G'day

You did well. Your planes are still recognisable as planes.

It is possible to teach your self. I taught a bloke to fly by email. We are about 1500km apart. The selection of the plane has a lot to do with it. I would not try to learn or teach on most of the "trainers" sold these days. They are too fast, too powerful and if set up as described, too maneuverable.

Lighter smaller foam planes crash better. They don't fly better but you may get a second chance. Three channel gliders like the Radian are a very good bet for self teaching as they can fly by them selves and give you time to think.

Here is a tip about ailerons and setting them up. Most of the cheaper ARF trainers are not built very well and the materials can be pretty rough. I recently bought one to try and its ailerons are twisted. Its horizontal stabiliser is also twisted but with some thought I managed to get it to fly quite well. The trick is to remember that the outer ends of the ailerons have the most effect on roll. Make sure that they are aligned and don't worry too much about the inboard parts. As for twisted elevators; they don't seem to make a great deal of difference to a trainer.

Another trick to give you a more stable plane is to set the ailerons slightly (about 1/8 inch) high at the outer end. This emulates "washout" which makes a wing less likely to stall at low speeds. This can be really helpful also on faster warbird type planes.

Here's another tip - try to test a new model by taking off directly into the wind. Then if as it leaves the ground it wants to go left or right ( it should not ) then cut the power and put it straight down again and try to work out why it veered off course.

And, if your radio has provision for "Dual Rates", set the high rates as per the manual but set up low rates at about half the recommended setting and try this for your first flights. It won't be so aerobatic, but it will be easier to control. Most beginners "bang the sticks" and over control their models. Kids who spend a lot of time playing with a Playstation or PS3 are the worst but being kids, they soon learn.

Pity you are several thousand miles from me. My club has a pretty relaxed atmosphere and is not crowded and I will go out whenever someone wants to do a little training or flying. (Being retired has many advantages.) I have an old Sig Kadet Senior (large, slow and very forgiving) and I use it to give newcomers some initial instruction. Once they can land it they can move on to faster planes. Young kids take a couple of weeks. Blokes in their thirties take about a month and senior citizens may take a year but they all get there in the end.

Cheers

Mike in Oz