I got my nephew a radio controlled plane for x-mas. My nephew is young and this is a cheap thing so nothing fancy at all. But it occurred to me what happens when he (inevitably) flies the plane out of control range? Does it plummet to the ground? Keep going till it runs out of juice or what? I am hoping it’ll autopilot in a circle with no control input but like I said…cheap thing so I am not holding out for a lot of brains on this thing.
ETA: Ack…meant this for GQ…sorry. Can a mod move it? Thanks.
It can start doing some crazy shit, or it will just not do anything at all.
I have had my helicopter catch a light gust and go out of range before. The throttle varied wildly, which would have seemed to help cushion the fall, until it managed to flip over and made a bee line for the 40 foot pine tree beneath it.
I’ve also had it go out of range before and fall out of the sky like a rock.
In my experience, it doesn’t matter. They are going to crash and burn one way or another. I lusted after RC planes when I was a kid and even went with my grandfather to a weekend fly site near his house. Grown men were in tears as their $1000 homebuilt contraptions did stunts and then flew straight into the ground one by one.
Thank God for those <$40 current models. I have destroyed two with great fun and they both got caught up in trees way beyond a large field that I used. I just got another one for Christmas and it should be great but, if I get lucky, it will make it past the first day. I am a real (perpetual student) pilot but RC aircraft are hard.
Those things usually don’t have a brain. Some of it depends on the type of servos it uses, but a lot of the servos just hold their last position. If you’ve got the plane all neatly trimmed up, it could just fly until it runs out of fuel. That happened to a friend of mine. He never did find the plane.
If you are lucky the servos will go to some default position which may not be too healthy for flight. At least then you can easily find the wreck and salvage some parts.
Well, I do not expect much out of a <$40 plane but I would think something that tells the plane, “No signal? Turn right till told otherwise”. Can’t imagine a simple microchip to do that would be expensive.
Of course juts turning right and still maintaining flight are two wholly different things but at least it is not opting for flying off into the sunset and be a total loss (or nose dive into the ground). A chance at hanging in there is better than none I’d think.
In one extraordinary incident, an out-of-control model aircraft flew to Dublin Airport and landed there (on a taxiway). An impressively thorough investigation was carried out, which should address some of the questions raised.
I was at first amused that such an investigation was undertaken, but on reflection I can see why it was advisable … The report actually does answer the basic question in the OP, though!
The park near where I used to live in New Zealand had a semi-regular R/C Aeroclub flying there and it wasn’t unusual for the aircraft to “glitch” or lose contact.
In some aircraft, when the signal was lost the throttle was also cut off and the ailerons and rudder returned to the “neutral” position. Whether the plane made a forced but recoverable (ie, repairable) landing or went spiralling out of control into the forestry plantation nearby largely depended on luck and what the wind was like.
Others would just keep going as before until they got the signal back (bad luck if that was “down” or “towards the ocean”!)
Most commonly, if an R/C plane was going to be damaged, it would be either on landing or whilst doing aerobatics. I still recall a petrol driven R/C plane which caught fire in mid-air and crashed into a lake at full-speed, though. It was obviously expensive, and everyone watching (including the owner, I think) was caught between a “Holy crap!” and “That was awesome!” expression.
I’ve always wanted to get into R/C aircraft but I just don’t have the time or the money, unfortunately…