Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 (ICAO: GLO 1907) was a Boeing 737-8EH, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil to Rio de Janeiro. On September 29, 2006, just before 17:00 BST, it collided in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy business jet over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. All 154 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737 were killed when the aircraft broke up in midair and crashed into an area of dense rainforest, while the Embraer Legacy, despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, landed safely with its seven occupants uninjured. The accident, which triggered a crisis in Brazilian civil aviation, was the deadliest in that country’s aviation history at the time, surpassing VASP Flight 168, which crashed in 1982 with 137 fatalities near Fortaleza. It was subsequently surpassed by TAM Airlines Flight 3054, which crashed on July 17, 2007 with 199 fatalities. It was also the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737 (all series) aircraft at that time. It was subsequently surpassed by Air India Express Flight 812, which crashed at Mangalore, India on May 22, 2010 with 158 fatalities. The accident was investigated by both the Brazilian Air Force, the Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (Portuguese: Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos (CENIPA)) and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with a final report issued on December 10, 2008. CENIPA concluded …
Radio controlled cars, remote controlled cars or RC cars and trucks are items, with which to have fun. However, many RC hobbyists take their fun very seriously indeed. They want their RC car or truck to be the most realistic or the fastest by tweaking the basic kit and by tuning up the engine. This is not a new phenomenon at all. Hobbyists have been building and racing model cars since the 1940’s. However, these early cars were hamstrung by technology.
In the early days of the hobby, the models had to be made by hand by hobbyists and radio control was ineffective and too dear for home use. Those early models were controlled remotely by wire. Consequently remote controlled model cars could only run the distance of the wire, which meant in effect that the car went round and round the handler. It was not until the 1960’s that radio control became available and this meant real races around a proper race track. The true hobby-cum-sport of model racing was born.
Once the hobby or sport had been opened up by genuine radio control, it became more exciting and it attracted more hobbyists and with them came improvement and commercial interest. This means that the technology involved in radio controlled cars and trucks has come on in leaps and bounds. One aspect worth saying here is that a big differentiation between model cars used to be whether they were remote controlled or radio controlled. Unfortunately, they are both shortened to RC and so the terms are often used arbitrarily these days.
The most popular RC cars for beginners are the electrically driven model cars and trucks. Electric RC cars have to depend on rechargeable batteries for power. This is their main drawback, but being electrically driven also means that the car is cleaner and more responsive to control. Electrically driven cars tend to be lighter and therefore faster. They are cleaner because there is no exhaust. They are easier to maintain, but also less easy to modify. They accelerate very quickly
The next step for many RC hobbyists is the Nitro car. Nitro cars are powered by miniature engines which run on a mixture of nitromethane and lubricating oil. These cars are very fast with a fast acceleration. They can reach and maintain higher speeds than electric cars, whose batteries are constantly running down which means less power for speed.
Nitro cars and trucks are noisy and smelly. They produce the loud whine that people link with model racing, but they also produce exhaust which means that they cannot be used indoors.
More and more replica cars are now using petroleum powered RC cars. These replicas tend to be the bigger ones. These RC cars and trucks have engines that are more familiar to the non-specialist, but they have all the characteristics of an typical car. They produce fumes, noise and are slower to accelerate that the other types. However, petrol driven engines will last longer than nitro engines. Because these models are larger, they can take more fuel on board and so go longer distances.
All three of the above types can then be on-road or off-road. On-road cars will be built for racing only and the tyres will be racing tyres and the engines will be finely tuned to reach top speed quickly and maintain it for the length of the race. On the other hand, off-road RC cars are built for going up and down hill over all sorts of geological objects, so the engine has to have more torque and the tyres need to be able to maintain a good grip. These cars are usually slower.
The last distinguishing feature of the various RC cars is size or more precisely the scale. 1:8 was and still is quite popular. That scale means that for every eight inches of the actual car, the replica is one inch long. Other popular sizes are 1:10 and 1:12, but there is a new class of RC cars and trucks gaining popularity, the monster 1:5 cars and trucks, which are petrol driven.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with gas remote control cars. If you have an interest in model RC vehicles, please click through to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars
I have read loads of reviews about remote control cars, because I am a subscriber to a remote control car enthusiasts’ magazine that carries articles about all the different types of remote control gas cars on the market. It also suggests the best one to acquire depending on whether you are a first time owner or an RC veteran. The magazine is great, and it helps me see what other RC car owners think about the different models and brands of RC cars and trucks.
