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Cross Country Flying (Part 1)

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Cross-country flying is a challenging treat - while defined differently than with full-scale planes, it still involves taking off from one airfield and landing at another. Cross-country flying requires pilot flexibility, endurance and coordination, and sometimes modifications to the airplane for very long flights. Let's take a look at what's involved, and how you can prepare yourself for your first cross country flight.

Although some cross country flights are competitions to see who can fly farthest on a specified amount of fuel, most cross country flights are simply a point-to-point affair and the goal is simply to arrive, having enjoyed the trip. The length of the flight dictates what preparations are needed. I will divide such lengths into three categories. As you might expect, the flying requirements scale with distance:

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By short distance, I mean flights that are shorter than 3-5 miles, or about 10-15 minutes of flight. These flights are comparable to the length of a typical flight, and typically impose no modifications to the plane. So what do we need?

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Medium distance cross country flight are less than 30 miles, or about one hour. In other words, they are longer than the typical RC flight but comfortably shorter than the standard transmitter/receiver battery lifetime. This requires efficient flying technique, added fuel, and pilot endurance.

Next month, we'll see what it takes to fly an RC plane literally ``cross-country''! :)


next up previous
Next: Calendar of Events Up: Front Page Previous: From the Puckerbrush...

Craig Kulesa
Fri Dec 1 16:50:01 MST 2000