koolkidd

ok im very new to the aircraft scene. i had a yellow bee which had no servos but twin electric engines so you can see how hard it would be to fly plus ive had little experience. im looking for a step up what would be a good plane? i have 500 aus to spend. or would a chopper more suit me? i would have to travel to run the plane but even then have limited space. would a heli be better? i dont know of any clubs near me but will certainly look for some.

update: ok i have just been told that there is both a heli and plane club in my area, like 20 mins drive max, what would be a fun easy way to start?

alan0899

G'day Mate,
Go to the club & introduce yourself, ask lots of questions, you will get lots of help.
Don't spend money, without knowledge.

Also where is Wyongah?

koolkidd

its on the central coast, the club im reffering to is the gosford one (only 20 mins away) the central coast is only 1 hr north of sydney and 1 hr south of newcastle to give you a better idea. yea ive been running land vehicles from the start but have always loved flying, im actually starting my pilots licence soon. but yea ive just sold up and have thought why not get back into the part that has always interested me.

yea im going to head out one time was just wondering if there was any stand out models for the beginners.

alan0899

G'day Mate,
I'm near Taree, couple of hours north of Newcastle, I'm also an instructor.
IMHO, either the Skyraider Mk1 or the Boomerang 40, are the pick of the trainers, around here in Aus.
And you can't do better than either an OS 46AX, or a Thunder Tiger 46 Pro, both the same price.
I also highly recommend, the Spektrum DX7 radio, I have one, & they are great, no worries about being shot down or shooting anyone else down, great technology.

If ya can get away next weekend, there is a Fly in at Metford, the COMSOA near Newcastle.
Directions
COMSOA (City of Maitland Society of Aeromodellers)
Raymond terrace Rd, Metford. NSW.
take the freeway to the end,
then hit the new england highway
that will take you straight to metford.
I think the field is on raymond terrace road which is on the other side of the town.


Also have a look here, http://www.gosfordcityaeromodellers.org/

koolkidd

yea i noticed that site, was about to sign up but thought i might learn a bit more and maybe head to a day before i sign up..... yea i used to live up in gloucester till the end of last year when i moved down here. i actually got my first nitro car from the hobby shop in taree. yea i am looking for electric to begin with as i dont want to crash a nitro. also im in to the old war planes.....is it possible there is a trainer in that form? it is ok if there isnt as im sure i wont be sticking with a trainer for all my flying days. i saw wingo on tower hobbies i thought it may be decent BUT i wont make any decisions until i have been to a meet and found out all the info i can.....i dont want to dive in and find i cant swim.

the_madgenius

koolkid, i have to agree with Alan , a Boomerang 40 is possibly the best trainer to start your career in modelling. Dont think it is going to be a run in the park, and go it alone. Find your club , join, and an instructor will teach you to fly safely. Remember dont run till you can walk. War planes are NOT beginners type of aircraft, stay with the hobby and fly your trainer till you can perform every manuaver with it , then branch onto low wing models then your warbirds. You mention you want to fly full size, well the same thing applies there , you start with a trainer and progress through various models till you are flying full scale aerobatics . I know , i have been there . Enjoy the hobby and the friends you will make on the way. It is the worlds best, and might i add , adictive. Welcome aboard my friend .
And finally , hello Alan , haven't spoke to you for some time.
Bill

alan0899

G'day Bill,
How's it goin, in sunny QLD.
I'm starting holidays, tomorrow, I'm taking May off, Long Service Leave, I'll be doin some flying, this month.
Going to a Scale fly-in next weekend, should be good, I hope I get more flights in this year, only had one flight last year, at Metford, 5 guys on 637, then the wind blew, at 12:00, but this year I have a DX7, so no worries with channel clashes.
Catch ya Bill.

koolkidd

thanks guys, see without that i would of been looking for ages at the warbirds......(i already did that i must confess). well thanks for the info, im gonna head to a local day hopefully this weekend if its on. i have commitments on saturday, so i hope its sunday.....ill sus all that out. but yea ill join up watch a few times get the info i need make the purchase then learn all there is to know.

Pacific Planes

I agree with everyone but there is another way. First I would start out with a sim. You will gain more flying knowledge with a sim then ever. A sim really teaches you the controls quickly. After you learn the controls it is just a blast. You can learn all the fundamentals on a simulater, then take them to the field with a buddy box. Just remember to put the winds to 6-10 MPH on the sim after you learn how to fly a little bit.

Also, for you first plane I would load a fomie. If you crash it all that is needed is a little CA Glue. If you crash it to bad it will cost you close to nothing to replace. Also, fomies don't have to be flown at a flying feild. I fly them at the local soccer field now. I have not been flying to long and my first plane is a 52 in Yak 54 with a .56 glow. Fomies were my first flights though.

