instructions for performing range checks are found in your manual.
  
• Don’t guess that you’ve done the pre-flight check properly, make absolutely certain. If you have any questions or doubts, ask for help. It’s perfectly OK to ask someone to do this with you the first few times or to check behind. In fact it’s the smart thing to do, so ask for assistance. The number 1 rule for flying RC airplanes is “don’t be sorry later--err now on the side of safety.”
  
• Don’t fly in windy conditions—I know you can’t wait to take her up and yes, some planes will handle wind speeds of 10 mph or better. However, if you are just learning to fly, stick to no more than 5 mph and dead calm is best.

This list is by no means exhaustive—these are just some basic pre-flight considerations. Some RC airplanes require additional measures, and you'll find them in the instructional manual or video that came with your aircraft. In fact, I should have made bullet-point #7 “don’t fail to read your manual!” Remember, the cardinal rule of flying RC airplanes is “Safety First,” and a thorough inspection of your manual is a good starting point for ensuring fun and safe radio control flying.

Related hubs:

Learn to Fly RC Airplanes and Helicopters through Club Instruction

Learn to Fly Remote Control Helicopters and RC Airplanes with a Flight Simulator

Learn to Fly RC Airplanes with a Buddy Box

Learn to Fly RC Airplanes with a Certified Instructor

Choosing Your First Remote Control Airplane

Coaxial, Fixed Pitch (FP) and Collective Pitch (CP) Helicopters

2.4 GHz Radios: A Revolution in Flying RC Airplanes