This very impressive EE Lightning RC plane is powered by two real jet engines and put on a very impressive display at the Tokoroa Airfield (NZTO), however the landing did not go exactly to plan.
A truly stunning model, I hope it wasn't too badly damaged. I remember reading an article decades ago that said 'you didn't so much land a Lightning as do a controlled crash'. So 10 out of 10 for demonstrating scale flying !!
Some of this footage, especially the taxiing 0:39 - 1:10, is almost hard to believe this is a model. Not only does the aircraft look realistic, the sounds, even the heat shimmer from the exhaust, feels so real. If someone were shown that footage alone without the rest of the video or title, they'd surely believe it's a real English Electric Lightning. Truly impressive work! Hope the damage to the nose isn't too bad, and more importantly that no FOD went into the engines - that's when things get expensive.
Spot on. And that is why I now want one. I don't know how to operate it, but surely I can put the beacon lights on, and just look at it. Maybe push around the yard.
Just a pity they don't have afterburners like the real life ones, having seen one in real life on a night fast taxi here in the UK they're awesome aircraft. Just a shame the CAA won't let any fly.
@@Simon-ui6db I could imagine an R/C jet with afterburners - probably wouldn't add much thrust and would give them two minutes of flight time instead of five, but would look really cool, especially in twilight airshows.
How can sound and vision "feel"? Apart from that it is a stunning example of modelling but I do have to disagree with it sounding real, it sounds nothing like the real thing but it certainly looks real in those taxiing shots as you said!
When you retrieve what's left for the purpose of flying it again rather than for the purpose of avoiding littering fines. When you don't need a bucket for said task.
I think it's "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, and any landing where you can use the plane again is a great landing"... so for RC, I think he did OK, he didn't crash the plane into himself, and I think it will only take some minor repairs and it'll be fine.
Really really beautiful aircraft model. I once saw the Lightning in real live when visiting a airshow in England and I was blown away by the raw power this aircraft has, it was very impressive. I hope the damage on the model is not that bad and it will fly again soon. Thanks for this great video. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Always been favourite. My late father took me to see the Firebirds, RAF 56sqn display team of 5 lightning's. I was about 5 or 6 at the time so don't remember a great deal.
This is truly epic. Beautifully built, with a flight control system that can handle the high speed and maneuverability, it is a testament to the skilled artisans who built and flew it. Landing was a tad problematic, but you'll fix that.
@@pimuce Seems to me there are two main issues with remote control of these models: your perspective must be very different, watching from the side rather than having a perfect line of sight from the cockpit; the lack of feedback because you aren't part of the aircraft, so you don't get the direct "feel" you'd have through the airframe and the controls. I guess you are spared your brains disappearing into your backside when you're making some of those very sharp pull-ups though!
@@pimuce Flying RC is challenging in a different way . Not being in the cockpit and the controls changing due to changes in orientation is something you have to get use to . Example is , when the aircraft is pointed towards you as in landing , the left and right are reversed .
Pilots of the Apache helicopter have a similar problem when using the monocle 🧐 view through the camera mounted under the nose. Getting the brain to coordinate with a remote camera poses similar challenges to those facing r/c pilots.
From what the title says, I was expecting something bad. There's a difference between a crash and a not-so-good landing. I'm glad it was something easy to repair. As any r/c modeler knows, any model in flight is in mortal danger.
Agreed, easy to interprete the title as either "Huge and expensive aircraft, has a landing fail" or "Expensive aircraft has a huge landing fail". Happily it was the first one.
That's not a crash. It's having your gear fold (or get ripped away) and having some minor cosmetic damage. It's easily repairable. Anyone who doesn't expect to have some damage on their models, they shouldn't be flying. It's only a crash if there's nothing left to salvage.
not so good? That was a terrible landing, he seeminglly just completely forgot to flare the plane - no visible movement of the horizontal stabilizers right till the impact. And an impact it was, he can be glad that the main gears didn't went flying as well.
This isn't meant to be criticism, but, rather, an observation: I don't think the nose gear would have failed except that the right main and the nose gear hit the runway at the same time in a nose-down attitude; there was no flare. It appears at 3:34 or 3:35 that the nose gear took the brunt of the impact. I found it easier to fly a full-scale plane than an RC plane and I admire those who build and fly them.
Amazing model of what is an incredible plane, and some very good piloting and a flying too. The landing recovery showed the pilot's experience and understanding of his plane. Back in about '87 (I think) at Fairford, me and my Dad saw one of the last remaining flying Lightnings fly. We were standing at the runway start line opposite the plane, the pilot throttled up to nearly max, brakes off and pow! The noise thundering through me is something I'll never forget. Thanks for posting this, hope the repairs were okay and she's flying again.
