Elevated

Since I was a kid I wanted to have an rc airplane. Due to the lack of regular access to a place to fly I ended up getting into nitro rc cars back in the early 90's.

After middle school I never messed with an rc vehicles despite still having the two cars from my childhood. Now having my own young kids, and having just bought a farm, I decided to get a beginner plane and learn how to fly so that one day I can do this with them.

I had been "training" with a rc plane app on my tablet which helped a little bit, but it did not prepare me enough for actual flight. I knew this would be the case but figured it would probably help.

After a lot of reading I decided to buy an AXN Floater Jet and put it together, coupled with a Turnigy TGY-i6 for an inexpensive intro to the hobby.

The first time trying to fly it yesterday, I did some damage to it. At my hay field, it is almost always breezy or quite windy, and that day was pretty windy but I decide to give it a try anyways. Wrong move. I got it into the air and crashed landed several times breaking the wing tip, nose, and cracking the fuselage. I should have stayed grounded for a more calm day, but I was really anxious to try it out.

After a little work and packing tape it is up and flying again. Today was about as calm as it gets, 5-10mph, with gusts, and my flying was much better. Didn't manage to break anything. Whoo hee.

I wonder if there is a better plane for flying in these conditions? This plane seems really light and easily blown around in the wind. Is there another inexpensive electric plane that can take the wind and gusts better? Should I just keep learning on this until I bash it to bits and get another?

Thanks,
Elevated

FLAPHappy

My Feedback: (209)

Do Not Fly Alone, First Mistake. If you get hurt, who's there to help you in case of a serious injury???
Get an Instructor, most local clubs have them, use them and save yourself a lot of wasted money.

Elevated

Thanks for the reply. An instructor would definitly be helpful but the nearest club listed on the AMA site was an hour and a half away. I am not going to travel that far for lessons.

LOL, i had to laugh a little about getting hurt while flying this. I think my risk of injury from this little plane is much less then operating tractors, haying equipment, atv's, and a machine shop on our farm. Thanks for the concern though.

jester_s1

Those little 3 channel beginner planes are really just glorified gliders. They go with the wind, not exert control over it. The club and instructor route are the best and easiest way to get into the hobby, but I understand if it's too far away. To handle the wind, you need ailerons and a plane that doesn't have a lot of dihedral. The very best plane ever invented for windy days is the venerable old Ugly Stick. Eflite makes a miniature version of it that's a nice flyer, but it is made of balsa so dumb thumb mistakes will cost you. The Hobby King club trainer looks like a pretty good candidate, but I have no experience with it.

radiopat

Jester is on the mark with his advice. Our situations are very similar. I live/fly on my hay farm that is close to the coast and the wind is almost constant here.
While I got into this hobby over 30 years ago it is only recently that I started flying again. During the years I started and ran my business I didn't have the time to devote to it. Last year I sold my business, retired and returned to r/c. When I hung up sticks in the early 90's, electrics and ARFs were in their infancy. Now I was curious about the electrics and decided on an electric foamie to try to get the rust off my flying skills.

I chose the Parkzone Sport Cub S2. It's a very predictable (but not boring) flying plane. It's a 4 channel plane with the option of flaps that handles the wind very well. I was "raised" on an Ugly Stik as well as Great Planes trainers so I haven't a lot of experience with these foamie trainers, however I can say that I like the Sport Cub very much. It can be flown any way you want to; lazy circles in the sky or you can get sporty with it. I also has large tundra tires on it for flying off of unimproved runways. I fly off a gravel road and while the roll outs aren't very pretty, they don't result in damage.

Hope this helps.

Elevated

Thanks guys. This is actually not a 3 channel plane but a 4 channel and has a 44" wingspan so i dont know if i would call it a little glider. It will really go when you throttle up the 2100Kv brushless motor.

I did a little flying yesterday and figured out why i was flying so poorly. The rudder was reversed. Doh. Ailerons and rudder are now reversed and the elevator is normal.

Wow that made a hugh differnce in my flying. ;-) After i figured that out i was doing loops and rolls and actually landing every time without any problems.

I feel like such a dope for not figuring that out sooner. Now i just need to figure out how to change the esc to have a higher battery cut off as it is set to medium which takes the cells down to 3.15v. High will bring it up to 3.3v which i think would be better.

Thanks again for the help.

Elevated

Just finished flying the axn again today. Pretty windy, but i said the heck with it and flew anyways. Getting to learn how to use the rudder in conjunction with the ailerons to control flying in the wind. That helps a lot.

I think i will keep flying this until either until it is broken and cant fly or till i get better at flying. If it is broken i will look at a high wing such as a super cub as a replacement.

I think i am finally getting the hang of it though. Shoot i might just buy another axn and transfer over the electronics once this one gets beat up more. I think the plane sans electronics is only $40. At that price i can afford to wreck a few learning.

