how will aeromodelling benefit students entering the working world ?

[ghostrider]

how will aeromodelling benefit students entering the working world ?

Had a few friends and cousins asking me this question for month.....basically i am so blank about it....the only answer I can give is prepare them for aerospace career....

Hope that everyone can give more suggestions to it !!! THANKS !!!!

[klfong]

It develops skills in patience, construction, troubleshooting and attention to detail. If you don't have these, a person's aeromodelling hobby will be very expensive. This is of course besides the hand-eye coordination needed to fly these things. :-)

[baby_zyklon]

As a aero student...

I feel Aeromodelling doesn't really help much in terms of aerodynamics or theory of flight. What I can see in aeromodelling projects in school is learning to optimize group work/performance, exploring in a brand new territory of play and working within all the limitations.

[SPHB]

how will aeromodelling benefit students entering the working world ?

Had a few friends and cousins asking me this question for month.....basically i am so blank about it....the only answer I can give is prepare them for aerospace career....

Hope that everyone can give more suggestions to it !!! THANKS !!!!

HOW TO SAVE MONEY

[joe yap]

That will depend on your own approach on this hobby. On one end, it can be everything in your carreer, but on the other extreme end, it can be a complete waste of time and money.

[Sunstorm]

how will aeromodelling benefit students entering the working world ?

Had a few friends and cousins asking me this question for month.....basically i am so blank about it....the only answer I can give is prepare them for aerospace career....

Hope that everyone can give more suggestions to it !!! THANKS !!!!

Aeromodelling as in building of planes? It's just a hobby, like all other hobbies, it helps us de-stress so that we can do our daily jobs better.

Well building from plans enhances thinking and planning skills and makes someone think a few steps forward.

And most importantly for students, doing a job well - e.g. building a model aircraft that flies well gives a sense of achievement of doing a job well done, which leads to building up of confidence and self esteem. The student also is encouraged to stretch his resourcefulness and information finding skills in researching problems that occur with the aircraft model.

That alone is so very valuable in the working world!

[joe yap]

As a aero student...

I feel Aeromodelling doesn't really help much in terms of aerodynamics or theory of flight. What I can see in aeromodelling projects in school is learning to optimize group work/performance, exploring in a brand new territory of play and working within all the limitations.

Not really true in my case. If you only stay on the surface of the hobby, there may not be much relevance to you. But if you know in depth of the structural and system concepts, there's a lot of similarities.

[Vortices]

I agree with Joe, aviation has always been an imporatnt part of my life. I have just about tried everything that is available to me. Many times graet sacrifices are neccessary to pursue aviation. At times it is a risky investment both in terms of money and time, for full scale plane, pilot's well being is also at risk.

I have built static model planes since after I learnt how to walk. It is, to me at least, a hobby that develops great patience and extreme eye for details. Beside type of airplane, a static modellers would go to the extreme of series, repaired done on the plane, what electronic mods it has incoporated so on and so forth. With the patience one could understand complicated things easier and could sit down for hour experimenting with various engineering gadgets.

For RC, I found most fun in the application of aerodynamic theories. Unlike other forms of transport, we cant readily modify a plane and take it out for a spin. In RC, we can do just that. Adverse yaw, differential aileron, high speed stall, tip stall, lift and drag relationship of different airfoils, cg positioning, static stability, laminar and turbulant boundary control..and the list go on and on. All this we can experiment and find out for ourselves how and what works or sometimes what doesnt work. So if you are in the aviation line or avaition instruction, it is invaluable. With the advent of EDFs, the whole horizon have just exploded exponentially, only limited, literally, by our imagination.

From rc, next progress would be to experimental aircraft building and ultra and micro lights. There is nothing more satisfying than transforming a pile of sheet aluminum into an aeroplane. However simple the airplanes might end up, however ugly it may seem to some, the first moment the gears leaves the ground, it is something one will remember for the rest of his/her life. I can remember some years back, I was involded with a few other guys to built from scratch an experimental 2 seater Zenith Zodiac ch-601 all metal aircraft, took us 9 months and reasonble some of money to do it, When it took off on its first test hop, the 3 of us were trying our best to hold our tears back. To no avail.. it is to date, one of the most satifying moment in my life. Since then, a lot have happened. But I will always cherished that afternoon, that was the day, our effort to change a pile of metal into an air displacing machine and successful made a FLYING MACHINE. Unfortunately experimental airplane is not established in singapore, Otherwise I am very sure it would attract a lot of young and old enthusiast.

