Originally Posted by
cgenius80
I went into the hobby shop and went ahead and followed the guy's recommendation. I picked up an electric trainer for just over $100.
It's a BNF Horizon Hobby Sport Cub S with a couple of extra batteries. It's a nice inexpensive trainer, I picked everything up fairly quickly when I took it out to the park to fly. But that's probably only because I already had a lot of aviation knowledge beforehand. I can say though, it is NOT meant to be flown in high wind. The manual says that wind should be less than 5mph, but where I live, wind is always 10-15 mph. So there was a lot of hovering, rolling backwards on the ground, being pushed around, etc. I do feel that I could go straight for a bigger nitro though. (Or maybe just a bigger and more powerful electric). But now my budget is a bit smaller. Is there any way I can get up and flying with something better with less than $250-$300?
Your budget at 250 to 300 bucks doesn't leave room to join a club or AMA so unless you can find someone willing to instruct you who is also flying on their own your kinda stuck where your at.
If the guy at the hobby shop really knew his stuff he might have guided you to an Apprentice instead of the cub. Cubs rarely make for the better trainers.
When I learned to fly it was on my own and the only trainers were nitro powered wood and tissue models. Most of my time was spent repairing As I learned to fly only then did I spend more time flying than fixing. Can your budget support buying the materials and tools you will need to repair it when you have an oopppppsssss!
That is one of the reasons foamies are so popular. People can bounce them off the runway, run into things, etc. and they seem to take that abuse. Repairs are simply to glue the pieces back together without much skill needed to finish or repair. If the hobby shop sells them chances are they make more selling replacement parts, (that tell you something).
Flying on your own has its disadvantages biggest one is you may be informed you cannot fly from city/town land. Many have by-laws restricting or banning RC of any kind.
All that being said the absolute best way to learn, be successful and enjoy the company of others who share your passion for the hobby is to first find a club that you feel comfortable with. In that club you will find a mentor/instructor listen to his advice on what to buy. He may even know of some used equipment that you can get pretty cheap.
Good Luck which ever way you choose to go.
Dennis