Aeromodeling is basically the flying of radio controlled airplanes and Helicopters. All over the world aeromodeling is considers a very good hobby as well as a sport. Since my childhood I have also been fascinated by anything that either went really fast or could defy the laws of Gravity. One of the reasons for this could be that most of my childhood was spent on aeromodeling Airfields & my house was like a minute away from the airport. My father was one of the few people in Pakistan who had taken up this hobby and was always very involved in this in the 90’s. As the times progressed the engines of these remote controlled planes kept getting bigger and bigger. The fuel used for this is a special mix of methanol and another type of oil( commonly known as mitti ka tail). As the engines became bigger so did the planes, some of the planes were scale models of actual planes which were either used for commercial, Aerobatics, Military fighter purposes.
The newest craze in the market is the turbine propelled planes which have the capability to exceed speed of 450 kmph. This thrill has its own price tag, these planes are equipped with a miniature turbine, airbrakes , all all the things you will find on a real aeroplane.The price of one of these turbine planes ranges from 600,000-1,000,000 Pak rupees.
In the start of the new millennium there was a new trend in the market these planes were now being evolved people started to make their planes and paid attention to detail like never before and aeromodeling started to gain awareness and more and more people took up this hobby. This brought a revolution in Pakistan and rc-controlled things started to gain popularity.People started to invest in this hobby from a business point of view and started opening hobby centres for the people who were interested in buying these kinds of things. The
Names of a couple of these hobby centers in Lahore are Hobby Lobby (which is at center point Lahore), Aero Hobby (Lahore), Xtreme Machines (Lahore), etc.
This culture was promoted by the creation of different Remote control clubs in the country. The names of some of these clubs are IFC (Islamabad flying club), Maal (Lahore) , RFC( Rawalpindi flying club), MAC (Multan Aeromodeling Club), Bahria town Flying club (BFC) etc.
Other than these some universities also promote this sport for e.g there a DBFC( design, build, fly contest in Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIKI) which promote speople to come and design and build and then display their flying talent at the university.
This is an ongoing process and Paksitan like many other countries is also becoming a part of the few countries in the world where aeromodeling is practiced at a large scale. Some events were also held at national level where individual as well as club representation was welcomed. These tournaments were divided into different categories according to the aircrafts and the skill levels of the pilots.
Posted by
Ahmed Rafeh Nasir ,
Lahore School Of Economics
Faces of Pakistan 