Aeromodelling Club

“What is chiefly needed is skill rather than machinery” said Wilbur Right but we add one more to it “passion” which drives the Aeromodelling Club at NITK.

Aeromodelling  is an art of building and flying of scaled down versions of full size planes, existing or imaginary, using materials such as polystyrene ,balsa wood, foam and fibre glass.

Founded in 2007 by  Kamal Kant Gaur and cofounded by flying enthusiasts Dipesh, Rupesh, Suman and under able guidance of Dr.G.L Pahuja, the club has come afar since then. The love for aircraft, fervour to fly, apt juggle between the academics and hobby ,perseverance, untiring labour, deft leadership  and promising members has carried the legacy  of excellence and made club stand this tall. The club has big name in the college’s annual techfest   ‘ Techspardha’ .Its events are one of the most awaited and participated and also garners mush spectators. Hot air balloon making event famed as FLAME KITE and CHUCK GLIDER making event, are flagship events in TECHSPARDHA.

ACTIVITIES

• Knowledge building through experiments with models and knowledge transfer to its members for sustaining the club is the main motto.
• Designing and building the new models, rebuilding of the damaged models, flying the prepared models and ground pilot training to the budding pilots are the routine activities undertaken under the club.
• Organizing Aeromodelling events during Techspardha, national level technical symposium of our college.
• Professional aero modellers are brought in to interact with the club members and a workshop under their guidance is conducted exclusively for club members.

WORKSHOPS

The club has been organizing workshops at regular basis on making various flying objects to fuel the interest of NITK students to fly. Following workshops has been conducted so far.

Hot air balloon workshop:

Popularly known as Flame Kite, students are taught to make hot air balloons out of kite paper.

Control line aircraft workshop:

    Engine mounted planes made of balsa wood was taught to make in this workshop. The flight of this aircraft is controlled by ground pilot through cord attached to the aircraft.

Chuck glider workshop:

    Chuck glider is the very basic model of glider family. Made of balsa wood and hand launched from a height, this workshop is the gate to anyone entering the world of Aero modelling. Skilfully crafted glider has a very long flight path and remains in air for a good time.

Boomerang Workshop:

    Pioneered by Australian Aborigines for hunting it has now become an apple of eye for many flying enthusiasts. Made of wood, balsa or plywood, a well crafted boomerang returns to the thrower carving a curvilinear path.

Annual Workshop:

    Conducted annually and exclusively for club members new models of plane and gliders are crafted under the guidance of professional aero modellers. Spanning for 3-4 days the club members are engaged in knowing the theory and applying them to bring out new models.

Flying Workshops:

    The members are taught to fly the aircraft made during the annual workshop. The club makes use of state-of-the-art flying simulator software to acquaint the budding pilots of the flying procedures and conditions before they are taken to real time flying. Conducted in good weather weekends under the observation of professional aero modellers, the real time flying workshop is meant to train students to become ground pilots. The aircrafts are radio controlled.

 ASSETS

The foremost asset of the club is its hardworking, passionate members who are never sigh of toiling and who never fail to bring fun at work. Hats should certainly be off to their determination.

Control line aircraft:

    We have Skybee junior, Skybee senior and Peacemaker under control line category of aircraft. Controlled by chords and powered by ic engine this is the stepping stone to learn the art of flying. Peacemaker however is an aerobatic aircraft and requires some serious controlling techniques to master its flying.

R.C.Gliders:

    Spirit and Apple box are the gliders under this category. Powered by engine and equipped with radio instruments to control, these are taken to a height, power cut off and controlled to glide  for the maximum possible time. These can also be used to drop flowers in the occasions.

Powered R.C aircraft:

    Eagle, the trainer aircraft, is the one under powered r.c. category. Equipped with a more powerful engine than a glider and all of radio equipments, these are employed to train to fly the scaled models. Skilled hands could manoeuvre it to perform basic aerobatic stunts as inverted flying, nose dive, and vertical loops.

    The latest model in our collection is the Biplane, bigger model and meant for more intense aerobatic stunts as knife edge flying, spiral nose dive.

Besides, the club has several of IC engines (both petrol and diesel) to power the aircraft and gliders and all the tools required to make a flying object from scratch(raw materials) and to keep in shape the already built stupefying aero models. The annual fund provided to the club is utilised in adding more sophisticated tools.

Real flightG4 flight trainer simulator is used to hone the flying skills of the members.2.4 GHz Futaba RADIO systems is employed to control the airborne planes.

Future Plans:

Ornithopter workshop:

The flying object which emulates flying of a bird.

Boomerang workshop:

The gift of Australian aborigines to the flying enthusiasts and popular as hunting weapon of Mowgli, it comes to the thrower after traversing a circular path when thrown at correct angle.

Annual workshop (2012-13):

We are planning to add few more models in our club and impart knowledge of making these models to the new comers. The proposed dates for the workshop is 26-29 jan.