L'aéromodélisme, un loisir passionnant !

Aeromodelling is a great technical hobby, in which you learn the art of piloting as much as that of building model aircraft.

It is also a school of patience, since learning the discipline is long (even infinite, just for the construction aspects!).

The discipline has been around for at least as long as aeronautics since most aircraft were first model aircraft designed for testing purposes! There has been a federation in France (the FFAM) since 1966 which, among other things, organizes official competitions. FAI is the same kind of organization at the international level.

We can mention other influential associations in the sector in France, Finesse +, IMAA Europe, Mach 2.2, created to federate and defend the practice of model aircraft, which unfortunately tends to lose ground: drop in the number of members continued to COVID19, more and more restrictive regulations, disappearance of many small shops in the different countries and public meetings and fairs, etc....

Aeromodelling includes free flight (without remote piloting), circular flight (wired/tethered flight), radio-controlled glider, model aircraft, radio-controlled motorized aircraft.

This last discipline within aeromodelling is the most diversified, since it includes the plane, the helicopter, the motorglider, the jet, the aerostats, or the multirotor.

It must be said that many confuse drone and multirotor, by abuse of language. The multirotor becomes a drone when it is used professionally! The multirotor is therefore part of aeromodelling.

Unfortunately, the whole sector has been "mixed up" and "drowned" within undifferentiated regulations, often damaging an entire leisure sector that has been present for more than 60 years, without making waves, in private areas. and well identified by civil aviation.

Entire generations of young people have gone through this discipline before discovering careers as airline pilots, astronauts, technicians, drone remote pilots or aeronautical engineers, for example. It is still today and more than yesterday, a formidable pool of technical skills which feeds an entire aeronautical sector, to which the drone has gradually been added.