New to R/C flying, new a beginner plane

My advice is to find an R/C flying club who can provide you with instruction. This is the most important ingredient to success.

As for the plane, many are available. In general, beginners start with planes that are almost ready to fly (ARF). To these one needs to add an engine, radio, propeller, and other misc bits & pieces, and do some assembly. You'll need to decide on electric or glow. I prefer glow. The engine size is typically in the .40 range, but the .15 to .25 range is also good. One of the best sources of information online is R/C Universe

There is a beginner forum that has many threads on learning.

Welcome to the hobby. For many it becomes a lifelong obsession.

I am a complete newbie. If you are not an adult, please click here:

1. Use a free simulator.
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   will need a game pad and a fast/modern computer. My game pad is the Logitech cordless rumble pad. My computer is a 2GHz CPU, 1GB memory, 64MB AGP video card. It works great. Frame rates are way too high to be concerned about. If you need any help configuring the simulator, just ask.
2. Practice using the real controls before you fly. Wear down the batteries a few times. I put my Firebird Outlaw wheels up against a

2x4 laying on the floor. Then try adjusting the throttle so that the tale comes off of the floor but the plane does not tip over forward.

1. Fly over grass away from trees and other obstacles.

Good luck. And thanks for the experience. Please feel free to post more details about the circumstance and what happened.

Easy Star Ready-To-Fly

Use FMS or another computer simulator and a dual analog controller (I doubt the scout radio came with a trainer port). When you can fly it on a computer then you will be much better prepared to fly it in the real world, be it a cheap toy or a more expensive toy. And if you are playing with toys then there is a little child in you. I posted some recipies to that effect recently...

An instructor is what you need (in my opinion), rather than a simulator or a cheapie plane. Unless you live on a ranch in Wyoming or a farm in Iowa, there is generally a flying club in your area, with people very willing to help.

Before getting your hands dirty -- I recommend that you practice a bit in a virtual world >> Real Flight G3 >>

Get a flight simulator and play with that for a couple of weeks.

Its far and away teh best way to get over the initial weirdness of RC.

Once you can fly that, my experience is that almost any small trainer, with or without help from local clubs, will be withing your competence.

I'd go with a GWS model as being cheap, tough and just enough of a real plane to have some satisfaction.

Thanks to everyone and the excellent advice. I am going for a bit of flight sim first, then maybe the GWS route.

Richard

LOTS of people teach themselves with a simulator, I did. The cheap and durable electric foam planes lend themselves to this approach. Usually you can be flying again after some creative tape application.

I would not reccomend teaching yourself to fly with a balsa plane however. Nor would I insist that you be able to build a plane in order to start RCing. It would help tremendously if you could, but to thine own self be true. Hopefully you have a buddy that can help you sort out whatever plane you get if you need help.

LOL >> I do teach people how to fly rc helicopters -- that is why I recommended a simulator rite-off-the-bat -- when I learned to fly helicopters I learned on a Kyosho 60 -- back then a tail rotor went for $100 - 130.00. I must have gone through 20+ tail rotors -- a few thousand dollars just learning to FLY/Land! Unfortunately back in 82' there weren't ANY flight sims.

Electrics are a bit harder (than that of a larger copter) and thus are a great challenge to fly IMO. I fly a Picco 3D inside my home. Is a "challenge" at the same you have no mess to clean up, no gas to deal with. don't have to worry about the engine not starting -- You don't ever feel like beating the crap out of your expensive copter plus is loads of fun! All your friends will be impressed with your in-house copter flying skillz as well

BBA

Totally agreed, made all the difference for me even when I had an experienced friend helping.

A good choice for quickly getting into the air without laying out too much cash or emotional attachement (from having built a kit).

I started with electric and while it was fine, many of the beginner level electrics are very light and require almost no wind to fly. I second the vote for going to glow motors, the extra size alone will make it deal better with wind.

Don't know where you are but .40 size is very common for trainers, which often get fitted with larger .46 engines in my part of the world.

Yes, it's pretty good.