It really all just depends on what type of flying you are interested in. I have flown a trainer a couple times and I get bored with them after a couple minutes. You just don't have the same control with them as most other planes. Don't get me wrong, trainer are never a bad way to go but I don't think they are as much fun. My friend loaded a 100cc Yak 54 withing the first 4 months of real flying. He just practiced on the sim a lot before he went to the field the first time. He hasn't crashed his Yak or Edge yet and he is still going.

koolkidd

yea that is a way, however i would still get "REAL" training on the field, should i start with electric or nitro? im thinking electric but with the training available should i just leap in a step further?

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I found glow trainers to be much easier to learn on. They had better control authority and they weren't bothered by the wind nearly as much as lighter-weight electric airplanes. A good glow trainer setup is a solid investment and can provide you with many years of flying fun. After soloing a few seasons ago, I've moved up to sport planes and now beginner pattern planes and helicopters, but I still enjoy taking my trainer out and flying it around the field.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I'm not trying to stir up trouble here, but this statement just isn't true. Simulators simply can't replace proper instructions, no matter how many ways you try to justify it. Don't get me wrong as I think that simulators are a fantastic teaching tool, but they need to be used properly. Simulators should be used in conjunction with proper instructions. When used properly simulators should be used to practice and refine what you learn at the field each week. A good instructor will use simulators as part of his training program. He should send the student pilot after each training session with instructions as what the student should practice on the simulator at home. When used like this simulators are fantastic too. But when improperly used simulators can actually allow the student to develop bad habits that translate back to flying the real plane.

Here's a list of some of the "bad" habits one can develop:
1) Failing to keep the plane straight during takeoff run.
2) Climbing out too steep.
3) Not maintaining a constant altitude while turning.
4) Turns that aren't smooth, too sharp, etc.
5) Forgetting that there is a left stick.
6) Not lining up with the runway during landing approach.
7) Using ailerons instead of rudder to make course corrections when landing.
8) Using the elevator to extend the landing when you realize you're short.
9) Failure to learn the signs that a plane is about to stall, and what to do to avoid it, or recover from it.

I can use the MS Flight Simulator to pilot a Boeing 747 from one coast to the other, but that doesn't mean that I'm ready to start a career as a commercial pilot. In the years that I've been instructing I've seen this issue come up quite a bit. I've seen many people claim that they learned to fly on a simulator and they can fly perfectly now. But the problem here is that pilots like this simply don't know what it is that they don't know. I've had many occasions to see such "self taught" students and more times than not they are a complete disaster in the sky, and many times they are a dangerous pilot because they really aren't in control of their plane.


This is another one that I hear all the time, and once again it's not true. If you get bored with trainer because "it doesn't have the same control" then I would pushing the plane or your skills enough. A trainer can do most maneuvers that "more advanced" planes can do, but require more skill from the pilot. Yes a nice aerobatic plane makes it easy to fly advanced aerobatics, but planes like that can make a poor pilot look good. You can fly most of these maneuvers on a trainer, but it's the pilot's skill performing the aerobatics and not the plane. And for this reason I think that trainers something that every pilot should go back to flying occasionally. I've been flying for almost 11 years and I still have the trainer I learned to fly on, and it still goes to the field with me too. It is great fun to take the trainer up and see just what you can get it to do.

As I said above, I'm not trying to cause a fight, but rather I am putting out info based on my experiences as an instructor in this hobby. I think that attitudes about simulators being great instructors can be dangerous for a lot of students. I don't argue that there are a few that can learn on a simulator, but students like that are what we call "natural born pilots" and will learn quickly no matter how they learn to fly. But natural born pilots are definitely in the minority and are probably 1 in a 1000, the other 999 out of 1000 need to rely on more traditional teaching methods. And telling them that all they need is a simulator to learn is actually doing them a disservice because they think they can learn on the simulator, and then are rewarded with a plane going home in a trash bag when they try to fly at the field.

That's my 2¢ worth

Ken

bruce88123

I'll have to agree with Ken on this. It also appears the sim didn't help much with basic English or spelling.

Another point, They're called FOAMIES

Insanemoondoggie

I`ve been flying for a few months and have 5 planes I fly. LT40 , 2 Cubs , 4* 40 and a 40 Twist. I also have G3.5

What I do is practice the maneuver on the Sim as this gives me a general idea of what I need to do . Then I drag out the LT40 and practice with it till I have it down as close as I`m going to get with the trainer. Then I use the 4* or Twist , depending on what maneuver it is.