Had the same experience ..just listening and feeling one take a short run down Cranfield Airport in the U.K. was an awesome experience. This was in 2014.
As a non-enthusiast I'll admit that was pretty cool. Came expecting a destructive crash landing but was impressed by how awesome this little plane was.
That was a beautiful brilliant model, the shot at start going onto the runway you thought it was a real plane. I remember in the 70's as a kid watching them over the house in Beverley when they were based at RAF Leconfield
ok so if your 737 did that ... is it a good job or a landing fail ... short glide in ... fast drop onto the runway ... slammed the nose gear down not set it down ... heck im surprised the rear gear didnt fold up also ... yes it is a nice build decent flight as well ... BUT pitiful landing practice ... it all boils back down to the pilot ... they got too ahead of themselves and crashed it into the runway ... instead of FLYING the plane ... as that line goes in that film ... when the civy pilot tries to recall what he needs to do to land .. FLY THE DANG PLANE ... is the most important part of landing
@@0623kaboom"If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing." - chuck yeager
This looks almost like the real thing. I started my aerospace career at BAe Samlesbury where all Lighting aircraft were finally assembled. I worked with lots of people who built these awesome aircraft and saw some great displays at work. Thanks for the video, brought back many good memories.
My father worked at EE from late 50's to 1966. Built Canberra's and Lightnings then in the drawing office for TSR-2. My my mum there. Left after cancellation of TSR-2.
Wow! What a beautiful aircraft and well flown sir! That little bump at the end not withstanding. I loved it. Thank you and I hope she is up and flying again soon!
Cracking machine, looking down the tailpipes was spooky. Loved watching the flying too. It reminded me of the 5 Sqn Lightnings at Binbrook in the 70s during my brief time there. They were in all metal but a Lightning is still a Lightning. So sorry about the nosewheel accident. At least it is repairable.
Great to see this amazing model Lightning. So realistic, it brings back fond memories of visits to Farnborough air show as a boy with my dad. The landing was lucky. Good luck with further flights
Awesome model, and the flying skills top notch, can't be easy with that swept wing and weight :) Hopefully a straightforward repair, that landing gear has a v slim profile. Great flying:)
@@RubyS.1 a fancy kind of artificial leather you find in expensive cars like porsche and lambos. and yes. my radiomaster have 2 rubber things which already fell off lol 🤣
Wow just a beautiful job on the Lightening! The taxiing to takeoff and flying. All scale like! Could teach a few people here on this side of the pond to do that!
What a fantastic model. When I was in the RAF cadets in the sixties, we had a weeks camp at RAF Wattisham. Cold war at its height so they always had a pair of Lightnings in a hanger at the end of the runway, ready to go. That footage of the runway roll out was just like standing there, nearly sixty years ago, watching those amazing planes getting ready to rocket, nearly vertically, into the Suffolk sky. Amazing, Congrats all round.
as someone has already stated, seeing her taxiing like that was almost like being back at Bruntingthorpe watching 904. The landing, well it was well saved!!! what a beautiful display too! fantastic in every way!!!!!
If you saw that overhead and didn’t know it was a model….. excellent model engineering skills and terrific flying skills. The landing was quite a realistic replay of some of the prangs full scale planes & pilots have. No matter, review, repair and back into the air.
Just Brilliant, I remember going to the Farnborough Air show in the 60s and watching the flying display of the English Electric Lightnings, the model is first class, well done.
As they say in aviation industry: "You cant make a good landing out of a bad approach." But a great looking aircraft anyway. I loved all the details in the cockpit and how life like the pilot looked. Johan.
Great “save”!!! You guys and so many others I’ve seen here take it all to an astounding new level. If that jet was diving at me and I didn’t know where it came from Id duck for cover..
Maybe that downwind leg should be extended a bit so the pilot has a bit more time to settle into the approach rather than trying a very challenging aircraft carrier like landing?
@@rcpmac I haven't flown rc extensively but enough to know that it doesn't hurt to have some time and distance to settle into an approach. That's all I'm sayin'. If it was that easy then there wouldn't be so many rc landing crash vids on youtube would there?
Two of my favourite British fighter planes ever made are the Lightning and the Harrier jump jet. Brilliant planes. And great video of a remote controlled model of a Lightning fighter jet. Shame about the landing though. 👏👏👍
Used to watch the Lightning plus Victors, Vulcans etc at the Tangmere airshow in the 60's. The speed and power of the Lightning was something to behold and the noise of the Vulcan unbelievable!
