Radio Controlled Details

Radio controlled or remote controlled (RC) devices can be hobby grade or toy grade. Toy grade RC devices are usually available at retail toy stores and may be purchased by people for their children to play with. These are mostly toys produced in bulk quantities and comprise of non- serviceable parts. The RC toys cannot be used outside as they are not rugged enough to take the strain of the terrain outdoors. Most of the radio controlled toy grade devices are not durable as they are made from soft materials that are easily breakable. These items are ready to use and thus require no assembling of parts. Since they run on battery cells, all you need to do is place the batteries in the case and your toy is ready to play.

Hobby grade radio controlled devices are meant for the serious enthusiast. These devices are simple in their design and can be remodeled, serviced and reused. The material is durable and the items are usually custom made. More often these devices need to be assembled, but the stores may deliver the assembled piece, if you so wish. A serious hobbyist will always prefer to buy the kit and do the assembling himself. This is in itself a creative art that the hobbyists indulge in, apart from participating in various competitions. There are sporting events held for the RC enthusiasts that have their own rules for the game.

The various types of radio controlled toys available presently are described below:

1. Airplanes: The RC airplane is available in various shapes and sizes, from gas turbine driven models to the smaller flyers. They can be tied to a pole with the help of a rope or they can be free flying. They can be fuel driven or electrically propelled and the latest models can even reach speeds of 250mph. Since the RC airplanes are complex toys they require some amount of control and knowledge of flying. Therefore, adult supervision is required during flying and they are not suitable for very young children. The airborne RC models are among the most expensive and a crash may result in damages that may prove to be very costly.

2. RC Cars: Cars are the most common and the most popular among the RC toys. The cars are either fuel driven or electrically powered. These can be operated even by children and are much safer compared to airborne devices. The RC cars may be used in on-road or off-road RC car races. The RC car models come in various sizes and shapes.

3. RC Helicopters: This is another airborne device. However, its design and flying pattern is different from that of an airplane. Some enthusiasts prefer it to the airplane as they claim it to be much more interesting for flying. The same factors of airplanes apply to helicopters too.

4. RC Boat: The first radio controlled toy to be created was a boat as demonstrated by Tesla. He showed the public, a boat that obeyed people's command. In reality, he was remotely controlling the boat.

Radio controlled models come in various shapes, sizes, and descriptions from race cars to off road trucks and from boats to planes and helicopters for indoors and larger models for outdoors. These models are often referred to as just RC (meaning radio control) but some people still refer to them as remote control. Some of the more serious RC hobbyists insist that the models are "Radio Controlled" and do not like you to call them "Remote Controlled" because remote control can be used to refer to a toy car for example with a trailing wire to a control. The higher end spec of RC models run into the several hundreds of dollars and are much more than just toys.

There are racing cars designed for speed and there are cars designed for off road. The off road versions usually have more chunky tires. RC models can be powered in a few different ways, some are battery powered, some are nitro powered. Nitro cars and other nitro models run on a mixture of nitro, methanol and oil. While electric models powered by rechargeable batteries and it used to be that they were usually not as fast as the nitro versions, but this has changes a bit now and some battery models are very quick. The battery powered models are more cheap to buy and need less servicing. In a nitro powered model you must consider that there are other components to maintain such as the air filter, carburetor and fuel filter to name just a few. With battery powered models it is quicker to power up, by that I mean it is quicker to swap a battery pack than it is to refuel your nitro model so those are a few key facts to help decide when choosing between a battery powered model or a nitro powered model. Some hobbyist prefer to build their own model from a kit while some just like to buy them ready assembled.

When choosing an RC glider, plane or Helicopter there are a few point to remember. Airborne models are harder to learn to control at first so make sure you have plenty of space to to fly, you don't want to be crashing your expensive model into a tree like I have done before now! With RC helicopters there are very small and very low cost models suitable for use indoors and then there are very expensive models used for outdoors, you can even get helicopters and planes ready assembled with built in cameras for photography and videos from the air, and you can also buy hobby cams for this purpose and install them into your existing model at home.

Then there are RC boats, I won't go into much detail about them here other than to say they come in all shapes and sized and are usually nitro powered. The radio controlled model hobby is becoming increasing popular and there are clubs and race tracks popping up all over the place. It has become a popular pastime for boys, girls, men and women of all ages.