The neatest toys to a lot of us, not counting the ones parked in the garage, are remote-control planes. These things can be as simple as the kit at the local hobby store, or can be as high-dollar as a fully-functioning airliner model that requires it’s own trailer to haul it around. No matter the cost, they are a fun and (reasonably) safer way to experience flight, and it bridges generational gaps like few other things do. Kids and adults alike love flight, and when done right, being able to control something that airborne makes you look awesome.

However, flight is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. It’s certainly not when you’re in an actual aircraft where you can see what’s going on, and it makes it that much harder when you’re standing on the sidelines making your best guesses as to what’s happening with your remote-controlled craft. You don’t get the sensations of an impending stall as you’re standing on the ground, and it’s a lot trickier to feel compression lift on a plane the size of my shoes.

So, with the holiday season coming on strong, I felt it appropriate to showcase the downside to one of these expensive toys. This video is a bit long (about 22 minutes) but you get your money’s worth from it. You get views from the ground. You get onboard camera footage from the aircraft, some of which is just awesome. You get mid-air collisions. There are propeller craft, rotor craft, one really interesting hovercraft-type device and turbine-powered fighter aircraft. Some are rather benign hard landings that can be easily fixed. Some…well, it’s amazing how expensive snapping plastic can sound.