Close to Dh2 million worth of remotely-controlled (RC) aircrafts are competing at the first Dubai Masters RC championship today at the SkyHub RC campus in Al Lisaili flying field on the Dubai-Al Ain Road.
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00:00Hello, I'm at the Skyhub RC Flying Club at Le Cieli, where scores of hobbyists have gathered
00:09to take part in an RC Flying Club Championship that is taking place from today until the
00:1426th.
00:15The hobbyists, most of them wannabe pilots, are bringing their fancy remote-controlled
00:21planes and flying them here at the event.
00:24It's our pleasure to host this event and to organize for this event and try to make the
00:29best out of it and to really attract all the tourists and all the international pilots
00:35to come to Dubai, to come to Skyhub RC Club to practice their hobbies as much as they
00:43can.
00:44We have, until today, 70 competitors.
00:48And those 70 competitors from many different countries, they all attended here to be with
00:56us in Dubai.
00:58We have three categories and the first category, we have like two groups.
01:02The first category, we have the RC helicopters, we have two, the international and we have
01:08the GCC countries and the residents of GCC countries.
01:11So we have to give the chance for everybody who's living with us in Dubai.
01:16We'd love to see everybody all together in Dubai.
01:20I'm flying in the jet category.
01:22It's one of the basic classes that we're going to be flying.
01:26It's going to be a five-minute flight, which is basically a freestyle flight with three
01:30compulsory manoeuvres that we've got to complete during that five minutes of freestyle flying.
01:34So the first one we've got to do is a loop, so it's just a general basic inside loop.
01:39Second manoeuvre is just a roll, a nice axial roll.
01:42And the third one is just an inverted pass.
01:45And then, yeah, obviously around that we can put in any manoeuvres that we choose to do
01:50for the time of five minutes.
01:52Our most important thing and the most paramount subject will be the safety operation.
01:56The operational safety and the safety of our club members, our spectators, our visitors.
02:02With the amount of fuel that it can carry, around six to seven litres is more than enough
02:07to explode in there.
02:09So we make sure that they fly safe, they don't get closer to the specific areas, they try
02:14to stay away as much as they can.
02:16And if they have an emergency, they shout loud that they do have an emergency.
02:21For me, as an aviator, I like to recommend our starter boys, our rookie pilots, to start
02:27with high wing aircraft, like a Cessna 172 type of model, which creates...
02:33That's a trainer, actually.
02:35That's how we, as aviators, start flying as well.
02:37Trainer with high wing, very slow speeds, so everything can progress as the proficiency
02:44increases as well.
02:45You can start from 50 dirhams to 150,000 dirhams.
02:51So when I say 50 dirhams, we are talking about the small toys, because, you know, the kids
02:56and they love to start with those small helicopters, airplanes, they buy it from petrol station
03:02or anywhere, it's like a toy.
03:04But this is mostly, it is the beginning for many of the pilots.
03:08Then you can go for the normal airplanes, maybe it will cost 5,000 dirhams, 7,000.
03:14Then there's like some 12,000.
03:17This one, to make it to fly, it costs like 25,000, again, this dirhams.
03:24This is a small one, this is 2.2.
03:27That one, it will cost around 35,000.
03:32This one costs, ready to fly with everything, like 11,000.
03:37So it depends on the people.
03:38If he have 11,000, he can buy like this.
03:41If he have 25, he can buy this.
03:43This one, it's less price from the other one.
03:46So it's same like the cars, you have so many brands, each brand have different.
03:51Again, it use the same concept, power board, turbine and electronics, the servos and...
03:59What's it called?
04:01This one, actually, this one, a scale plane, it's similar to a real one, it's called SuperGal.
04:07This is a Yugoslavian plane, in the real, yeah.
04:12We ran into the world's youngest remote control pilot, Nasir Ahmad Nasir.
04:18He's all of eight years old and very enthusiastic.
04:21He's the youngest pilot in the fixed wings, because we have also helicopter.
04:26So, he will fly his fixed wings.
04:32He will fly tomorrow and today later in the opening ceremony, he's flying as well.
04:37It's been a fascinating afternoon watching the preparations for the first ever Dubai
04:41Masters RC Championship that's being held at the Skyhub Dubai in the Lisi Ali Field Campus.
04:4770 pilots from the UAE, the Gulf and internationally will be taking part at the three-day event
04:55and will be showcasing their favorite model aircraft.
04:59Close to 2 million worth of model aircraft are set to be on display at the event.
05:05Prize money for the championship is set at $70,000, which is close to the room's $275,000.
05:13All in all, I think it's going to be an exciting affair.
05:17So, good luck to all the participants.
05:19This is Anjana Kumar with Gulf News.