I have to say that people’s views vary quite widely on every subject, which is why it’s probably always best to do your own studying and get what best suits you, rather than getting what other people say will suit you, when they do not even know you. Having said that, many first time buyers do not really know what they are looking for, and it is really these people that these reports are written for.
However, these reviews are not meant to be taken too factually, rather they are meant as a guideline so that prospective greenhorn purchasers have to ruminate about the aspects of buying a remote control gas car or truck. It also gives experts a run down of the most important details. Then you need to make up your own mind whether you care, for instance, whether the car’s engine runs on gas or nitro.
All in all, I like this magazine because it takes into account people from all walks of life, and its writers and editor appreciate that even if you are interested in buying a gas remote control car, you may not have enough money or you might be reading just out of interest in RC cars or trucks.
We all know that money is hard to come by these days, and consumers are becoming more and more knowledgeable about the merchandise they want, which is a good thing in my eyes. After all, there are other merchants who just desire to get the most money they can for their products and mark up their RC model car prices to exorbitant amounts in the hope that they will get a couple of foolish patrons that did not do their homework.
And I am sure that they probably do get a few customers like that, because they do stay in business one way or another and I regularly hear horror stories about individuals who have paid far too much for their RC gas car or truck.
When you ask them why they did not take the trouble to read the reports in a magazine, they usually say that they did not know about the magazines, or even worse, that they did not have enough time. Therefore it seems that they had sufficient time to work like a dog for the money, but then not sufficient time to read a short magazine review? I doubt it very much. With a bit of luck, consumers will continue becoming more and more careful about their purchases.
It is such a pity, so, If you happen to be a new RC car fan, or you know someone who is, please make sure you read the remote control car and truck reviews before making a purchase. It can literally save you hundreds of your hard earned dollars.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the remote control-gas-car. If you have an interest in model or toy rc vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars
Do your interests in model remote control cars lie in high speed, rapid acceleration and magnificence of form? If this is precisely what you are searching for in a model car, then a model sports car is almost certainly what you are looking for. Authentic size sports cars are a $4.5 billion industry with about 55,000 units being sold each year.
Sports cars and their model counterparts are manufactured as high performance vehicles, which means that they can be driven in ways that ordinary production line vehicles can not. For example, in the case of a real sports car, it frequently takes no more than five seconds to travel at from 0 to 100 mph. Similarly in a model high performance gas replica, it often takes no more than two seconds to reach 60 mph from a standing start.
Because it is more tricky to maneuver a speeding automobile, sports cars and model sports cars are specially designed to handle best at high speeds. In deed, the word “sporty” was invented to refer to a sleek but robust design that exudes power. It was later personified to refer to the person behind the wheel or in the modelling world, the person at the remote controls.
The following is a basic glossary of sports car terminology and a basic directory of sports car manufacturers (many of which have their counterpart vehicles in the world of model gas remote control cars).
– FF – front engine, front wheel drive. The FF layout has a medium capability for high speed handling and is seen in some models such as the Fiat Coup?, and the Lotus Elan M100.
– FR – front engine, rear wheel drive Considered the ?classic? sports car design, the engine drives the rear wheels but keeps the weight off the back. The FR is good at drifting corners while still maintaining control. Mercedes-Benz is recognized for using this layout for its models.
– RR ? rear engine, rear wheel drive With the engine at the back driving the rear wheels, weight placement on a RR layout provides excellent grip for a car. However, without auxiliary driving aids like stability control, handling becomes arduous. These days, the only manufacturer who keeps the RR design for its vehicles is Porche.
AWD – all wheel drive An AWD design offers the easiest handling, making it perfect for those who are just starting to race sports cars. Audi started the widespread use of this technique with the Quattro. Japanese makers like Mitsubishi employed this layout to increase handling, making it an excellent rally car.
Because of more stringent regulations in the United States, sports car manufacturers are more widespread in Europe than in America. Nevertheless, American makes are in equal competition with their European and Asian counterparts. Some recognized manufacturers and models are:
If this piece has whetted your appetite for a sports car, go out and order one now, if you are well-off. Otherwise, why not do the next best thing and buy yourself a 1:8 or even a 1:5 gas-powered, remote-controlled sports car?
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the petrol remote control car. If you have an interest in model or toy rc vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars
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