isabelRC

Yikes! That's the question nobody involved in RC wants to get asked :). An aiplane of that size can cost 3k (second hand) to over 10k (new). The top of the line radio is about 2-3k. And of course they pretty much all end up crashing, eventually. As a couple (my husband is also involved, we met through the hobby) we probably spent on average 5k a year during the most expensive years. That was doing everything as cheaply as possible (second/third/fourth hand and camping for all events, fitting everything in a Toyota Matrix), which not many people do. Now, I have most of the gear I need and good sponsorships so it doesn't cost me much.

I definitely don't make a living off of it :) . I'm not sure anyone does unless they actually work full time for an RC company (product design, marketing, whatever). I have a full time job, I work at a not-for-profit organization that promotes science to youth across Canada.

I hear you! I think the hardest thing with RC airplanes, is that you could crash it on your first flight. When I got my first airplane, my boyfriend told me, 'don't get attached now, you know it will end up in the garbage can'. The expense is definitely hard and it helps that in my case, it's an activity that both my husband and I enjoy. I can't imagine putting that much money into it if it was only for one of the two people.

I didn't know about that specific incident but I have heard of other similar ones. With a helicopter, the blades can be pretty long (1.5m across, maybe?) and spinning fast enough to decapitate someone, for example. If it starts to drift towards you and you can't stop it (either you don't have the skill, a bad reflex, or something mechanically wrong), you can see the possibilities. With airplanes I think the most common injury must be the propeller hitting your hand when you start it.

The biggest difference in my opinion (confirmed by pilots who have tried both) would be the point of view. In a real airplane, you move with the airplane so a right turn is always a right turn and a left turn is always a left turn. In RC, if the airplane is coming towards you left & right get 'reversed' visually, and if you are upside down, ailerons stay the same but rudder and elevator get reversed. That makes orientation trickier in RC. I have flow real planes twice: a Cessna and a glider, and both times, I was able to fly them fine, without training and without the 'instructor' having to take back the control at any time, because the controls are the same and the response to the controls is similar. The only thing they needed to do was warn me about keeping the nose down, etc, because I was not used to instrumentation (i.e. in RC you can see the airplane's speed visually, in real airplanes you have to watch the instruments). Flying once in the air is one thing but I sure couldn't land or take off properly without lessons! I wouldn't know anything about the proper speeds, what approach pattern to take, how to not overshoot the runway etc.