In terms of reward if you are not in the aviation industry...well, the mere satisfaction of doing something very unnatural and beating gravity. Do remember, avaition is only slighty over 100 years old, that is just about one life time for some. 120 years ago,If you were to tell people, I will travel across the world in a flying machine, at 85% speed of sound, having my meal and watching a movie at 60000'. You will be taken for no more than a fiction writter for science. The claim of inventing a flying machine in 1903 would be similar to the discovery of aliens or inventing a teleportation machine in todays contexts...

So there you have it. The question should not be 'what we get out of
aviation and why we should do it..it should be 'why shouldnt we do it and what we would not get from it. The discipline it instills in one is second to none. The close eyes to details and keen sense of observation will improve your daily life as much as it would your hobby. Just ask the heli guys, everytime they fly and land successful, 3d or not, he is proud to tell you, every part of his heli is working perfectly and at its optimum. Can any Joe public do that..?

Sorry, I have blabber on for a while...I have actually just finished work. I just thought I will share what I feel about aviation. RC plane are by no means a simple hobby, as a matter of fact it is one of the most complicated hobby a person can have. In some category, I have seen real planes that are less complicated.

So there you have it, so next time somebody ask, is it worth it to RC, ask them how much time he/she has....

cheers
Kevin

[ammo]

how will aeromodelling benefit students entering the working world ?

Simple answer would b: No, it doesn't benefit students entering the working world.

Neither does cycling, rock climbing, archery, gaming, etc.
Take it easily, it's a healthy hobby just like many others.
Take it too seriously, it's an obsession.

Whichever way, it cost money just like many other hobbies as well

[Brandon Chng]

benifitted me very well, because i'm currently in full time aero engineering of small industrial flying systems. another area students should look out for are fabrication and mechanical techniques.

[baby_zyklon]

Not really true in my case. If you only stay on the surface of the hobby, there may not be much relevance to you. But if you know in depth of the structural and system concepts, there's a lot of similarities.

That is because you go really in-depth? I have seen a few of your build threads and I must say, I am always impressed.

BUT, how many modellers actually go into all the theories, I don't think many. There is so much more to the "real thing", not that our r/c planes are not very real. Yes, an average modeller will be able to indentify the flaps and how they work, differentiate a swashplate from a main grip...but thats it. We don't even encounter most basic chapters of basic parts of the real world like CFD, hydraulic system, cylinderical shell theories and all the what not that even yr1's are suppose to know. Of course, one who is interested in aerodynamics can specialise in it, one who is interested in rotary wing can join the rotary industrial, but reality is, we have to be practical, we still need to weigh our dream and interest against our..wallet

[edmond22]

ok for me lol:

Coming from a non technical background (business trained). I am pretty happy with what I achieved from the modelling world. Just list some of the things I have done:


- Make Videos
- Build websites
- Copywriting
- Writing manuals
- Learned a few softwares like Autocad, Fireworks etc
- Fabricated a CNC router
- Design, prototyping, producing planes

With these above examples, I learned lessons in life that is very valuable

- Doing business, selling, marketing etc
- Perseverance/ Determination
- Resourcefulness
- Lifelong learning attitude
- Nothing is impossible, non technical with no prior knowledge will be just fine designing planes or building CNC machine etc
- Project team work, Team managing.


All of these goes a long way in helping me deal with people at work lol.

[mave]

The only way to approach this question is to know why they asked this
question in the first place? i.e. what had let them to think up this question.

how will aeromodelling benefit students entering the working world ?

Had a few friends and cousins asking me this question for month.....basically i am so blank about it....the only answer I can give is prepare them for aerospace career....

Hope that everyone can give more suggestions to it !!! THANKS !!!!

[simonwoo]

Agree. If they are asking why you are spending so much time on this hobby when it does not 'benefit' you when you 'grow up', then tell them at least this is a healthy hobby and trains in you all sorts of disciplines as the bros have listed below - compared to a lot more unhealthy activities a student might be engaging in outside of school.

If they are referring to students who are already pursuing a career in this path, then all the more the answer should be obvious. You are gaining a lot of domain knowledge and knowing a lot of terms which frankly I've had to search wikipedia many times just to get a clue of what they mean

The only way to approach this question is to know why they asked this question in the first place? i.e. what had let them to think up this question.

[joe yap]

BUT, how many modellers actually go into all the theories, I don't think many.

Yah true. But then, there are actually more R/C model flyers than 'Aeromodellers', you see? There are some major differences between 'Aeromodelling' and R/C flying, if you really want to dig it up.

Speaking about the benefits, why do you take up Aeronautical studies anyway?