Dubai: Rashid Thani Al Muhairy is assembling an MB339, a jet trainer aircraft, in his personal hanger in Jumeirah.
The black and gold jet is part of the UAE Air Force’s aerobatics display team, Al Fursan, which comprises seven aircraft.
With a wingspan of 2.5 metres and a fuselage length of around 2 metres, however, Al Muhairy’s aircraft is only a replica of the real jet – but looks every bit original.
Driven by his passion for building model planes, Al Muhairy has converted part of his sprawling villa in Jumeirah into a workshop where he spends hours indulging his craft. The flying fanatic has spent nearly Dh1 million in the last 15 years building RC (radio-controlled) model aircraft.
Childhood fascination
“Planes have always fascinated me. As a child, I dreamt of becoming a pilot. Since that did not materialise, I started building model planes instead to kill my urge to fly,” he told XPRESS.
In Abu Dhabi, another passionate flyer, Thair Al Azawy, is building a model aerobatic plane, Extra 260, in his two-bedroom apartment in Khalidiya.
The sport aerobatic plane, famous for its inverted flat spin, is close to his heart as he always fancied flying the real one. “I am crazy about planes and also about building them. It’s a hobby, passion and now an addiction.”
The Extra 260 comes with a wingspan of 2.5 metres and a fuselage length of 2.26 metres. It is 33 per cent the size of the original aircraft.
Besides this, he owns 50 other planes which are all stacked up in one of the rooms of his apartment.
Like Al Muhairy and Al Azawy, Mustafa Al Shabandar has also converted a section of his two-bedroom Jumeirah Village Triangle (JVT) villa into a workshop for model planes. It is here that he has built nine aircraft in the last two years. “It is a hobby and also a skill. Since I started building model aircraft, I learnt so much about what goes into building a plane. My 12-year-old son, Yousef, who shares my passion is a good flyer too,” the Iraqi expat said.
Fun Fly Day
“There is a lot of precision and research that goes into building model aircraft and it can inspire young children to take up flying related courses as a career.”
Recognising the growing number of such ‘passionate flyers’ in the UAE, Zimbabwean expat Adam Rickenberg, a flying enthusiast himself, organised a Family Fun Fly Day last month which saw over 30 pilots showcasing their model planes at the Al Lisaili flying field in Dubai.
“The free public event saw different model aircraft doing acrobatics, speed runs and pattern flying,” said Rickenberg, who showcased a scale model of a P51 Mustang – an American single seat fighter plane used in the Second World War.
Weighing nine kilos, the plane has a wingspan of 2.2 metres and a fuselage length of 1.9 metres. “It is powered by a 2-stroke engine,” he told XPRESS.
Another Zimbabwean expat, Darryl Tarr, a senior captain with a local airline firm, showcased three model aircraft at the event.
“One of them was the replica of the BAe Hawk Mk.63, a British advanced jet trainer. It took me 300 hours to build the jet which is 27 per cent the size of the actual fighter plane,” said Tarr.
With a wingspan of 2.7 metres and a fuselage length of 3.3 metres, the plane weighs all of 24kilos.
‘It’s my life’
“It cost me around Dh100,000 to build it and has shaped out well. I have been building model aircraft since I was eight years old and I started flying commercial planes when I was 15. So flying is not just a hobby, it is my life too.”
Al Muhairy and Tarr represented the UAE in the International Jet World Masters in 2005. The international competition - held every two years - brings the world’s best model airplane pilots to display their work and flying skills.
But just how does one go about building model planes?
“There is a ready kit from which you build an entire plane. Typically, this kit comes with a complete air frame sans the engine and the avionics. But you will also find some basic kits with just some wooden pieces to assemble an aircraft,” explained Rickenberg who has built 30 model planes in the last 15 years.
“The kits are available in the UAE. Cost of building a plane varies according to the kit you purchase and the elements you add,” he added.
