Good First Kit?

I would set up a delta winged model (UFO Triangle) and install a flight stabilizer (electronic) to make it easier to fly. Basically, a single input would turn the model while the stabilizer did the actual flying.

Anyone can move a stick from left to right, even a five year old, or a great grandma.

If the guest pilot handled that well, perhaps a more advanced ship could be used to further fuel their enthusiasm.

Ed Cregger

What do you want to do - fly or glue pieces of balsa together? If you want to fly, I recommend:

As far as kits are concerned, Sig, Great Planes, Goldberg, or Tower are pretty much all the same. However, if I were into building balsa planes, I'd get:

Although a bit pricey, this is a far better plane than any thing offered by the major manufacturers. I have a friend who just loves his, and I have often flow it. It's likely the best handling semi-aerobatic on the market today. Also, if you can handle it, you might try the Dog House Extreme. Bow Wow!

Ciao,

Mr Akimoto

I live in the midwest, so I will be spending several months not flying. gluing pieces of balsa together might prove a better distraction than just watching reruns until springtime. I think building a kit might teach me a little bit more about the hobby in general. As I am still a novice, exploring how my models are actually constructed could be valuable.

Spads are of interest to me. One of the clubs I joined had a spad fun fly this fall. I would be surprised if I didn't try to get one put together to join in the fun sometime next season. I'm more interested in building a traditional airframe and learning how to cover it and whatnot. The spad I'll probably tackle when I'm closer to being able to fly it in the spring, as a spad shouldn't take quite as long to assemble as a traditional kit.

I appreciate the link to rc runway, I'd never heard of the doghouse or doghouse extreme before. They look like interesting stik variations. You and I share an affinity for stiks, I've read your comments about your Ultra Stik 40. I recently assembled a Tiger Stick 40 (my first ARF build) and I've been having a great deal of fun flying it.

The doghouse extreme looks like it could be a good platform for learning 3D flying. A stik body with really aggressive throws and extra large control surfaces could be a lot of fun, kind of like a kit version of Goldberg's Wild Stik?

A kit would give me the opportunity to pick an off-the-wall covering scheme and to have something a little more unique looking out at the field. I appreciate the suggestions and I may give the doghouse extreme a second look.

Stay tuned for the return of the Ballistick!

"Life is too short to build UGLY airplanes."

Cheers -- \_________Lyman Slack________/ \_______Flying Gators R/C___/ \_____AMA 6430 LM____ / \___Gainesville FL_____/ Visit my Web Site at

"Life is too short to build UGLY airplanes."

Hey Lyman, I resemble that remark! :) I build but cannot brag about them being more than ugly.

mk

Ugly is as to the design/intent of the model; not the actual finished product :-)

I'm going to suggest a different route: build a slow-flying electric foamy, with a cheap engine in it. In fact, given the simplicity of these things, build 2 or

3 identical ones. Take them to the field. Anyone who comes by asking about planes, you say "Here -- try fliying this one. I'll give you a minute of instruction on what the little levers so, and then we'll fly with a "buddy box". DON'T worry about crashing. If you crash and ruin the plane, I've got two more spares in the car. If you crash and damage it, I can probably fix it with this hot-glue gun or that packing tape over there. Just go ahead and fly it."

Of course, you need to bring a glue gun, a small 110V inverter, and a few zip-ties with you. But with a good enough 3-channel model, crashes and repairs won't be that frequent. I built the "Trainer One" model by "gpw" on rcgroups, Since it's a pusher, it's pretty tough to break the prop, which only costs $.80 anyhow. Any other damage CAN be repaired with tape and hot-glue. So I'll let just about anyone who's interested fly mine. If 8 year olds can do it, I figure it's pretty simple. And with just a J-250 powering it, and the serious polyhedral built in the wing, you just can't do anything too wacky. Loops and rolls are impossible. And letting go of the sticks usually lets you recover from any mistake.

Why is this good enough? Because for a beginner, the experience of controlling the aircraft is just amazing and wonderful and a little scary and therefore thrilling. Those who are young enough will say things like "Wow!" and "Coooooool!" even as their friends are making a first circuit of the football field or wherever you're flying. When they get the controls themselves, you can SEE how exciting it is.

In short: for that critical first flight or two,

*** it's not the plane, it's the FLYING***

So if you bring something flyable and let folks fly it, you've probably got a way to get more kids involved. No need for fancy stabilizers -- just a couple of naro-servos, a 4ch receiver, an ESC, a $2 motor, and some batteries. In all the crashing we've done, the most expensive single bit of damage was a broken prop. And the most extensive damage arose form a full-speed collision with a fir tree. I probably COULD have put things back together after that with enough tape, but I just rebuilt instead (indeed, rebuilt and made a spare at the same time).

Yeah, it's electric. And maybe you're strictly a glow-person. But if you want to get people into the hobby (as opposed to wanting to make clones of yourself), the electric might be the way to go...

--John

Electric is a good idea, but they can do that already just by buying an RTF model.

And, yes, I do want to make clones of myself. I don't want the flying field to turn into a playground for dropped off kids with electric models while Mom is shopping. I think that is reasonable. Don't you?

Ed Cregger

[I suggested building an electric trainer that you let interested folks try flying]

Well ... sort of. That requires that they put up the money *first.* It's not a cheap hobby, and it's a lot easier to get excited *after* you've had a chance to fly. Of course, if you want to be sure that they're REALLY COMMITTED before trying it out, that's OK. I just think it's likely to reduce the stream of incoming hobbyists quite a bit. Oh...wait...it already HAS!

I'm not sure. Would it be better with dropped-off kids with glow models?

Presumably your flying field has some rules. If kids don't obey them, they get kicked out (just like adults). If they do, presumably it's not a big problem WHAT they fly.

If you want to get more kids into the hobby, I'd *think* that a first requirement would be ... uh ... kids. But if you have some good ideas about how to get more kids into the hobby without the annoyance of having them around, I'm all ears :-). In the meantime, any moderately polite kid who wants to try flying one my T-1s is welcome...

--John

The hobby needs more guys like you, John.

Good flying, desmobob