kitten14496

i am learning to fly my trainer. Any tips?!

Jollidude

My Feedback: (39)

Listen to what your dad says !

Daddy

DaveB

Find a club and learn with an instructor. The self taught method is very seldom successful.


DaveB

skylane_182

I highly recommend you find a club / trainer. I spent many years training myself - and while I was successful sometimes, I had many unnecessary crashes [X(] The advice and guidance you'll receive from club members is priceless. It also gave me access to lots of good used equipment for cheap which helps starting out tremendously!!

bingo field

One step at a time, and concentrate on each step. Straight and level. Turns in one direction. Turns in the other direction. *the choice of direction is up to you and instructor, based on observation of your skills... Figure 8's next. Throw in a few loops, a few rolls during these exercises as you increase in skill. Approach and landing techniques. Takeoffs. Stall recovery in different situations. Dead stick landings. As it takes a little time to accomplish all these, you throw the changing weather into the mix to add to your experience, and you become proficient at accommodating change, required to really be an accomplished pilot. Doing this with the help of an instructor makes it a very progressive learning experience, shortening the learning curve, and diminishing the chance of a bad crash. Good Luck!

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

I had so many things when I was learning that crept up on me. One thing I remember having a bit of difficutly with was stick orientation. I remember reading in a post about moving the stick toward the lower wing when the plane was facing you in flight and how that helped someone. That was priceless info for me. It seemed to stick (pun intended) with me and has helped me to learn orientation better.

I probably could have learned without an instructor, but due to the high costs of this hobby I chose an instructor and it was a wise move on my part to save money. I did not use a buddy box, we just switched the radio back and forth as needed and that was because I really did not have too many problems flying and just needed the instructor to land or take over when I was getting too tired.

The flight sim was a very valuable tool in my arsenal. That helped in orientation as well and just general radio control. Of course, browsing RCU and reading all the stories was great information. The only thing I found bad was that so many said things like, "You are gonna crash" and "It is going to happen nothing you can do about it". If you are careful and you have a good instructor there is absolutely no reason you should crash an airplane when learning to solo unless there is mechanical failure and that does happen at times. The problem is that information had me really nervous and made my learning to solo much worse for me. It was not really true information at all. I found it depends more on the individual and how well they can coordinate when flying.

I did not even crash my trainer while learning. I did fall a tad short of the runway once and lofted the plane in the grass. If this is considered a crash then I crashed. I think a crash would be something you could not just take the plane right back up again. I did crash a sport plane later in the year but it was because I was doing touch and goes and cart-wheeled my plane.

I think another thing an instructor helps with is getting your plane trimmed and all the various setup nuances. I had a few too many instructors because each one has his own way of doing things. Don't believe everything they tell you, but research and make good choices.

Being older I was wise enough to "glean" from each instructor (being careful not to offend anyone), I would come back home, research the information they gave me, and only use what I needed as I went along in my training. Now I do things from all that I learned, discarded bad information, and I still find things I prefer learning and doing in my own way.

If I had one thing that I felt was one of the most important it would be this: If you get nervous take a break, refresh yourself, and rest some (also mentally) because it will help you tremendously. If you are tired think about stopping and don't rush it. That is what I did. When I felt I was not comfortable and losing confidence, I simply quit for the day. My thought was, I can come back and fly another day and not have a broken up plane to spend money on. Believe me that worked!

I wish you luck and hope you do well. It is certainly a lot of fun flying RC planes and if you are like most you will really enjoy it for many years to come!

OH, and BTW, LISTEN TO WHAT DAD SAYS! [X(]

Lnewqban

Some good reading here:

http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/rc-...g-methods.html

http://www.tcrcam.com/learn.htm

http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/..._technique.htm

Best luck!

dignlivn

Listen to your instructor and relax .
Always fly the plane, make it go where
you want it to.

Also, listen to your Dad,


Bob

biam

my bet is that DAD will be the instructor, if so dad, take a big gulp of patience

Bonified Wingnut

Do what these people suggest and you will have a blast...don't and it will be time consuming and miserable.-BW

jetmech05

get an instructor...if you can, besides Dad........I can teach an idiot to fly and never lose it......my Daughter........well I guess parents expect more from their own kids...and frankly it wasn't fair to her......she flies and flies well......but it should have been better for her.......

Jollidude

My Feedback: (39)

Yes, DAD will be doing some/most of the training. I had her out a couple of times late last summer and she is doing quite well. She's flown my little ParkZone electric Decathlon several times and we now have a Goldberg trainer that I picked up in the fall. She did get a chance to fly it a couple of times before the weather turned and we are both looking forward to spring. I have been instructing off and on for the last 12 years at our club and I am also a Junior High School teacher, so I'm used to working with that age group. Having said that, we do have an excellent instructor at the club who has offered to teach her if things get "ugly" LOL!

Cheers!

DAD

dignlivn

Your The Man

She'll do fine .

Bob

Tom Nied

I like your Snoopy Av.