Wrenchmeister

I know nothing about RC planes. My wife and I would like to get one for her recently retired father. Our goal is to get him something to get interested in the activity. I'm guessing that later on he'll end up getting quite involved and get much fancier equipment as he loves electronics, motors, and things that fly. This first plane doesn't really have to be upgradeable as much as easy to learn and fun. Here's what we're thinking about:

1. We'd like to stay under $150 if possible, and less than that would be great.
2. Battery powered.
3. Easy to learn. He may end up flying it without help or lessons. He has some flight experience as he built his own gyrocopter a number of years ago, but he has no RC plane experience that I know of. Also, there are no clubs or anything similar where we live (middle of nowhere). I'm sure it will be crashed, but hopefully it can be rebuilt.
4. He won't mind having to build it. Actually he would enjoy it as he is a former electrical engineer and also works on cars. However, we would like to be able to purchase it as a package instead of having to figure out all the different parts ourselves.
5. It's not terribly windy here. Rarely over 10mph, and often little or none.
6. Flying space would be limited to somewhere between one baseball field and several soccer fields depending on where he takes it.
7. I'm sure other info would be helpful, but I don't know what.

I read through other beginner posts, and got a little overwhelmed since it is all new to me. The T-Hawk looked promising, but I really have no idea. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

There are any number of possibilities. But, first off, lets see if we can help with a few things.

There are clubs located in some pretty interesting places, so don't just think there may not be one where you are. Your sign-on only said North Carolina. Be more specific and we can search the AMA to see where a club may be.

This is important because this can help you do several things. 1. It can provide you an outlet for information such as what is being flown at the club by beginners. 2. Instructors available to help (usually for no cost to him). 3. A place to fly with others that are in his same age group, same interests, and so on.

You may find that flying fuel may be better to his liking than electric.. although I have nothing against electric except for duration of flight thus the number of flights dependent on charging or the number of spare batteries he may have. Fuel plane.. well, you can generally get four or so flights on a batter charge and 30 ounces of fuel or so.

I recently bought a Hobbico Super Star RTF (Ready To Fly) glow trainer that was complete. It came with the radio, engine, servo's all mounted, took me about 30 minutes to assemble, then an overnight battery charge on the TX and RX and I was ready to go. I bought it as a trainer for the club, for new people just like your Dad that may show up and not know if they really want to try this or not. We have a system called the Buddy Box that is a wired secondary transmitter that is, as said, wired to the master or main transmitter with a trainer button on the master box. The instructor takes the plane up, flys it to trim, then 'hands it off' to the student and gives verbal lnstructions to the student.

Let us know where you actually are and we will let you know where the clubs are in your area. You never know.

DS.

tIANci

Wrench - one very assured plane for a beginner to fly in a small area is the GWS Slow stick. Its easy to build (ready in like 6 hours using some screws, scotch tape and glue) and really easy and fun to fly but unfortunately you need to buy bit and pieces but I am sure that any hobby shop that carries GWS can sell it to you as a packaged set. It will then contain:

GSW Slow Stick - plane & motor
GWS ESC x 1
GWS Naro servo x 2
Radio - any basic 4 channel radio
Charger - a simple pocket style lipo charger will suffice
Battery - get any 3 cell lipo battery of about 2,000 mAh

I love fast things but this plane is my latest craze, it will just cruise for about 40 mins on a 2,000 mAh battery pack. Flies fine in winds of about 5 mph.

bkdavy

My Feedback: (1)

I might also point out that in locating a club in your area may help your Father-in-law identify an entirely new group of buddies to hang out with. Many clubs are populated by older people.

Brad

bruce88123

There are 8o clubs listed by the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) which virtually all of us belong to in North Carolina.

You can give us a city/zip code or search yourself at: http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubsearch.aspx This will narrow things down a lot. I'd suggest taking your dad out to a club field and seeing if he can try flying a club trainer to see if he likes it. If he does you can contribute toward a purchase using local advise. If he doesn't like it, you will have saved a lot of money.

Many clubs have a trainer plane for giving lessons and/or introductory flights on. See if you can locate one nearby.

Oh yes, someone may have a good used plane for sale too. Save money that way too.

Wrenchmeister

Thanks for the replies. We're in Sylva, NC, zip 28779. I guess I just assumed there were no clubs since I've never seen anyone flying in our county. My reason for wanting a plane he could learn to fly on his own is that he likes to experiment with things. Despite the obvious benefits, I'm not sure whether he would want to go to a club gathering prior to having a plane. I'll have to talk with my wife about that.

My thinking on battery instead of gas, is that it would be cheaper, and maybe more beginner friendly. I'm sure that eventually he'll prefer gas, as he likes things that are complicated and tinkerable. Maybe later he'll use the starter plane to teach the grandkids. However, I just want to get him introduced to RC planes. The knowledge that this particular plane will be of limited long term utility is why we want something affordable.

Wrenchmeister

Regarding the AMA, what does "Intro Pilots" mean in the club listings? Are they the only ones that work with beginners? Looks like there are some in our area, but mileage is misleading since we're in the mountains and 20 to 30 miles = an hour or more. Franklin is the most likely option. Sevierville is about 2 hours. I agree about the club being a good social outlet.

bruce88123

You can contact
JOHN BRADLEY
PO BOX 601
CHEROKEE NC 28719-0601
Phone: 828.736.1071

He is less than 10 miles from you. His club may even be closer as this is his home address.