Tom Nied

I would agree with you. Now that you're getting the hang of it, fly the heck out of it. At $40 it's a no brainer picking up another when and/or if you need a replacement. You've seem to have sorted out the mistakes of your original setup and you're making progress learning to fly it. Get yourself some extra batteries and fly the heck out of it.

flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

Not to be cynical but I think we are being led by our noses. Think about it please. This fellow buys himself a four channel ARF and than proceeds to fly with no experience or so he says. The rudder comment gave him away.

Elevated

Tom, thanks. Yeah the inexpensive price and the axn's abilty to foy well is what attracted me to it. It is kind of busted up right now but still flies the same as new. I think i will keep flying it and learn on it so i dont trash a nice balsa plane. Then start thinking about other plane.

Btw forgive and mistakes i am writing this on my phone.

Elevated

Flycatch, you are being cynical and rude. Your sure quick to call me a lier, not sure where you get off saying that or how the rudder has anything to do with me being a noob and looking for advise.

radiopat

I think Flycatch is like myself and a lot of folks that didn't get educated on the rudder until later in our education. I know I
was doing all I could to keep up with the other 3 channels. I think back then the rudder was considered "further education"
by most instructors. At least that's how it was around my clubs.

smeckert

I thimk Flap Happy is over there, surely he would come give you lessons .
Keep flying it till it won't fly anymore. Get another and fly it to death.
Just keep flying. It does feel great to learn without any help... can be expensive, but that feeling you get when you do fly without breaking anything is so good.

Tom Nied

I don't suggest learning to fly alone without help from other experienced RC fliers. But it can be done. I learned to fly RC myself on a SIG Kadet Senior that I buit myself. But by the time I tried, I had 30 years experience flying Controline and Free Flight. I had a great user knowledge base, engines, covering, good building skills, setting up a plane to fly correctly, attention to detail. I still have that Sig Kadet Senior, and it's in fine shape, ready to fly again. So I think someone with an electric foamie, setup correctly, has a good chance of learning how to fly RC. Fly the heck out of the AXN bouncing it off the ground and learn to fly. It's not a bad way to learn.

jester_s1

I saw the upturned wingtips and assumed the plane didn't have ailerons. My mistake. I'm glad you figured out your problem. Do still consider an Ugly Stick when you're ready to fly something nicer. Everybody, including myself, who's gone from a trainer to a stick has been surprised at how easy flying is with one. It's like the wind shuts off just by changing planes. Lots of pilots whose skills are far beyond sport planes still keep one around to play in the wind with because you just don't have to do that much to make them fly well.

sensei

I don't think he is lying at all because I know for a fact you can learn to fly alone, I did it with a .25 sized 4 channel biplane nearly 5 decades ago in the foothills of Lancaster California before homes took over the area. I am not saying anyone should just go out and start flying an R/C airplane with no help, I'm just saying it can be done with enough determination.

Bob

rgburrill

It seems that you are one who can do it on your own and that is good. There are certainly better trainers for wind but they are typcially 40 to 60 size fuel rather than electric. My suggestion is the fly the one you have until it has so much duct tape it wont get off the ground anymore. Just take your time and don't push it on windy days. There are many people here who will tell you wind doesn't matter and inertia/momentum are figments of the imagination but that is a load of horsepucky. When you are ready to move up into something heavier you will also be able to handle higher winds. Weight is your friend when it comes to wind. And there are big electric motors too. I have a 60 size Bigfoot in a 55 inch balsa biplane.

Elevated

Thanks for the replies. Yeah the big thing that I have found flying the AXN foam plane is that it is so light that it gets tossed around pretty good in the wind. Feels like holding a sheet of metal roofing in heavy wind on a roof. Now that this nerve racking and dangerous.

I reinforced the wings and fuselage on this model with packing tape. That has seemed to help, however since I have started figuring things out, I have not had any hard crash landings. The first time I flew this I actually flew it right into the side of the house I am building. Good thing the siding is not on yet. LOL

I was wondering if I could get away with duct taping the entire plane like a skin on a cub or t crater. Oops sorry that is what we called them in Alaska, as they seemed to wreck a lot and leave people stranded in the bush. I almost bought one from a friend of mine for moose hunting but he had a prop strike landing on a remote field. BTW there is a guy outside of Chitina that has what looks like a T Craft that was held together mostly by duct tape. The guy offered a ride but there was no way I was going up in it.

Sorry for the rambling, anyways I am having a hard time finding the Ugly Stick plane mentioned. There is a Great Planes Big Stick. Is this the same thing? There is also an Eflite Ultra Stick that is electric.

