The pastime began in the mid-1930s when radio designers, aeronautical engineers and modelers began to experiment with remote control flight. That Saturday in October in Katy, the McDaniels attended the Space City RC’s 12th annual Warbird Fly-In, where enthusiasts get together to show off their planes. Except for in the dead of winter, the weather in Texas allows the family to travel across the state to attend competitions and shows at least once a month. Michael Minasi/Reporting Texas.Īt the end of most workdays McDaniel and his sons gather in McDaniel’s auto repair workshop, where more than 60 RC airplanes are peeking out from storage lofts and corners, to tinker on their planes together. Pilots gather around the wreckage of a crashed remote controlled airplane during the 12th Annual Warbird Fly-In. “They weren’t into sports so much, but I wanted to be involved with them and thought it would be a fun activity that would get us outside.” “As my boys got older I wanted to find something to do with them,” Evan McDaniel said. McDaniel was driving past a park north of Austin when he saw a group of people flying planes, and he stopped to chat with them about it.
He started flying RC aircraft about 25 years ago, shortly after Devan was born. The McDaniel brothers’ father, Evan McDaniel, owns Labor Only Auto Repair in Hutto. Now, the club is working to attract young, would-be pilots with educational outreach in local schools, special membership deals for youth and families, youth-focused training programs and more. RC pilots started using the airfield in the mid 1960s, and several of them officially formed the club in 1972, Eshbaugh said. The association has an airfield with an air-conditioned clubhouse and two runways - one paved and one grass - on the northeastern outskirts of Austin. “When I joined it was the flip-flop of that.” “We’ve got about 70 members that are under the age of 65 and only about 38 members that are over the age of 65,” said John Eshbaugh, club secretary for the Austin Remote Control Association. The Academy of Model Aeronautics, a national organization that sanctions competitions, reports having more than 195,000 members - up from 145,000 in 2011.Ī radio controlled airplane leaves a contrail while performing a trick during the Fall Big Bird festival. Advances in technology and the mainstreaming of drones during the past decade have breathed new life into the niche hobby. The McDaniel brothers are one example of a young and energetic wave of people drawn to RC airplanes.
Remote control airplane professional#
Always wanted to be a pilot,” said McDaniel, who recently began pursuing a career as a professional pilot after years of flying RC aircraft with his father and 19-year-old brother, Dustin. If McDaniel’s airplane were to crash, he would walk away, too, because the aircraft zipping across the sky at Space City RC in Katy one Saturday morning in October were a fraction the size of full-scale airplanes. The pilot walked away from that crash unharmed. He had been warned earlier about the turbulence around the runway, which later that day would send another airplane plummeting to earth. Hutto resident Devan McDaniel, 26, eases his airplane forward onto a grassy runway with a gentle push of the throttle. Michael Minasi/Reporting Texas.Ī propeller jerks into motion as the roar of an engine fills the air. 13, 2018 at the Space City RC Club in Katy, Texas.
Devan McDaniel finds a spot to line up his remote controlled plane to await a chance to fly during the 12th Annual Warbird Fly-In on Saturday, Oct.
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