Discover the Fun in Fun Fly!

It's unbelievable how quickly you can lose sight of the face-splitting fun in our favourite model airplane hobby! You're either trying too hard or you're too confused by all the choices. And what do you do next? Sailplanes? Warbirds? Combat? Control-line? Racing? Perhaps you should re-discover what this great model airplane hobby is all about and try some fun flying.

Whether you need friendly advice, tips on flying your model airplane or have questions about different model airplanes or equipment, Fun Flying groups feature fellow enthusiasts who are willing to help the novice. They are not concerned with the size, shape, or scale of your model airplane. Instead, they focus on the joy of flying, on learning new techniques, and on how to reap the most benefit from each model airplane.

Typically, fun fly groups gather to compete in a series of missions or tasks. The idea is that through practicing new maneuvers, the novice will become a master. Tasks are divided into two categories: unlimited and fun fly. The unlimited category places no limit on the design or equipment of your model airplane, apart from meeting the Academy of Model Aeronautics' (AMA) safety code for radio-controlled fliers.

Tasks in this category are timed from the point of intentional movement to the end of the maneuver and point that the wheels touch the ground. The fun fly category may place limits, like minimum wing loading or radio features, or may remain unlimited. These tasks are usually mission oriented, but can be timed as well. Participants enter a category in either the masters class, (top level), or the sportsman class, (entry level).

The tasks involve aerobatic precision with such stunts as loops, rolls, touchdown and take-off with your model airplane, and limbo passes in which a ribbon is stretched between two poles that are fifty feet apart and five feet high. Fun fliers compete in several of these tasks; all are timed. Missions include tasks like learning to taxi accurately on the runway, to climb in altitude and glide, to fly for exactly three minutes, to perform a spot landing, or to complete a bomb drop.

The National Competition Fun Fly Association (NCFFA), http://www.ncffafunfly.org/, is the approved Special Interest Group for fun flying by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA). The group features standard tasks and model airplane missions, as well as a general layout of fun flying.

In keeping with the spirit of fun, however, the association suggests that groups create safe, new tasks and missions for fun fly events. New tasks and missions keep the fun growing for old-timers and offer more choices for newcomers. People have done things like landing with a dead engine, or playing musical airplanes, (last one down when the music stops is out).

So what might one of these fun fly events look like? Picture a model airplane warbird, sailplane, and combat model plane all racing one another. Next, a taped-together foam plane performs aerobatics, followed by a scratch built balsa model airplane, fresh paint glistening in the sun. The greatest advantage of these events is the learning factor: where else can you be exposed to so many different planes and styles of flying?

Your next step? Take what you've learned here and get back to some fun. Remember, all RC model airplanes are created equal in the eyes of fun.