Give it to a global pandemic to be announced on the day of a maiden flight, fun right? Well my recently maidened 7″ Source One has been well, for the sakes of a better word grounded since march 15, 2020 when local authorities decided to lock down the island ahead of the global pandemic we deal with today.

While under self quarantine, I’m sure lots of people discovered and countless others re-discovered old gems. I gave in and got myself a flying simulator I’d been laying off for months now – Real Flight. I also came across two online car related simulators, one a sim and other that calls itself a sandbox, a pretty accurate one to say the least. VRC and RC Simulation 2.0 through Steam.

VRC World ( http://www.vrcworld.com/) has to be hands down the most realistic radio controlled car sim on the market. Ever. On and Off road with quite a variety of cars to choose from stock and modified versions.

There’s a large number of detailed track selection on both on and off road. There are some of the worlds finals layouts between 2010 and 2015 are featured among the customizable selection, race clockwise or counter clockwise on dry or wet conditions under the scorching sun or rainy cold.

Detailed configuration from suspension to gearing, a number of car body options per category, large number of high grade r/c manufacturers.

Only one tiny problem – developers quit on project some time ago… no future expectations of categories yet to be implemented such as the 1/10 F1, 1/8 Truggy, and the 1/8 e-Lola to name the few that stand out to me. Hence the recent open source quadcopter/multirotor

The above design is a more or less accurate layout of the current on road race track at Barceloneta R/C Speedway. The track editor lacks a good scale reference, using photoshop I overlayed and traced the main rails. Currently working on adding padding and other details.

I’ve gotten myself familiar with r/c planes and helicopters as well through Real Flight computer simulator. I’m also having the same depth of field issues with these, flying is a whole other take on the model aircraft hobby. I wonder how many of the senior pilots have had the same issues. Regardless, it’s a fun first try at flight before actually ordering the glider.

A ton to digest, loving every step of this rabbit hole r/c world.