ORIGINAL: flyguyniner
Evening from Dallas!
Welcome to the wonderful world of RC... from Australia.
ORIGINAL: flyguyniner
New member here! I'm lucky enough my girlfriend got me the Flyzone C182 Skylane (the one with flaps and a white base with red stripes). It should be in next week as the guy set her up with a 2.4GHz 5channel radio that he's setting her up with.
I bought a Eflight CX3 a while back and flew it into a tree...I took my crupmled toy home and hung my head =[ I'm a 22 year old Network Engineer by day, EE student my night who got his pilots license as a teenager. I'm so busy that I don't have time to attend a local flying club's meetings, but I'm sure I want the instruction.
You're a lucky guy.. hope you said a big thankyou, took her to dinner etc. Many members here have to sneak new planes into the house past their significant others, other members like myself are fortunate enough to be single and not have to justify them.
ORIGINAL: flyguyniner
(1) I don't know how ''beginner friendly'' this Airplane is, but for the hundreds she spent on everything I'd hate to find out the hard way its too much for me.
(2) I have noticed that since when I was a little kid, battery powered aircraft were were...they are becoming more common it seems, but whats with the short flight time?
(3) Being that I'm in school 4 nights a week, and work full time, where can someone like me find instruction? I'm living a proof that RC is a completely different world from the real thing!
Any advice for the resident newb?
OK, in order. 1: Just looked up your plane on the net... looks like a nice little plane and a relatively simple flier, and according to the manufacturer it's designed to replace a "regular" trainer. You mention you're a pilot so I assume I won't have to explain terminology to you. It's a high winged trike geared plane with fairly forgiving flight characteristics, but it appears in the video to have minimal to no dihedral, unlike the "classic" trainers. Being a low powered aircraft made from foam it should be fairly unlikely to suffer too badly from rough treatment. While it's not the plane I'd recommend as a trainer it's not too far off the mark either. With a few lessons and maybe some time on a flight sim you shouldn't have too much trouble. Your biggest issue will be converting from "first person flight" to "third person flight" - many full scale pilots don't handle the transition well to controlling a plane from the outside, and this is probably exacerbated by the attitude of "I"m a real pilot and this is a toy - it should be easy." Oh btw, stay away from the flaps for the first half dozen flights or so - you won't need them with that plane and they just add an extra level of complexity you don't need at first.
2: When you were a kid electric powered planes were using NiCad or NiMH batteries - since then LiPo (Lithium Polymer) batteries have become affordable and common. They do have their own set of problems, but if handled with respect and treated well they can offer flight times approaching and even equalling conventional fuel powered models, especially when combined with new, lighter materials. That having been said, electric flight is still more expensive to purchase (though less to run) when compared to fuel powered aircraft of similar size, power, and flight duration. Electric is catching up fast and it's almost there (though I still miss the sound, smell etc of glow fuel when I see others flying electric - personal preference there).
3: hehehe you've noticed the difference between full scale and models then? Your local hobby shops can direct you to RC clubs that will have instructors. They're usually available on the weekends. I also mentioned simulators - a couple of popular ones are Real Flight (my favourite) and FS One, they're not cheap but they come with their own controllers and they're as close as a PC can get to "real" flight. You can also download a copy of FMS for free, and use it with any transmitter that has a trainer port and an appropriate USB adapter (or even with a PC joystick or just a keyboard) - it's less polished than the commercial ones but it'll still help "get your thumbs in". While these don't replace lessons, they certainly add to them well. My instructor (3 years ago) told me that he can always tell students who've used sims, and they always "graduate" in fewer lessons.
Hope that helps some...