Radio Control Definitions

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CONTENTS $Math Formulas$
	AM	Amplitude Modulation a form of radio transmission during the 'early' years of radio controlled modeling.
	AMA	Academy of model Aeronautics
	ARF	Almost ready to fly
	Aileron	Ailerons are movable control surfaces that are present on the trailing edge of both the right and left wings of a plane. Each surface moves in opposite directions enabling a plane to roll right or left.
	Aileron differential	The difference in travel (up and down) of the ailerons
	Ailevator	Each elevator moves independently or together
	Aspect Ratio	the span divided by the chord.
	BEC	Battery Eliminator Circuit
	Boundary layer	Thin layer of air close to the wing surface that is slowed down by skin friction.
	CAD	Computer Aided Design
	CA	Short for fast setting Cyano-Acrylate adhesive or glue.
	Carbon Fiber	Carbon fiber is is thin fibers woven into mats of fibers or cast into rods or other structural elements.
	cc	Cubic Centimeter
	CD	Contest Director
	Centerline	A line from which the location or geometric relationships of other parts may be related to.
	CG	Short for Center of Gravity
	Chord	The distance between the leading edge and trailing edge of a wing,
	Clevis	Clips used to connect push rods servo and servo arms.
	Control horn	The control horn is attached directly to the control surface and can be made of nylon or metal.
	COG	Center of Gravity
	Cored Motor	A Cored motor has a commentator, rotation shaft, metal core and windings for the armature located at the center of the motor.
	Coreless Motor	A Coreless motor has the magnet in the center of the motor and the magnetic windings that are in a pattern wound around a cone that cups over the magnet in the motor.
	CL	Control Line
	Composite	A hybrid between modern materials, like carbon fiber or Kevlar.
	cm	Centimeter
	Crow Braking	Flaps down Ailerons Up
	cu. in.	Cubic Inch
	Datum Line	Line of reference: the horizontal line or plane from which all other heights and depths are measured or calculated
	Decalage	The relationship or angle between a wing and a horizontal control surface on the tail.
	Delta Mix	(See Elevon)
	Dihedral	Dihedral is where the right and left wing tips are higher than the fuselage. More dihedral generally means that a plane will be more stable in the air, but will be more difficult to turn. Most planes require a bit of dihedral to fly well. For planes that only have rudder and elevator controls, but no ailerons, dihedral is a necessity. Some planes have more than wing section at a different angle, this is known as polyhedral.
	Drag	The force that resists any movement of an object through a liquid or gas
	DT	De-Thermalizer
	Elevator	An aircrafts horizontal control surface on the tail controls pitch or attitude. (nose up or down)
	Elevon	Both aileron and elevator combined into the same control surface. Typically used on a flying wing or Delta wing. They combine the function of elevator for pitch and ailerons for roll. This is elevator/aileron mixing.
	Engine Thrust	Air moved by a spinning propeller
	Epoxy	An adhesive or glue (resin and hardener hardens by a catalytic reaction)
	EPP	Expanded polypropylene (Foam)
	ESC	Electronic Speed Control
	Exponential	Exponential is a function where the stick effect increases as it gets further from center.
	FCC	Federal Communications Commission
	FF	Free Flight
	Flapperon	Ailerons with a flap function
	Flaps	Flaps are movable control surfaces that are present on the trailing edge of the wing that you lower to slow a plane while adding lift to the wing and lowering the stall speed.
	FM	Stands for frequency modulation a form of radio transmission used in radio controlled modeling.
	Golden Rod	Trade name for a type of plastic push rod sold by Sullivan products. It is composed of an outer 'sleeve' of hard plastic (a little bit smaller diameter as a plastic straw) and an inner 'rod' of plastic. The inner rod slides smoothly inside the plastic sleeve and allows a flexible push rod system for controlling flying surfaces such as an elevator or rudder.
	Kevlar	A very strong fiber that was developed by the DuPont Corporation used for building fiberglass fuselages and covering composite, lightweight wings,
	Kwik Link	Trade name for a metalclevis that is very popular in the R/C modeling hobby.
	Laminar	Streamline flow occurring when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between the layers
	LCD	Liquid Crystal Display
	LE	Leading Edge
	LED	light-emitting diode
	Li-Poly	Lithium Polymer
		Rechargeable batteries with its electrolyte combined with an organic solvent, making them very stable and long-lasting, but a bit flammable
	mA	milliamps
	MAC	Mean Aerodynamic Chord. The chord through the centroid of a single wing's plan area.
	mAh	milliampere-hours
	MHz	meghertz
	Mixer	A device or function used to mix one or more control surface functions together
	mm	millimeter
	Nats	AMA Nationals
	Ni-Cd	Another name for Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable battery.
	NiMH	Nickel Metal Hydride have higher capacities than their NiCad cousins, but are harder to charge
PCM	Pulse Code Modulation is that the control information is sent in the form of a digital data pulse [word] rather than just an analog signal pulse.
Pitch	The up-down orientation of an airplan
Pitcheron	Wings that pivot together, changing in relation to elevator with no connected control surfaces.
	A wing that has 2 or more separate wing panels with a different dihedral angle for both the right and left wings.
Poly-Dihedral	(see
Positive and Negative Expo	Negative expo gives the softest action around the sticks neutral position and increases toward the end of the sticks travel	Positive expo is very sensitive around neutral and soft at the end.
RC	Radio Control
	Charging method of starting and stopping the charge and letting the cells 'rest' briefly between charges.
Push Rod	Used in R/C sailplanes to move, back and forth control surfaces.
	A part of a R/C radio system that is in the plane and 'receives' commands from a transmitter.
RPM	Revolutions per minute
RTF	Ready to Fly
	Yaw control - nose left and right. The part of the tail that moves back and forth causing the tail of a plane to move which then turns the plane.
Ruddervator	A control surface that is combination of rudder and elevator present on a v-tail plane.
RX	- RX is an abbreviation of the term Receiver.
Servo	The part of a R/C system that moves the control surfaces in response to movement on the transmitter 'sticks'.
SIG	Special Interest Group
Spoiler	movable surfaces on the top of the wing that 'spoil' the lift. . When raised they reduce the lift of the wing in that area. They can help slow a plane down and raise the stall speed of the plane causing it to descend from lack of wing lift.
Spoilerons	a control surface that is the combination of ailerons and spoilers.
TE	Trailing Edge
Thrust Line	Centerline of the engines crankshaft.
Thermal	Columns of rising warm air
Torque	The measurement of force given over a distance.
Transmitter	The transmitting part of a R/C radio system
Triple Taper	The wing has three different leading edges and produces a compromise between a crescent shape and a single tapered wing.
TX	- TX is an abbreviation for transmitter.
Turbulent	Changes in air density, thermal inversion and thermal up drafts
V-Tail	Planes that have only 2 stabilization surfaces (in the shape of a V) instead of a conventional horizontal and vertical stabilizers.
V-Tail mix	a V-tail plane usually not have a separate elevator and rudder. The two V surfaces are mixed to perform these functions. If you hit right rudder with rudder in up position the tail surfaces increase to move the nose to the right as it moves up. see: ruddervators
Wingeron	The term applied to wings that individually pivot to provide roll control in a plane.