Already becoming obsessed. Haven't even rated "solo" yet I already have one electric, one glow, and one glider.

Another old fart, AMA is great, dinosaur.

In defense of old farts, has it occurred to you that building your own might actually be fun, and that your plane can be decorated to your tastes to stand out among the look-alike ARFs? One of the things I really enjoyed when I entered this hobby was learning all the modeling skills required to build my own plane and then having someone coach me as I made my first wobbly flight. You CAN learn to fly by yourself with one of the backyard foamies (or glow if you're out in the middle of nowhere), but you'll also be repairing them or buying a new one, or two, or three, before you get the hang of it. AMA has its faults, sure, but what if your radio glitches or a control linkage fails, and your glow or gas-powered plane goes out of control and hurts somebody? Can you say "lawsuit", boys and girls? Yes, AMA dues are expensive, and I don't like the way it's run, but the insurance, at least to me, is worth it. Also, the local RC club is a treasure trove of information from us old farts who've been there, done that, and know what it takes to make an airplane fly.

Morris, Old Fart and proud of it.

I like to think I'm an old fart also. I love to build, but I must admit that I bought an Kyoshu ARF to learn to fly RC on. It seemed to be a waste of time to bould something nice that I was about to destroy. I got on with building my 2nd plane while learning to fly, and to patch up the ARF. The wealth of knowledge thats available from the oldies at the field should not be discounted and your "new problem" has almost certainly been encountered, and solved by one or more of them. In Australia we have the MAAA and the only reason I am a member is for insurance. I now fly large scale stuff and the thought of the damage that one of these could cause, and the litigation and expense, is enough to ensure my continued membership no matter what the cost.

Bob Tomlinson

Aussie RC Enthusiast and Rugby Fanatic.

Thank heavens the USA hasn't discovered and packaged Rugby.

| Don't listen to that ARF advice. Build a kit and learn something about | aerodynamics and the hobby in the process.

Building a kit will not necessarily teach you anything about aerodynamics -- you're just following directions, and the instructions generally don't talk about aerodynamics much.

It will help teach you how to repair your plane, however. That's certainly good to know.

However, if you're doing this with no help and no experience, it's very likely that you'll make a plane that doesn't fly or flies poorly. With an ARF, the odds of getting a plane that will actually fly are a good deal higher.

Also, consider this -- if it's a built-up balsa plane, and you fly it by yourself with no experience and no help, it's expected lifetime is likely to be measured in seconds. So which would you rather destroy

-- the plane you spent 40 hours on, or the plane you spent 4 hours on?

I suggest an ARF for somebody starting out. Once you get the hang of that, you can try building if you want.

| The next step is to find a qualified RC instructor. It saves time | and money and is the only proper way to learn.

If it's a built up plane, yes. A simulator will certainly help, but you'll want some help for the first few flights, or they're likely to be very short and will end in the destruction of the plane.

If it's a foamie, then it'll probably survive some crashes, and might survive your `learning on your own' process.

Either way, some experienced help, at least a first, can go a long way towards reducing your frustration.

I have to steal a line here... "Save a tree,fly a S.P.A.D. " Go to

and check out Simple Plastic Airplane Desing. The Debonair is ugly but its a stable trainer. I want to build a SPADet. where else can you build a fuse, that will take a bouncing(cartwheeling or dunking) and ya can get buck in the air the same day for so much less than it costs to repair a balsa plane. That site is definatly worth a look

1. Fly level

Heres a good one that helps with the Left/Right reversal alkwardnes when the plane is flying back toward you at you. Being a bit dislectic this has saved my ars a number of time.

No brainer orientation rule.

Fling away no problem drive it like a car Left is left Right is right. but

*** Commin at ya*** To level a plane comming toward you simply push the stick toward th lower wing. Quick and easy to remember.

And agreed get a sim Its worth it. I have Real Flight2. Never would have gotten my chopper flying without it.

Good Luc

-- everma

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To level a banked plane comming at you....

Simple push the stick toward the low win. Qick and easy to remember.

Everma

-- everma

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