Is flying remote controlled airplanes a great retirement activity?
To find out I attended a Fly-In at the Pontiac Miniature Airplane Club which is about 30 minutes from my house. I didn’t quite know what to expect at the RC Airplane club. My friend Jeff, whom I do volunteer work with, is the past President of the club and an avid RC pilot. He is the perfect person to introduce me to this retirement activity.
Before arriving I had some reservations about this activity. Here are things I was nervous about.
1. I didn’t want to crash anyone’s plane, although I will be honest I did want to see an airplane crash.
2. I think I value “room in my garage” more than I value “RC airplanes that take up space” so I was pretty sure this wasn’t going to be the hobby for me.
3. The PMAC is near my pre-retirement house, but not near my retirement house. But after visiting I researched it and there is the St. Augustine Flyers RC Airplane club that is even closer to my retirement house.
4. I’m still fairly new to this Retireman thing so I’m not quite sure I should “jump in” to all of these hobbies. I don’t think so. I think I should just get close enough to review them. In this case I was offered a chance to fly a model airplane, but I didn’t take them up on it.
Upon arriving I was impressed at the turnout. There were a bunch of people there. I would guess there were 40-50 people in attendance and that size crowd kept it very entertaining. There was almost always an airplane in the air and they are fun to watch.
It was nice having a friend there because I could ask him all sorts of questions. “Is that part made of wood? Did you paint this? What kind of battery is that? How long can you stay up in the air?” I enjoyed learning about a new thing very much.
Another positive surprise about RC airplanes is how often you can fly them. I would have thought this would have been a hobby you do once a month or once a quarter, but some of these guys are flying once a week. That’s an active hobby!
In the end, I recommend RC Airplanes as a retirement hobby. You get to build things, play with things, and express your individuality in your choices. RC Airplanes are not really a competitive hobby, but they are a technical one. On the adrenaline scale I would say that RC Airplanes are mid-tier. They can be exciting, but there is no risk of dying.
For expected costs, I looked at some airplane kits and I bet you could get up in the air with a plane, radio, batteries, and charger pretty easily for $600 add $200 more to join a club and the AMA for insurance. Then unless you crash you might not spend much more for a little while. So a budget of $1000 per year might be reasonable.
I’m no expert, but if you are interested in RC Airplanes maybe visit https://www.modelaircraft.org/ and find a flying club near you. Pay them a visit, it seems to me that RC Aircraft clubs are very beginner friendly.