Darkridder

Hello everyone!

a few months back i went to Oshkosh eaa airventure, what a blast that was! I now have an itch to fly but getting my private pilot license is way out of reach right now so I've decide to take up RC flying!!

ive read a few articles on how to start and pros cons of battery vs nitro, nothing to in depth of. I do travel a lot so i have time to practice on a simulator. I'm curious though how are the flight simulators on IOS. Can i get by using a flight sim on my iPad, are these sims not very good? Anyone have any experience with these? Should i just get a laptop and a real flight simulator to practice on? I'm not sure exactly how to start i suppose. Any suggestions will be helpful.

Thanks.

Stickslammer

Welcome to the hobby! You will find a lot of experience and good advice here. Sorry I can`t advise you on flight simulators since I`ve never used them. Might I suggest for your first plane, though, a light weight foam electric powered trainer. An RTF package will get you up and flying in no time for not a lot of dough.

flyinwalenda

My Feedback: (5)

Hi,
I would suggest getting the Phoenix Flight Simulator and picking up an inexpensive laptop to run it on. The Phoenix has most of the planes Horizon Hobby sells especially the beginner planes like the Apprentice.
Also any/all updates for the simulator are free.

rgburrill

A flight simulator on a phone, or tablet would likely have way too limited a vision to be more than a game. A lot of our flaying requires peripheral vision to see that airplane headed towards us or where the runway is as we circle for a landing. Cheap laptops can be found - I suggest you get one.

Hydro Junkie

Okay, I'm going to throw a wrench into this.
1) A sim will help you IF you are actually working on something and not just flying around. If you have a club in the area, I'd see if they have an instructor that can work with you at the field with your plane. Have the instructor give you something to practice on as well so that your time on the sim is actually going to do some good.
2) Buy yourself a trainer kit and build it when you are home. You can do this while learning to fly with the foamy and, when the kit build is done, switch over and fly it. This will help you learn to build more advanced and larger planes later and make it so you won't have to rely on the assembly line ARFs and RTF planes that are becoming so prominent at the flying fields. There's also the "EGO" factor. It's nice to be able to tell others, when asked, "YES, I BUILT IT MYSELF"

Darkridder

thanks for the information everyone! I'll get a foam airplane to fly when I'm home and get a laptop and sim for the road. I do like the idea of actually building my own later down the road.. a p51 would be awesome!!

flyboy2610

My Feedback: (1)

I would advise the P51 to be MUCH later down the road! Maybe for your 4th plane. Practice with the foamie, then your kit built trainer (a Great Planes PT-40 would be a very good trainer). Then when you are very proficient with the trainer, learn to fly a low wing trainer. A T-6 would be good. When you are proficient with that, THEN it's time for the Mustang. Except for the foamie, this is the progression the military uses.

ETpilot

OH Oshkosh. I used to fly there each year. Camp in the North 40 next to runway 9/27. I would be at my campsite and just watch airplanes come and go. Really interesting. Last visit 2003. Then I changed to Sun And Fun in Florida.

There are a few iPad apps that I use from time to time. My situation was different as I was a returning RC pilot. I just needed some orientation training and the apps worked. For iPad use it is best to be a thumb flier. Doesn't work good for finger fliers. I think the iPad apps will help some. Just give them a try. But best find an instructor and follow his advice.

I don't have a simulator setup so no help there.

born2build

I think Hydro Junkie has the right idea. In fact, I know he does. Model aviation was never intended to be a "grab-n-go" kind of thing, although the industry is doing their level best to make it so. Electric power has certainly come of age, but it gets decidedly expensive as you go up in size. I've flown the Apprentice for other people and it works well. There is one major drawback, though. The "Safe Flight" feature can (and does) become a crutch, a hindrance when it becomes time to turn it off, rather like kicking a cane out from under someone with a bad limp. The best advice I can give is to find an instructor and accumulate as much stick time as you can. You are, after all, learning how to pilot an airplane. The PT 40 (with ailerons) is an excellent choice for your first build. It is, after all, what it was designed for.

Hydro Junkie

Glad you approve. You will notice that I didn't recommend a kit to build or power type. I figure personal taste would dictate which plane and what kind of power the OP would prefer. I've heard good things about the PT-40 and the Kadets, heck, I even have a pair of Kadet Jrs under construction from plans.
I was just browsing through Tower Hobbies website and found they carry:
PT series of trainers
Eagle 2
Kadet series of trainers

Any of the above would be a good first plane to build, if you want to build something while learning with the foamy

flyboy2610

My Feedback: (1)

For the PT40, I would recommend building the lower dihedral sport wing. When I had mine, I built the high dihedral trainer wing and it was very stable. In fact, it was almost too stable. There were times when I found myself struggling just to get it to go where I wanted it to.

born2build

Absolutely! If you'll notice I included "with ailerons" In parentheses. I never understood why experienced modelers would recommend a 3-channel trainer. All that dihedral can make them a real handful in a crosswind, especially during take-offs and landings. Plus, a trainer with ailerons has a much wider envelope for learning basic aerobatics later on. The only problem with the PT-40 is that the kit does not include the materials with which to build the ailerons. Although the instructions do show a materials list as well as how to make them. Eh, youse pays your money and youse picks your poison!

flyboy2610

My Feedback: (1)

When I built mine, I built it with ailerons and the kit had the materials. That was in the late 90's, though. If you build the low dihedral sport wing you will need to cut your own wing joiners and dihedral braces. Those are not included for the low wing.

born2build

Yeah, that sounds about right. I got a work buddy started with a PT 60 (4-channel). He did all the building. Put an O.S. .61FX in the nose. Man, was that ever a solid combination! Bigger really does fly better. Too bad he couldn't stop drinking long enough to show up at the field. Too hung over, I guess. He never did solo the darned thing. Pity.
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You never really finish building a model airplane. You just stop working on it!

