How To Find Out The Scale Of Your RC Model

There are times when you need to find out what the scale of your model is.  For myself, often times I am wanting to replace the stock pilot but it doesn't do me much good if I don't know the scale of my model.  Below you will find a simple three step method that will supply you with your answer so you can make the right choice for your model.

Let's say I want to find out the scale of my Freewing P-38 Lightning.  Let's use millimeters since that is the most common wing measurement for RC electric airplanes.

Step 1

Take the wingspan of the full scale plane and convert it into millimeters.  A quick search online shows that the P-38 Lightning had a 52 feet wingspan.  Convert 52 feet to millimeters using a calculator and you will see it is 15,849 millimeters.

Step 2

Next we divide the full scale wingspan by the model's wingspan.  Since the Freewing P-38 Lightning has a 1600mm wingspan simply divide 15,849 by 1,600 which will give you 9.90. (15849 / 1600 = 9.90).

Step 3

This gives you a ratio of the model to the full scale in millimeters which in this case is 9.90 or in other words approximately 1/10 scale.  You round up or down based on the number after the decimal.  So 9.4 would be 1/9 scale and so on.

I hope you find this formula easy to use to help you determine your RC model's proper scale.