Transmitter in hand, face encased in black sunglasses, he guides his white and pink Sukhoi SU26 through a September blue sky.

Facts of Flight Speed: Some remote-control planes can travel up to 200 mph. But the average plane goes between 60 and 85 mph, fast enough to stay up, slow enough to do tricks. Altitude: The record is 27,000 feet; most flyers keep their RC planes within 500 feet or less so they can keep them in view. Construction: The plane itself is usually made of balsa wood, although some manufacturers use fiberglass. Inside the plane, servos communicate with the radio transmitter on the ground to operate the different parts of the airplane that control its direction. An engine -- fueled by an alcohol, nitro-methane mix -- powers the plane. Cost to get started: An average starter kit, according to Jerel Zarestky, costs between $50 and $70. An "almost ready to fly" trainer plane costs about $100. You must also purchase an engine and a radio. Engines run between around $70 and $300. Radios cost $150 and up. But, suggests Zarestky, used planes can often be a bargain answer to those interested in trying out the sport. Competition: There's almost an endless number of categories for competition. They include pattern competitions, which require contestants to take their planes through a series of technical patterns; scale contests; senior contests featuring planes designed before 1962; and races. About 10 Knox County flyers participate in contests throughout the region. Web sites Introduction to the hobby http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/websites/rc.htm Knox County Remote Control http://user.icx.net/~thezs/_kcrc/KCRC.html Jerel Zarestky's personal page (features flyover pictures taken from his helicopter) http://user.icx.net/~thezs/_myrc/myrc_page.html Zimpro Marketing, a local manufacturer of aerobatic plane kits. http://members.aol.com/zimprod/zimpro.htm or http://www.pub.nxs.net/dehunt/

"I love this plane, he says. "It's very smooth and so precise. This is one of my favorite maneuvers. It's called an avalanche."

The Sukhoi climbs into the sky, arcing over into a giant loop. At the top, Zarestky whips the plane into a 360-degree snap-roll and descends.

"That wasn't very good," he says. The loop should be perfectly round and centered on the pilot position. The snap-roll should be tight but the plane should come out on heading. The business of aerobatics is very precise.

Zarestky tries a Cuban eight, a figure eight, a figure M, an eight-point roll, a square loop with half rolls.

To the untrained eye they look like an impressive series of rolls, tumbles and breathtaking dives. But in the sport of remote-control airplanes, gliders and helicopters, there's always more to learn.

Zarestky knows. He's been sending planes and helicopters up to soar with the birds for nearly 30 years.

"I'm still learning," he says.

* * *

Zarestky bought his first remote-control airplane for 75 dollars while a "poor student" at Iowa State University. It never flew. The plane was a piece of junk, he says. But, fiddling and tinkering with it taught him a lot about remote-control planes. A year later he bought the real deal and became airborne.

"I just got more and more interested in it," he says. "It gets addictive."

Zarestky, an Oak Ridge resident and neutron scientist working for his alma mater at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, remains a remote-control aircraft buff.

"It gets to where you get the urge to fly and you've just got to do it. It's just like an extension of your body," he says.

Zarestky flies his airplanes and helicopters -- a more recently acquired taste -- about once a week at the Knox County Remote Control airfield. The runway claims a hilltop surrounded by the Clinch River and patches of dense woods. Those are the hazards, says Zarestky. On a positive note, he says, "we have the best view of any flying site."

Zarestky used to build most of his models from kits, making some parts from scratch to save money. Now, he adopts planes from people who've built and abandoned them or are getting out of the hobby.

Planes come in all types. Training planes, flexible and forgiving for the novice. Exact scale models of real-life planes. Planes for showy tumbles and tricks. Planes for aerobatic maneuvers. Big planes. Little planes. Even jet planes.

Zarestky prefers the aerobatic variety, designed and trimmed for precision moves. And helicopters have become a renewed interest for him, thanks to a local expert and friend who's encouraged him to try some new tricks.

To succeed in the hobby, he says, takes patience and perseverance.

"It's mainly hand/eye coordination," Zarestky says. "If you can imagine the whole rub-your-stomach-pat-your-head thing, that's flying an airplane. Add two more things, besides rubbing your stomach and patting your head, that's flying a helicopter."

* * *

Flying model airplanes -- or miniature aircraft, as some prefer -- goes back to the 1880s, before the Wright Brothers or anyone else snagged their place in the history of flight.

"They were trying to fly," says Zarestky, "and the way you do that is you build a small (plane) first and you chuck it off a hilltop and see if it flies. Even NASA and Burt Rutan first build and test fly concept aircraft as models"

As a sport, remote control flying took off in the 1930s. And, just like every other technology, a lot has changed since then. Computer chips have replaced vacuum tubes. Battery packs shrank. Transmitters became more sophisticated with programmable settings and digital readouts. Planes have grown and gotten faster. Recently radio systems and ready-to-fly planes have gotten less expensive.

The technological revolution has also brought a string of other pastimes to compete for the interest of the young. Older fliers wonder about the future of the sport as they see contests drawing fewer young participants. Zarestky laments that video games and team sports tend to attract potential youthful followers. This causes kids to miss out on the excitement and discipline of remote control flying, he says, and the life experiences it can offer.

Saving for that first plane, building it from scratch and learning to fly, he says, teaches you a whole different set of skills and knowledge.

"When you finally get to the point of being able to fly, after you've gone through all those steps, it becomes a very significant event."

But many people don't want to take that time anymore, he says. They buy ready-made kits and get frustrated when they can't learn to fly in one afternoon.

"People go out and buy the $100 almost-ready-to-fly airplane, throw a radio in it, and they don't have any time invested in it," says Zarestky. "It's different when you start out from scratch or build a kit, and you spend 40 or 60 or 100 hours building it and putting a radio in it. It becomes part of you. There's a great deal of satisfaction there, to start from basically raw materials and end up with a fully functional flying aircraft."

Remote-control flying is a sport, he says, where everyone can find a niche. Some people like to build planes. Some people like to cover them, creating colorful and intricate designs using special adhesive. Some people spend hours tinkering with the engines and other mechanical parts.

Some people just like to fly. They revel in that perfect maneuver, the last-minute save, the "greased" landing.

"When it all comes together and clicks, it flows like a choreographed dance," says Zarestky.