Basic Radio Control Definitions
The Knight Flyer, Northern Knights Model Airplane Club
Ron Swindle, editor
Kansas City MO

(with a few changes to reflect the south Georgia life style by David Simons KBRC)

Angle of attack: Direction from which you are hit after setting up a nice
mid-air with your club mate’s new airplane.
Auto rotation: What your modular home does in a hurricane.
Balsa: What dreams were made of.
Bernouillism: Name of an antique sect regularly discussing religious problems
(the weight of air, the speed of air, the ‘mystic’ reconnection of air).
Also—auto generates flames.
Blind nut: Judge at a pattern contest.
Carpet fiber: When others are bragging about their high-tech composite
airplanes, and you have only the Gentle Lady you built on the floor of your
two-room apartment, you mutter quickly, under your breath, “Yep, this baby’s
reinforced with carpet fiber!”
Circle tow: How to point someone in the direction of the scoring tent when
you have both hands holding your airplane together until the quick epoxy
sets.
Crash: Quick method of removing the radio and engine from one model to fit
them in your new model.
Center of gravity: Point in which G-forces, dedicated to separating wing
from fuselage, do their stuff.
Computer: Device that enables you to make mistakes at the speed of light.
Cyanoacrylate: Special glue, designed to instantly glue fingers to balsa
structures. Also—special glue, instantly curing when parts are misaligned,
will hardly (if at all) cure when parts are correctly aligned. Also—substance
used to make eyes water profusely at critical points in construction.
Dead stick: Two of these can be found on your transmitter after failing to
properly charge your batteries. Also—how the yucca your aunt gave you
to clear the air in your shop looks after three months lack of water.
Downwind turn: Sensitive item that, when posted in rc.models.rc.air, will
generate more than 100 entries.
Engine: Device designed to make noise. It will suddenly stop making this
noise when beyond glide-in distance.
Epoxy: The stuff that has replaced the balsa after the flying season.
Failsafe: Option on PCM radios that allows a pilot to choose whether to
crash nearby or far away.
Firewall: Removable part of fuselage that comes off on landing.
Flare: What someone has when they’re good enough to show off. Also—
beginner’s luck.
Flying wing: Event that follows the statement, "I can make it spin faster than that!" (Sorry Josh)
Fuel tank: Plastic bottle, designed to leak when placed in totally inaccessible
locations. Also: Used to indicate to the pilot (by becoming empty) when his timer would have began beeping if he had remembered to set it prior to take-off.
Fuselage: Optional interconnecting structure between wings and engine. (Also see flying wing, above.)
Also: Receptacle into which the radio control (RC) pilot stuffs money in the
hope his airplane will fly better.
Glitch: What you holler when you pull up elevator while flying inverted at a
10-foot altitude.
Gravity: Force of nature designed to reduce aircraft to their component
parts.
Landing gear: Structure to separate fuselage from runway after landing.
Mean air chord: That nasty minor eighth note caused when your wings
snap on launch and whack together. (Also see flying wing, above.)
Mixture screw: Device to meter too little fuel to the engine at critical
moments.
Nose wheel: Implement used to remove firewall.
Propeller: Rotating knife that cuts holes in the air, which the aircraft falls
into, thus propelling the aircraft. Also—handy tool to cut away excess skin
on knuckles.
Prop nut: What Glider pilots call Power pilots.
Radio: Expensive electronic device to randomly alleviate overcharged
batteries.
Radio glitch: Documented electronic occurrence, causing immediate and
irreparable loss of control. Also—the source of any crash when there is
a possibility of someone else’s radio in close proximity to the airplane.
Sink: Non-mythical meteorological event stimulated by RC soaring contests.
Snap roll: After a nice hard G roll, something snaps (usually the wing).
Aerodynamic ability will slightly diminish.
Stall: Score: Gravity - 1 , Mr. Bernoulli - 0.
Swept area: The only part of your apartment not covered in balsa dust.
Tail-dragger: RC pilot who is dragging his tail up a pine tree to recover his plane.(sorry Jeff).
 
Thermal: Mythical occurrence of rising air usually where one’s sailplane
is not.
Tip stall: Offering several minutes worth of un-requested advice to a
nearby pilot instead of taking your turn to launch off the winch; used when
sink is in the air and contest points are at stake.
Trainer cord: Handy device for electronically instilling false confidence in
rookie pilots.
Tree: Implement used to delay a landing, sometimes for days or weeks.
Sub-type: Pine tree: So named because you pine after your plane stuck 60 feet up in it.

Upwind turn: Same as downwind turn ... No, it isn’t! Yes, it is! No, it isn’t!
Yes, it is! and so on.
Wing: Device that, due to its airfoil, allows air to flow faster over the top,
thereby giving you the opportunity to pour excess funding into the resulting
low-pressure area.