RC Kites

Up Close And Personal

The first RC Kites page on this website was largely drawn from information from the official GoFlyKite website. Plus there were a few extra specifics kindly supplied by Michael Lim, the director of the company.

In February 2009 we visited Singapore on holidays. The main purpose of the visit was to catch up with relatives and of course show off 3-year-old Aren to the adoring throng!

However, the opportunity to see radio-controlled kites in action and perhaps do a casual interview with Mr. Lim himself was not to be missed. I hope you enjoy the account I give below.

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Lightning and Thunder

Electrical storms and squalls have swept across Singapore every few days since we arrived in late February. Tonight was typical, so I wasn't confident of catching any RC kite action. However, my brother-in-law, his wife, and I were pleased to see some flying as we approached. It was eerie really, like levitating neon signs! That's not to mention the  utter silence. This contrasts with electric RC planes which often have a fair amount of prop noise.

As we walked up, 8 or 10 flyers were out in the large park, flying about in a small block of airspace above the wet grass. A number of suitably impressed tourists and onlookers had gathered at the perimeter of the park.

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Mr. RC Kite—Michael Lim

Mr. Lim makes a point of "always being there" at the regular flying sessions, so he wasn't hard to track down. Transmitter in hand, he was busy answering people's queries and doing demonstrations. What ensued was a kind of cross between an interview, a sales pitch, and a short but great flying demo!

It wasn't much of an interview, since my laid-back approach got swamped by an intense dose of RC Kite passion! Here are two of the questions I managed to insert:

Q: Is that a Lithium Ion battery powering the kite?
A: Lithium Polymer. Good for 20 minutes of flight, compared to 5–8 minutes for RC planes.

Q: Are those sails made of ripstop nylon?
A: Polyester.

In no time, Mr Lim. had rattled off a sales pitch covering all the essential points about what makes these amazing kites so unique and desirable! Here are a few samples—RC kites

• are almost fully crash resistant, thanks to a replaceable front protection rod and flexible motor mounts which prevent prop or motor damage
• require no runway at all
• are easy to fly at a basic level
• are also capable of fighter-like performance and extreme low-speed flight, in the right hands
• have a range of about 1 kilometer (more than 1/2 a mile) with standard RC gear
• come with simulator software which can be plugged straight into the transmitter, providing valuable help for firsttime RC flyers

Interestingly, Michael Lim did not attempt to stress RC kiting as a replacement for other RC flying. Rather, he spoke up RC kites as an ideal introduction to more general RC flying. Would-be RC pilots are a large market indeed!

Finally, there was the brief but impressive demonstration flight. This consisted of

• a take-off directly from his hand
• a general fly around, just a few meters away
• some basic aerobatics such as loops and rolls—these look so good at night, with the craft lit up like a Christmas tree!
• a slow but vertical climb to several hundred feet straight overhead; with all the rain-clouds around, I was half expecting to see it pass into cloud-base and disappear!
• a somewhat faster vertical descent, all the way back to near where we were standing; the kite was in a tight spiral, under full power I think
• finally, when close to the ground, Michael slowed the kite right down and flew it around to where we were standing; nose-high and slow, "hanging on the prop," the kite wafted straight into Mr. Lim's waiting hand—very cool!

Bear in mind that all of this was with the most basic beginner's model, worth around $600 for the kite, RC gear, simulator software, and some training.

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Rain Stops Play

That's to put it in sporting terms. We were fortunate to see what we saw, since we had only been at the park for half an hour or less. People started heading back to the GoFlyKite shop, which was on a floor of the nearby multi-story complex.

Rather than rattle on about the contents of the shop (yawn) I might just mention a couple of highlights.

First, I had a good chat to a staff member over the counter. It transpired that the main development over the last year or two was the continuing RnD (research and development) of a relatively large-wing-span RC kite. Several prototypes were hanging from the ceiling, each with minor differences in the sail so the flight characteristics could be compared. One day this advanced high-aspect-ratio kite will be available for sale. To my slight surprise, one reason mentioned for the long wings is so you can mount an even more dazzling array of lights for spectacular night flying. Fair enough, it's probably a good selling point!

Second, my brother-in-law and I had fun for quite some time, doing some simulator flying with the software used for training. As an ex-RC flyer I had no trouble keeping the kite in the air, but trying to land on the small strip sure exposed my rusty skills! The basic setup for RC kites is exactly the same as for RC planes. That is, elevator on the left stick, ailerons and throttle on the right stick. Actually, the kites have elevons, two flaps at the rear which combine the function of elevators and ailerons.

I hope you enjoyed this "up close and personal" glimpse into the world of RC kites!

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