Free flight duration aeromodeling

Float Documentary Trailer from Phil Kibbe on Vimeo.

I came around this video trailer about segment of model aviation known as free flight and was very interested about the topic so I decided to share some details about it. 

Free flight is the original form of the aeromodeling hobby in which the aircraft have no need for any form of external control, like radio remote controller.  The aircrafts are built to be inherently stable in flight and if disturbed by a gust of wind or a thermal up-current they will return automatically to stable flight.As propulsion they can be powered by rubber bands, power sources (batteries, fuel, etc) or be without any means of propulsion (gliders).

Because building the aircraft can be done using basic supplies this hobby is quite accessible to everyone. It require a bit of knowledge and reading about aerodynamics and propulsion, but these days info is quite easy to find if you put your mind to it and have time.

I personally like the light rubber powered indoor models, which look as they are just floating in thin air. Amazingly these model aircrafts, even if they are powered by the turn of a rubber band, can be capable of quite long flight times. As you can see in this clip the flights can go beyond one hour mark.

If you want to read more about free flight here are some links:

• Free flight page on Wikipedia;
• Some details about how to build a rubber powered aircraft;
• Float Documentary home page;