Cessna good for beginner model?

Nah, it's for men who have small penises.

Have you ever tossed a lure and hooked the EXACT fish you were trying to catch? Yeah, I know, candy from a baby. :) mk all in fun TNP

One thing that glo has an advantage in, in spades, is how long you can fly in a day.

Unless you have money out the wazzu, to buy several battery packs, there is a limit to how many times you should recharge an electric power pack in a day. A good charger is not cheap, either, and neither are the power packs.

With glo, you pull in, check the receiver battery power pack, (which is usually good for several flights) and fill up the tank. Star er up, and go fly, and how long you fly depends on how big of a fuel tank you can put in the plane. I like to be able to fly wide open for at least 20 minutes and still have a little reserve for landing. If you run at half power, that means you can fly for 35 or 40 minutes. Not many electric planes can match that.

Get an OS engine, and I dare say that you will not have any problem with reliability. They cost more, but once you set the mixture, you start it up and go fly, without any worries of being hard to start or keep running.

I wish I had the money to spend on electric, really. There are times when not having all of the support stuff glo requires would be very nice. I just don't have the money to spend on batteries, chargers, speed controllers, good motors, prop adapters, and so forth. I'll have to stick with glow, except one small park or indoor motor and controller that was given to me. It will be nice to play with in the school gym, I think.

Nothing like a face full of nitro exhaust from a hand launched glow powered plane.

Ahhhhhhh..........

Just because a full size plane may be good as a trainer does not mean that ability will transfer over to a model. A Piper Cub is a prime example. In the full size world it is/was commonly used as a trainer. In an rc model the plane requires co-ordinated turns (you have to use the rudder AND the ailerons to turn ). A SCALE Piper Cub model, as with the majority of scale models, is not very forgiving and typically is not recommended until a 3rd (or later ) plane.

A trainer, provided you have enough altitude (distance from the ground ) and the plane is trimmed properly, will right itself and fly level if you release the controls. Full size planes and scale planes will not do this. A scale plane or a 2nd and later plane are what is often referred to as a "point and go" type of plane. You point the plane in the direction you want and the plane goes until you (or something else {:-( ) changes its direction.

No one says you can not keep your trainer forever. In fact many people keep their trainers and use them for the first couple of flights in the spring to "get the cobwebs out". Think of the trainer as a 1st step in learning how to fly. You would not expect someone wanting to learn how to drive a car to be able to hop into an Indy 500 race car and successfully drive it without beginning and intermediate training. The same holds true for flying an RC Plane. Everyone learns at different rates. This is a new skill you will be learning. I have seen people solo in as little as 2 or 3 flights and I have seen people take a year or more to solo. The average I have seen is about 3 - 4 months with the people flying every Saturday and Sunday (weather permitting ).

While one plane to learn on and then continue with forever might be nice it isn't realistic. As you skill improves you will want different characteristics in a plane. What a lot people forget is that once they have soloed, their trainer can be modified. It is a relatively easy task to convert the plane to a taildragger. If you remove the dihedrahl from the wing (dihedrahl is the amount each wingtip is raised above the center of the wing ) MANY trainers are very aerobatic and will perform quite a few aerobatic manuvers such as inverted flight, spins, rolls etc. with ease.

MOST trainers are "tri" gear. They have a nose wheel and 2 main wheels (often referred to as mains ) located in back of the center of gravity (CG ). The plane sits level on the ground and steering at low speeds is done with the nose wheel.

A "Taildragger" is a plane that has its 2 main wheels in front of the center of gravity and a wheel at the rear of the plane. The plane sits nose high. Steering is done with a combination of the rudder AND tailwheel at low speeds. As the plane gets up to flying speed the tail of the plane comes off the ground. At this point ALL the steering is done with the rudder. The take off and landing of a taildragger is different from a tri gear plane (more things going on at once). Prime examples of taildraggers are the Piper Cub and the majority of your WWII fighter planes such as the Mustang.

For that matter perhaps someone can

You understand the basic principle of 3D. Performing aerobatic manuvers at slow speed and usually close to the ground.

I suggest a trainer with a USER FRIENDLY BALL BEARING 46 size engine. By user friendly I mean an engine is going to run well right out of the box with little or no "fiddeling" to get it to run well. OS 46AX, Thunder Tiger Pro 46 and Evolution 46NT are good examples of user friendly engines.

I also suggest a 6 channel (or more ) COMPUTER radio. The Futaba 6EXA is an excellent radio. You will only be using 4 channels right now, but by your 3rd plane many people want to have flaps and/or retractable landing gear.

I suggest finding a club and talking to an instructor BEFORE buying anything. Often you can buy a used complete beginners setup (plane, radio and periperal equipment ) for 1/2 (or less ) than what you would spend for a new setup.