Darkridder

With the advances of electric motors are engines still preferred? How long can you run an engine before overheating issues or a rebuild is required?

Hydro Junkie

It really depends on the person's preferences and taste. Do you want to take a generator, chargers and several battery packs to the field or just a can of fuel and a starter box? Some won't want to deal with a nitro motor since you can't just set the needle and forget it like you can on a gas engine. As far as overheating, it's not something you need to worry about on a trainer. As long as the cylinder is in the airflow, it will never overheat. That said, an engine does require rebuilding after so much run time as bearing/bushings do wear and pistons and sleeves do lose their tight fit over time. How you take care of an engine will directly affect it's life between rebuilds. Obviously, if you crash an engine, it would need to be checked out before running it again as cranks do bend and can break. Then again, an electric motor's shaft can bend just as easily as that on a nitro motor.
Something else to think about is the noise factor. If you plan to fly at a local ball field, for example, people that live close by might not appreciate the noise of a nitro motor while an electric powered plane might not even be noticed

jester_s1

Glow engines last a long time. A friend that flies a lot more than I do (50 gallons of glow fuel a year) says that his OS engine needs bearings every year. So that's probably 300 flights for him. As for losing compression due to the sleeve loosening up, it takes a really long time for that to happen assuming you keep the engine tuned correctly.

Hydro Junkie

50 gallons in a year is some serious flying. In my primary hobby, facing boats, I don't know of anyone that burns more than 20 gallons. That said, due to the higher loads and RPM we run at, many of the guys rebuild their engines every winter. That might have something to do with the fact we run 50%+ nitro in the boat engines rather than the 5-20% used in planes and cars

born2build

I fly both glow and electric. Besides my usual flight box, which carries fuel, starter, a 12 volt motorcycle battery, transmitters (I have three), glow driver, extra props and glow plugs, paper towels and Windex, tools, and whatever else I can think of. The only thing extra I have to bring to fly electrics is a small camera bag I use to carry the batteries, which I charge up the day before. Lipos hold a charge for a really long time! No field charger or gas generator (?) required. But then, I don't fly anything electric larger than 450 size, which includes everything from my tiny UMX Beast, to my "normal" sized 56" clipped wing Taylorcraft.
Gas, glow, or electric, It all comes down to whatever you're most comfortable with.

Hydro Junkie

When the guys race their electric 1/8 scale unlimited hydroplanes, they run 8S 6,000 mAH battery packs rated between 30 and 65C continuous discharge rates. They run the packs way down each heat and, due to pack costs, having enough to run up to 7 heats isn't an option. This would probably apply to any of the larger sized planes as well. Then again, they are only allowed to run NEU 1527 1.5Y 850KV, HET Typhoon 700-98 840KV and Turnigy SK3-3994 850KV motors matched with speed controllers rated for a minimum of 130 amps

born2build

Well, I'm sure that's all very impressive but I don't think it has anything to do with this thread. I think we should try to encourage new people to join the hobby, rather than overwhelm them, don't you?

Hydro Junkie

Just pointing out that electric planes have requirements as well as the nitro ones. Granted, I took it up to a level that most beginners aren't going to have to worry about but, at the same time, a 60 sized trainer is going to need bigger stuff than something that uses a 450 like your 56" Taylorcraft, don't you think?

born2build

I really wish you'd quit doing that. Nobody is talking about a 60 size trainer! As a matter of fact, most of the electric trainers I've seen are, guess what, 450 size or smaller. The Apprentice is a good example of a very popular, and very successful trainer. And it uses, guess what, a 450 size motor. Anyway, it seems Darkridder has made his choice so, all of this is moot, except to say if any other beginners see this thread ( and they will) I hope they ignore your somewhat hyperbolic statements. This hobby doesn't have to be any more complicated than one wants it to be. Oh, and have fun with your boats! I wish you all the best.

jester_s1

IMHO, if a person is making decisions based on price of things he's never going to really enjoy this hobby. Every one of us can afford anything; it's just a matter of how long it will take. I budget $100 a month for RC flying. That includes my AMA and club dues. So I can outfit one new glow plane a year plus pay for fuel and incidentals, maybe buy 2 or 3 used ones, or hold off for a couple of years and get a 50cc gasser. Yes, electric costs more initially but if that's the route a guy wants to go there's nothing to stop him from doing so.

Darkridder

I guess I'm just trying to make this more complicated then i have to. I love the sound of the engines running and doing flybys and the electrics i like the idea of not having to mess with fuel. I'm sure there are a few gas vs electric threads that i should read. Jester has a good point though that if i am looking to only save money I'll never fully enjoy the hobby.