Newbie Questions...

Hi Rich,

Congrats on your interest in this hobby. It can be exhilarating, frustrating, maddening, and very rewarding. As was mentioned in the previous post, you need to contact your local club. Hopefully, they will guide you during your first steps in the hobby. However, even that is no guarantee against crashing. The one law that is true for this hobby is that if you fly them, you will crash them. The good thing is that if you also built the thing, you will also know what it takes to repair it if it hasn't been totaled.

Make sure you have a flight instructor for those first flights. Trying to learn without an instructor is very painful and costly. Most clubs have several instructors. I would recommend going to the flying field and observing them to see which would be most compatible with your learning style. From there he/she will be able to guide you on your first plane, and learning to fly.

Hope you enjoy the journey.

Jim W

Tell us where you live so maybe someone can give a good club recomendation. Watch what goes on at the field and find someone you think would be good to help you. As with most clubs, there are some guys who will give you good help then there are the others... I would suggest a simulator. It won't hurt. Also, for a lot of us, it is nice to at least be able to fly the computer in the dead of winter.

John VB

Rich, do a Google search for "Flying Model Simulator". FMS is a free download, except you'll have to get a two-stick controller of some kind. If you want to spend the bucks, get either the Reflex or RealFlight sims. They can really help you once you get your hands on a real model. Another avenue is to get a park/slow flyer. They're light and slow, and can be easily fixed if damaged. If you want to fly a typical glow trainer after practicing on a sim, there's no substitute for getting an instructor and learning on a buddy box. If I can help, feel free to post to this group and I'll e-mail you.

Morris