In any case I would find out what are the LEAST USED channels at your field and get your radio on one of those channels. It minimizes/eliminates waiting for your channel to clear so you can fly and reduces the chance of someone accidently "shooting you down" (turning on their transmitter while you are flying).

A good source to check out is RC Universe

have very good forums covering just about every aspect of rc flying with a lot of excellent information.

Hope this has answered your questions. Sorry about a refrence book - I don't know of any to suggest to you. Someone else may provide that answer though.

Campy

Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

There are advantages and disadvantages to both glow and electric planes.

See my other message as to RC Universe and explore the forums there. You will see some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:24:44 -0000, trojanfoe wrote in :

Any of the electrics could probably be used as a trainer (in light winds).

The Great Planes ARF is a beauty.

I haven't seen one fly or flown one myself, so I don't know how trainerish it is. As a general rule, I would recommend an uglier trainer so that you don't feel too bad if you ding it up while climbing the learning curve.

Marty

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:59:43 -0000, trojanfoe wrote in :

You should be flying fine on the sim by Christmas--and long before your new pride and joy is ready for its test flights.

Marty

All my electric planes can match that.

Lemme see..for my 60" model. a secondhand motor that cost me $7, a second hand speed controller that cost me $18. I guess i really whacked out on a $40 gearbox tho. The pack - well it's crap. Free sample. Won't hold full power more than a minute, but by that time I can't see which way the model is pointing so I throttle it back and stooge arond till it's back down from the stratosphere.

The charger WAS expesnive. $110. But I sold an OS40 and all the kit or that so that came out even.

I guess i should mention the whattmeter - but it cost less than a fuel pump and gloclip and starter battery..and starter..

I DID spend some serious money - $30 - on an EX CB power supply to drive eh charger. I don't field charge.

I guess I should get a new pack for that one. But they are really expesnive. $26 - it's a lot of money to spend really. Almost as much as a gallon of nitro and the engine mount for the OS40.

I spend less on this hobby than my wife spends on plants for the garden.

And of course, I don't need to go anywhere to fly. The fields out the back are fine as I don't make any noise to upset the neighbours.

Ad with the price of diesel around $8 a gallon, that helps a LOT.

Been there done that. It was fun when there was nothing better on offer. Actually I prefer the smell of a diesel, but they are even harder to tune. I guess I like the way my 3 year old models still look NEW. .

| One thing that glo has an advantage in, in spades, is how long you | can fly in a day.

... and gliders have that beat, especially when slope flying. Nothing beats slope flying at a good slope for maximizing the time spent in the air and minimizing the time spent mucking with your plane on the ground (unless you do combat, of course.)

Thermal flying tends to give you lots of smaller flights, especially DLG flying -- but occasionally you have great flights that can last over an hour. But there's not much mucking around on the ground -- just walk back to the hi-start or winch and launch again, or just throw it again for a DLG.

| Unless you have money out the wazzu, to buy several battery packs, | there is a limit to how many times you should recharge an electric | power pack in a day.

Talking about LiPos ... if you're not pushing your packs hard enough to get hot (warm is OK), then there's no need to wait for them to cool off before you put them back on the charger at a 1C rate, and you can charge as many times in a day as you want.

The whole `X charges in a day' thing was for NiCds or NiMHs that were pushed so hard that the packs were almost too hot to hold when you landed. R/C car races where you totally drain your pack in 4 minutes fit into this category.

| A good charger is not cheap, either, and neither are the power packs.

Good chargers aren't too expensive. But yes, the larger battery packs do cost quite a bit. The rest of the stuff isn't so expensive -- but those battery packs can eat you alive if you want larger planes.

| If you run at half power, that means you can fly for 35 or 40 | minutes. Not many electric planes can match that.

Lots can. Though most glow flights I see at the local club last about

10 minutes, and they're out of fuel at 15.

I like to take my electric glider to the glow club from time to time, and fly for a full hour. I generally have power left after that, but a break is nice.

| I wish I had the money to spend on electric, really. There are | times when not having all of the support stuff glo requires would be | very nice.

i.e. all the time :)

It'll be heavier (thus faster), will _probably_ have a semi-symmetrical airfoil (thus it'll take longer to slow down), and have narrower landing gear than an RC trainer (thus it'll be harder to control on the ground). It also may have undersized tail surfaces compared to a model.

So it'll be generally more difficult to handle.

You mentioned in another response that you intend to join a club. I strongly recommend that you do so _first_, pick out your instructor, _then_ get a plane with your instructor's help and advise. Figure on beating your trainer to death before you're ready for your next plane, and getting the Cessna then.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to pick out the Cessna that you want, and make sure the trainer uses the same engine (or motor), hinging on your instructor's approval, of course. That way you can move the parts over to the Cessna when the trainer is behaving for you.