In 71, @ JHQ Rheindahlen, AOC Mick Martin reviewing the parade, I watched 2 Lightnings from Laarbruch, and a Vulcan from the UK, perform a vertical corkscrew climb. The Vulcan was the quickest to ceiling……
Apparently they had a Vulcan at the same airfield as the Lightning but they stopped flying it at airshows because the noise kept cracking peoples windows lol🤣
Absolutely stunning. The real thing was an amazing aircraft, you have a model ther to be proud of. Shame about the minor damage at the end but its all part of the hobby. I would rather fix damage than have to pickup a total right-off
What a wonderful aircraft, and what an amazing pilot to fly that machine remotely. I am lost in admiration of the skill and imagination of these builders and fliers. I hope the aircraft was repairable, and that we'll see more. With best regards.
I could never understand how two large jet engines could get enough air through that small inlet. That being said, the EE Lightning is my favourite Cold War interceptor, many thanks for posting the video.
Fast jets typically have a way of reducing the inlet size to ensure that the air is subsonic when it gets to the engine. A small intake is one of them.
@@GDay_InPrint For sure, but you'd expect that the inlet cone would be able to move fore/aft to vary the inlet area. And also for sure the inlet was optimised for M 1.5+ speeds, but I suspect it would have suffered at low speeds.
If my memory serves me correctly, in 1982 an unidetified plane at 80,000ft flying over the UK was intercepted by a English Electric Lightning. This was a suprise to the pilot of the SR71 not knowing we had a fighter jet caperble.. Thank you for the video Mr Simpson.
I read a good story about Concorde and Blackbird , the blackbird crew wearing space suits and the people in Concorde at a similar altitude and speed drinking champers .
great video, good recovery , didn't panic . Big models can cause issues with depth perspective . I flew into a tree once because I thought the model was in front of the tree not behind it .
Likewise, also twice but adjacent trees. Worst thing was that the second tree got it only a week after the first. It’d taken a week to repair the damage from the first altercation. I stopped flying that particular field, it became clear that we just simply didn’t get along. Haven’t hit anything of a vertical nature in years since, but hey, that could change.🤷♂️😁
Wow what a fantastic model and real credit to its creator - I love watching these hobbyists fly, sail and drive their replicas I would love one day to indulge in one but buying it ready made if that’s possible.
Fantastic model and authentically displayed. Kudos! I echo the comment made elsewhere to maybe try a flatter approach. Whilst most military aircraft of that era used a 3 deg glide path, the Lightning used 2.5deg, flattening to 2 deg in the final stages. This enabled the engines to run with sufficient power on finals to be able to spool up quickly in the event of an overshoot being needed, whilst maintaining a nose-up attitude with loads of induced drag to aid the round out. Hopefully the airframe damage was minimal and that nothing was ingested into those fabulous engines to cause damage. Thanks for posting. I can remember watching a pair of lightnings take off at night from Binbrook on full reheat in about 1967, and the sight and sound is still seared into my soul.
@@alangarland8571 I loved the Lightnings; they were so ugly they were beautiful! I've just looked up the list of Accidents and Incidents; takes some reading!
That was a pretty good landing. The pilot recovered nicely from the bounce. Losing the nose gear is way better than the plane being destroyed - should be easily fixable.
Very, very impressive quick reaction, going on the grass right away. It was damaged, but this is minor compared to what it could have been. Beautiful plane!
I'd wondered how the turbines fared with the inlet at the front, debris getting sucked in? Hoped he was able to cut the engines once he was down but they seemed to keep going....
The Lightning was always bonkers: Basically a way to perch a pilot on top of two huge engines. This is/was a beautiful model, and seems to be very scale. Not too much damage done, I hope!
5 Squadron RAF Binbrook Lightnings live on !! What a fantastic model and flying display. Takes me right back to my childhood where my friends and I would cycle up to the crash gate in the school summer holidays (late 70's early 80's) and be absolutely awestruck watching these beautiful aircraft go vertical on double re-heat !!! ❤❤❤
That was very realistic on what happens when the NLG collapses (or falls off) on landing. I've seen British Lightnings and the flying in this was pretty spot on !
Beautiful model. Fantastic. I sincerely hope that you got that beautiful model flying again. Any modeller who has a jet aircraft has a thumbs up from me. I built a Glider and couldn’t control it.
What a shame......such a beautiful aircraft and very impressive build quality of one of the more rare RC aircraft. So glad to see it wasn't completely destroyed and should be able to get a little bit of fixing and back in the air in no time. Great video 👍👍
