How I got roped into RC flying

     I should start of by saying I have always loved airplanes, rockets, and all things that fly since a child. In fact, my favorite memories from my childhood consisted of launching model Estes rockets in the park with my family and friends. But unfortunately as time moved on, I started to loose interest as more and more of that time was put into school, homework, and extra curricular. The magic wore off as I grew up.

     Fast forward to the start of my junior year at Virginia Tech. I was officially accepted by the department of aerospace and oceanic engineering (AOE), and I just completed my first introductory aerospace classes. At the same time, a friend and mentor of mine really picked up remote controlled flying over the summer. Wanting to share the joy of flying (and recruit friends to fly with), he built a R/C glider made out of foam board in all of an afternoon. Meanwhile, I was in my apartment next-door, when he bursts in asking for someone to help him test something. I knew he was working on a project that evening, but I was surprised when I saw a fully functioning glider sitting on his floor. Complete with ailerons and elevator, It was a fully functioning aircraft. We spent hours that night throwing this thing off the 3rd story balcony into the parking-lot below. Everything I learned in those aerospace classes was right there in front of me and at my control. The center of gravity placement, wing aspect ratio, the loss of control in a stall, it was a hands on experience that really opened my mind and solidified my understanding of aircraft design. I was immediately hooked, it was the spark that I needed to keep the inspiration going.

     A week later he had me on a "buddy box" training system. after two more weekends of trainer flights, I was flying solo. It wasn't fair that I constantly barrow, my friends' equipment, so I was somehow convinced to start building my own plane. I had no idea how much I would learn over these projects.

I would like to thank my friends Brent and Todd for their help, time, and patience during this endeavor.

Here's the glider after many flights and iterations of improvement. We wanted to further increase the glide range, so we simply attached the spare wings we made. Larger ailerons and elevator were also implemented for greater roll/pitch authority and wing area.