My trainer did get boring doing big lazy 8s and such but then I raised the rates and used it for practicing the fun stuff. The fun came back and my skills really improved and it made it easier to handle the other planes. And I love it when you hear from the pits {did you guys see what he just did with that trainer ! }

Before you buy anything , hook up with the local clubs , talk to their instructors . more than likely they will have a trainer you can buddy box on . This will give you a good idea , why starting out with an instructor and a highwing trainer is a good way to start.

Pacific Planes

Wow, I really didn't mean to cause and argument. I was just stating that a sim can really help you learn the controls. If you can learn the controls before you fly at the field it really helps. I was also stating that trainers aren't always the way to go. Or at least they weren't for me.

Pacific Planes

Sorry for the one typing error. I think he understood what I was talking about.

Insanemoondoggie

No worries. We all have an opinon and we all mean well. I taught myself to fly and was just giving insight on how I done it. The Sim is a great tool , if used right.

How you proceed is totally up to you. And tho we all might not agree , we do wish you the best of luck on what ever you decide.
Happy landings

Pacific Planes

Thanks bud. I guess they are many ways and types of planes you can learn from KoolKid. It seems like the majority says to start with a trainer. Maybe think about a sim to learn the controls but that is up to you. Good luck flying!

somegeek

My Feedback: (2)

Seems the use of proper grammar and spelling is becoming a lost art form... if u no wut i meen.

soemgeek

Pacific Planes

LOL, keep commenting for a simple mistake.

Sorry, I was a double major in Econ and Business Admin, not english. I also forgot that I was being tested on RCU. I will start drafting my writing before I submit a post from now on if it makes you happy.

bigtim

My Feedback: (13)

boy, the grammar police strike again,ken you must have that( gripe about sim's list) either memorized, or saved in your computer.
it seems when the word sim, and learning how to fly comes up, that same list comes out.

here is some solid advice for a beginner, get a sim, and you will get better at flying,the idea is sound and simulators work well for learning the basics as well as advanced manuevers.
all the bla bla about bad habbits forming, its just that,if you get the G-3 the flight charicteristics are very close to the real thing and the learning curve will be much quicker simple as that.

there is nothing better than actual flying time in the air of course.

but for me personally if it wasn't for my sim time, I wouldn't have saved a plane from crashing, instead of forming that stick pile, I pulled off the recovery that came from simulating potential crash situations and recovering,when I saw what was going on in the air instincts took over, and I reacted the extra hours that I spent practicing paid off.

the point is the more practice you get the better you will get.
think about it you go to the field, assemble your plane, gas it up,BS with the guys,fix a problem or 2,then fly mabee 3-4 tanks, thats 40min-1hr of actual air time for 3hrs of work.
too each his/her own but I would always recomend a sim for a beginnner,suposed bad habbits or not.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Bigtim,
Yes, I do have it saved so I don't have to retype it every time. In fact, I have tons of stuff saved so I can just cut and paste it when needed.

Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I have nothing against simulators, in fact I think that they are a great teaching tool and do greatly reduce the learning time. But rather I am saying that they shouldn't be the primary instructor for somebody learning how to fly. That's not what a simulator is designed for. In fact, IMHO, a simulator that is being used without any other instructions is nothing more than a video game and actually causes more harm than good. That's what I am saying with "my list".

Ken

armody

My Feedback: (10)

Well, the topic has been deviated from where it was really started. In my short experience, I would like to ask, is it necessary to learn the maneuvers or just simply flying is good, how to keep the plane airborne, how to take off safely land it safely with approaches and everything. And how to recover a plane when any part of the plane starts playing up, and how to control a plane and bring it down safely with higher windy conditions, like 15 to 20 mph like I experienced last tuesday. As my second plane is easy sport 60 size big size little heavy nose, but wind helped it a lot during landing cos, all those landings were on dead sticks, not powered landing.

I have been flying since January 2006, and Im on my second plane. I can do rolls, loops, snap rolls, and confident that I can do knife edge as well, but hovering would take a lot of time. Yes simulators help a lot, after being expert in my own opinion I thought I could hit the ground and fly the plane, I was entirely wrong, as I learned on P51 Mustang PTS of HANGAR 9, NOT HANGER first time when I took the Tx I didnt know what Im doing, and plane started taking a nose dive, within 5 seconds Tx was in the hands of senior flyer who handed me. Yes simulator is a helpful tool, but real flying in the field as compared to SIM are 2 different entities. This is what I learned and naturally I would never be a beginner but always a learner.

All the best to the new flyers and GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL.

Mody