I don't know why everyone thinks it is so hard to believe that I am learning to fly this model by myself. I learned to do plenty of things on my own, you just have to have some initiative, coordination, patience, and you can do most things if you stick to it. Didn't really care people acting like I was making things up about learning to fly a simple model airplane. I have done much more complicated things in my life. Now I am not going to say that I will be good at flying anytime soon. I have a long long ways till that happens. Sometimes when it gets windy it looks like I am a monkey trying to fly aerobatics, but that would just be me trying not to loose control of it as it flutters around in the wind like a leaf.

Thanks again for the replies.

funnotcrazy

Flycatch & Radiopat- the rudder being further education? Yall never flew a taildragger. Hard as h*ll at first, but if you didn't learn rudder, well then you just didn't fly. Ever hear the term "ground loop?" In the beginning I was the monkey doing aerobatics - on the ground !

radiopat

Ha, that old Ugly Stik that I had for a long time was a trike. Didn't learn the finer aspects of the art until I built
a Robinhood 99 (still have that old buzzard). It was then that I learned the left hand was not just a counterbalance.

FLAPHappy

My Feedback: (209)

I sure would. First off , Electric motors don't just shut off by themselves, if they hit the hand, elbow, fingers or anywhere you you don't want an Injury. Nobody want's to get hurt trying to have fun, but it happens.

They just keep on sawing if they find the meat and it ends up with a very nasty cut. Have You ever received a cut with an electric motor and a propeller?. I think not. I certainly hope nobody has to go through that, but it happens everyday.

Please let me explain, if you get cut bad enough, you won't be able to drive yourself to the ER or local clinic to get patched up. You could die right there, on the spot. I never will fly by myself, accidents do happen all too often. You will need help if it is serious and if you are by yourself, good luck too you..

Elevated

Guy just wanted to give you an update.

Did a little more flying this evening after the kids were in bed and the winds dies down a bit. It was still breezy but not like the last few times I flew.

I think I am getting the hang of flying this thing. It is actually a lot of fun as I am starting to get to learn how to be gentle with the controls. I was flying at dusk so it was a little hard to tell the orientaion of the plane when it was far away and high up there. I have been trying to keep it 25-50 feet up there so I can see it fine, but that does not give you a lot of leeway for correcting mistakes.

I am feeling pretty good about my progress. I am getting to where I can fly it in patterns without doing unintentional crazy stuff. I have also been working on landing a lot as that is the hardest part I have found. This does not have landing gear, so I just coast it in and skid along the grass. Managed to land it softly each time tonight. I am happy with that. Plus I did a little acrobatic flying multiple loops etc.

I am glad that I finally got into the hobby. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I am also excited about getting my boys into this when they get older. That is part of the reason I wanted to do this know so that I can actually teach them in a year or two how to fly.

Thanks

Elevated

Also I have been looking at a few of the other recommended balsa planes as a second plane. The ones I have seen a lot of good about is the GP Big Stik, GP ElericoStik, and the Tower Hobbies TOWER Trainer 40 MkII.

What do you guys think of those? They are still inexpensive compared to others but look decent. Also what would be better, to stay electric, or go with a glow engine?

I kind of like the electric as it is simple to use. However since I still have my two old nitro cars, I have the glow plug starter/ignite and heavy duty 12v electric starter. So I wouldn't need anything additional other then the nitro fuel.

az3d

My Feedback: (59)

If you are going to fly in the wind a lot I would recommend a 3 axis rate gyro from hobbyking. It is about $30. you will also need to order three 4 inch male to male jr/futaba connectors to connect it to the receiver. It will make your plane fly in 10 mile an hour winds like there is no wind. set the gain so the control surfaces only move about 3/8 of an inch. It doesn't take much. If you are willing to spend more money I would get an apprentice from horizon hobby. It has gyro stabilization and can self level. You can also turn it off as you get more advanced.

jester_s1

Your choice of second plane depends a lot on your budget and the size of your flying area. Bigger flies better. A .40 or .60 size Big Stick/Ugly Stick is ridiculously easy to fly, but it does require more runway area and a bigger overall flying area than your little park flyer plane does. So if you have 300-400 feet of mowed grass and can afford the larger plane, go for it. Put big wheels on it so the bumps don't bother it much, and have a blast.

As for electric vs. glow, the answer there again depends. After you figure in batteries, electric will add about $200 to your initial cost of the plane in the sizes we're talking about and you'll also need a lipo charger. Electric is clean, low maintenance, and reliable. But you will need a way to charge batteries at your flying area if you want to fly more times than the number of batteries you buy. Glow power is cheaper initially and can be run as long as you have fuel. But you know from cars that glow engines must be tuned and they tend to get gummy and unreliable if they aren't run regularly. I think glow is the most practical choice in this size of plane due to the initial cost savings and the ability to fly a lot without charging batteries. And, of course, there is the third option of the new small gasoline engines. They cost more, but use the same fuel as your weedeater. They are the most practical power system of all IMO, but they do cost more than glow engines.