Electric planes can actually be more expensive to get started with depending on the chosen plane. Again I strongly recommend that he at least visit the field to see his options. If not him, you should. Get an idea of the options and prices.

bruce88123

Intro pilots give the demo flights I mentioned before but are NOT the only clubs that work with beginners. The "intro" program is a special program supported by the AMA. Your dad should be able to find a free instructor at any of the listed fields.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Electric may or may not be an inexpensive option. Motor/Electronic Speed Control/Battery combination can be somewhat costly, depending on what you want/need, so it's not easy to compare the two.. sort of like apples and oranges.

The Hobbico I mentioned comes with the OS 40 LA engine and a Futaba four channel setup (four servo's, transmitter, receiver all mounted and a charger for both batteries. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, this decision is still a little ways off right now.

It's something that you will decide depending on your needs and his desires, I imagine. But start somewhere, and the best place to start is as Bruce said. Club members are very encouraging people and most often are more than willing to help with both advice and, again as said, maybe a deal on something that will do just fine for a decent price.

As you can see, there is lots of help out here. Just ask and we can do what we will to steer you right.

DS.

Wrenchmeister

Thanks for all the useful info. I'm going to try to contact folks at a couple of the nearby clubs and see if we can get him out there on a day when other people will be flying. Thanks again!

carrellh

Most RC clubs have instructors, even if they do not have intro pilots. The intro pilot program is a relatively new thing. It allows a new person to come in for 30 calendar days without being an AMA member. The intro pilot has to maintain a certain amount of paperwork regarding students, and there is a small administrative fee the intro pilot (or the club) has to pay to the AMA each year.

The club I am in has several instructors, but none chose to become intro pilots.

Also, it seems that a lot of us have long drives to the flying field. I drive 45 miles each way (takes about an hour).

zoott

I taught myself on a Hobbyzone supercub. Everything you need for $159. Then a extra higher cap battery for 20 bucks. Replacement parts are cheap.
The draw back is this only held my interest for 2 months before I moved up.
I still highly recommend it.
If you think he would enjoy working with others and stuff go the club aileron trainer route.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I will second the hobbyzone supercub. It sounds like it's just what you're looking for

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

I stand corrected. The hobbyzone supercub looks like a pretty good setup for a beginner. And in your price range. Spare battery is a good one, although the NiMH batteries are relatively inexpensive compared to the LiPO's I was thinking of.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do. I'm sure that you realize by now that we all feel that no matter what you do, it will be the right choice.

DS.

Mr67Stang

Almost. I am an intro pilot instructor at my club. The only difference between me and a regular instructor is my club pays an extra $5.00 for my AMA membership to include this program so I can "introduce" a newbie to the wonderful sport while reducing the new guys initial investment. I register the introductie on the AMA web base and this covers their AMA insurence requirement for 60 days from the day I start working with him/her (so long as they are being properly supervised/trained by me). I have even used my own planes and equipment so a person could test drive our hobby without spending a penny. The idea is much the same as free samples at the grocery store. But what I am pushing is more addictive than haroin acording to the vast majority here

Mr67Stang

Just this last week end a new member of my club just showed up at the feild with one of these Cubs.. When it did fly it flew very well but the 27 MHz radio system seemed to be taking a lot of hits or he was having problems with his receiver/electronic speed control. I don't care for it after seeing one fly. I put together the great planes 3 channel Cub for my 13 year old daughter with a Park 370 brushless and a 1320 milliamp 3 cell li-po and it flies wonderfully for at least 10 minutes.
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXHAE3&P=7
The plane was lethargic and under powered with the stock gear but it was flyable with about 4 min flight times.

zoott

My hobby zone supercub flew longer than 4 min. flights. I dont think you would want to convert your first plane over to brushless and lipo. I realize the stock electronics leave alot to be desired however, newbies want to fly out of the box. Think of all the stuff you need to buy to convert. Charger , balancer , brushless esc , etc. etc.

Mr67Stang

I did not specify... The Great planes Cub only flew about 4 minutes in it's stock configuration. I understand also that the cost of putting together the plane I have described would almost douple the original posters budget. But I also believe you get what you pay for.

Trollmaster

A Stik and a Cub? Yeh that'll work out great! There are several guys here from NC that may be able to help you out.

zoott

The super cub is extremely easy to fly and fits what they are looking for. The poster said that the dad may wish to go it alone . I take that to mean they want suggestions that would enable this.
I am giving advice on my success . Ask yourself how much help your suggestion has been. LOL

Wrenchmeister

So we let the cat out of the bag, and told Dad what we were trying to do. The end result is that he ordered himself a Super Cub (arrived yesterday), and we went to an airfield last weekend and met some club guys and saw some planes fly. He's enjoying playing with the plane (taxi-ing, but not flying yet) and he's also looking forward to going back to the club and participating, and hopefully getting some flying assistance. I think it's only a matter of time before he has a fleet. Thanks to everyone who provided helpful advice!

bruce88123

That's great news. Welcome to no free weekends.

TopherGreen81

Wrench you should definitly tell your dad to join us on here. This Site is a great place for him to get ideas and reviews and well just talk to others in the hobby when he is not able to go to the flying field. So how long before you get your first plane.
Chris