G'day

I am in Australia where Mode 1 is most common but my current club is a little bastion of Mode 2.

I learned Mode 1 at my original club about 200km away. I also play the piano and flying models is very similar to playing the piano or touch typing. It is a learned reflex. When you are doing any of these things you don't think about which key to press next or which finger to move to press a particular keyboard key, you just do it. Automatically.

So whether you learn to fly Mode 1 or Mode 2 ultimately does not matter at all. What does matter is learning the reflexes necessary to fly your planes and that includes the rudder and throttle.

Back in the dark ages pre buddy cords, I can see that Mode 1 was easier to learn in the initial stages. My instructor would hold the radio and he would control the elevator with the left stick while I did the "steering" using the ailerons. Then we swapped over and I had the left stick and he the right. Eventually I was given the radio and had more or less control of both. But after about three weeks when I was holding the radio, that advantage evaporated.

One difference I noticed between the Mode 1 fliers at my first two clubs and the Mode 2 fliers at my current club is that the Mode 1 fliers did tend to use the throttle and the Mode 2 fliers did not. Many of my Mode 2 friends fly with their left hand simply holding the radio. The left thumb never goes near the stick. They are true "one stick" fliers. This presumably goes back to their original training which was probably not all that good.

Then again, for a long time I did not touch the rudder stick except to keep a plane straight on take off. I was never taught to use the rudder and I am still trying to learn after ten years.